Before you dismiss Local Internet Marketing or dive headlong into a massive effort, you owe it to yourself to explore these myths…
We all carry around mistaken assumptions about what can generate more leads or help us close more sales. These six myths are at the core of failed marketing attempts either because people underestimated the power of online marketing or because they thought it would solve all of their problems…
Myth #1: You want to grow your business without promoting it online!
Good luck! This is most certainly the biggest myth relating to marketing a small business that exists. In a modern world of the Internet, mobile devices, search engines, review sites, and all the other elements that help people connect with professional services each day, who on earth would ignore implementing a solid digital marketing strategy for their company? Yet more small businesses throw up a website and call it done than can be easily counted… and they wonder why they are falling behind their competitors? You declare, “my business needs help” but you won’t consider robust digital marketing as a core part of your strategy. Really?
Wrap your brain around these additional myths and pledge to do something about them…
Myth #2: You can get guaranteed results from a top local SEO marketing company.
Such guarantees are useless. If someone says they can guarantee #1 rankings, or a certain percentage open rate on Email, or a specific click-through rate on PPC advertising… run away… Doctors don’t guarantee outcomes. Neither do Lawyers. Neither do Personal Trainers… nor Business Coaches. There are too many variables. The same is true for marketing a local business. A digital marketer worth their salt will NEVER offer a guarantee. Those that do are either green or leveraging techniques that may work for a short time but that will ultimately lead to your website being penalized by search engines, that will result in your domain being blacklisted for spam, or that could alienate your client base, etc.
Myth #3: Digital marketing is too complex for business owners to handle on their own… they have to leverage advertising & marketing companies.
Yes, it IS complex but business owners can accomplish more than they believe. Marketing a business online does require constant work… constant experimenting… for example for one client we’ve been testing various messages and subject lines. We found by adding three words to the subject line we were able to more than double the read & click through rates on the messages. If a small business owner wants to leverage the power of promoting their company online and is willing to invest the time… they can learn the fundamental skills of local small business Internet marketing that will help them create success without having to pay a consultancy to do the work. By going a little slower and layering on disciplines & appropriate tech, most can eventually become great digital marketers. (That’s the premise of LiftDemand… and if some decide they can afford to engage in more advanced services… we’re there to help them as well.)
Myth #4: A business owner can be as good at online marketing when compared to a top-tier small business internet marketing services.
The reality is that a digital marketer with more than a decade of experience & success with SEO for small business website will run circles around a small business owner. But an experienced digital marketer can share knowledge and tools so that a business owner can certainly accomplish more than many folks that call themselves digital marketers. There’s some “secret sauce” so to speak that advanced digital marketers will handle for folks when they are ready for advanced work. However, for most small businesses fighting in smaller to mid-sized markets… a service like LiftDemand will be more than enough for them to become a top player in their market. Otherwise, they’ll need more advanced consulting.
Myth #5: If it doesn’t produce guaranteed outcomes, it won’t grow my local business and it isn’t worth doing.
That’s like saying, “Because I can’t guarantee that I’ll look like The Rock, I’m not going to bother exercising at all.” The beauty of local small business Internet marketing is that you can experiment to your heart’s content until you find what works for you. And in the journey, you’ll pick up knowledge that will help you create predictable and diversified lead sources that you’ll need to grow your business.
Myth #6: If I don’t get overnight success, it isn’t worth doing.
Again, this is a fallacy. Have you ever gone to a place like Disneyland and watched people wait in a long line only to abandon waiting in line after they’ve sat there for 2/3rds of the expected wait time so they can try and find a ride with a faster line? Seriously, people do that and it boggles my mind. They might get in a few attractions and then feel like they wasted their investment. But if they stuck with the line and followed through on their investment… they would actually end up riding more rides and having more fun in the process. It is true for digital marketing as well. People give up on their experiments long before they should and they miss out on opportunities in the process. Sure, you need to balance this so you avoid throwing good money after bad. That’s why it helps to have a plan of action… and to stick with that plan because you have a specific outcome in mind. Top marketing companies understand this critical point. It may take longer to get there than overnight success… but the outcomes are usually worth it.
Bonus Myth: Local internet marketing services will solve all problems.
It doesn’t! If a brand makes promises that it isn’t equipped to fulfill, then all the local business listings in the world won’t help. If a brand fails to have messaging that adequately connects with its audience on a psycho-emotional level, the most beautiful website in the world still won’t convert. If a brand fails to understand its competitors and how best to outfox them in a localized setting, promoting a company online is meaningless. If a brand has broken sales processes… they might as well shovel their marketing dollars directly into a furnace. That’s why these are some of the first topics that have to be tackled right away whether we’re directly consulting with a company or they are leveraging LiftDemand… and it’s why if we have any sense at all that someone has broken sales processes we recommend they get sales training help as well…
Ready to tackle these online marketing myths in your business?
Start by taking advantage of our complimentary competitive online marketing analysis to discover how well positioned your company is in your localized market. It offers a ton of valuable information and is unlike other seo website analysis tools because it examines elements that are critical to small business growth in the digital age. With it you have clarity on how to fix your local internet marketing to outpace your competitors…
