The notion that online is always simple and fast has led to an increasing number of organizations hiring sub-par online marketing service providers which leave them feeling baffled, duped and lost.
Well, witnessing the current scenario, big data and predictive analytics are the most transformative paradigm shift to hit sales and marketing teams. That’s because more than any other profession, sales and marketing folks have long counted on the art of the deal.
Salespeople have typically relied on many soft factors to target and close business, pretty similar to those baseball scouts in the famous Michael Lewis’ book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.” Likewise, marketing folks have always made massive bets on brand advertising and air cover campaigns with little to nil empirical data to support their spending.
But it is time to start thinking differently. With the arrival of Big data and predictive analytics that have turned the table on the house. It is time to revamp your digital marketing strategies. Remember with the availability of data and analytics tools, sales and marketing have finally become more about magic of math than just plain magic.
Although a meticulously executed marketing campaign can deliver significant sales revenue; however, campaign engineers need to answer a series of important questions to figure out how customers click, share, and buy and often there are many preconceived ideas when it comes to digital marketing.
Let’s have a look at these digital marketing myths and the truth behind these major misconceptions.
Myth 1: Bigger data is always better data
Big data is becoming significantly influential in helping marketers develop a better, more well-balanced understanding of their customers. However, drawing from too many data points, as a matter of fact, can dilute key insights, and deviate from the information the marketer is trying to glean. Moreover, despite the feverish efforts to invest in marketing analytics, the organizations are still striving to get a grasp on which metrics to track.
Enterprises should verify, “Are we gathering data in a manner that is helping in driving key decisions?” Otherwise, it’s a sheer waste of resources. Take for example, Social data is difficult to tie directly to conversion but, it’s more beneficial in building brand awareness and recognition.
So, the question arises should social data play a crucial part in the tunnel? Categorically, if you have analytics tools at the right places that can encapsulate the data and can make sure that it’s fitting the business’ requirements.
Myth 2: B2B marketing must steer clear of social media
Some organizations strongly believe the only digital channel that matters for B2B marketing is conventional web advertising. B2B marketers are usually reluctant to use social media because they perceive it as not only a consumer haven, but also as a business-free downtime place.
On the contrary, for B2B marketers, social media exhibits a perfect platform to link a face with business and connect to its customers on deeper level. Needless to say that social and mobile channels are indispensable and some of the fastest growing digital channels that can be highly beneficial for marketers in the long run.
At the end of the day, the basics of selling haven’t transformed at all: what constitutes a great marketing strategy is the capability to establish and nurture relationships and build trust.
There’s no doubt about it that social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and FB are incredibly valuable tools for building connections and cultivating business relationships, but it’s not that easy how it looks. Organizations need a structured way to tame the firehose, so to speak. They need tools that help them separate true social buying signals and important moments created from the social noise. Otherwise, they may end up wasting valuable time, that time they could be spending in selling.
Myth 3: Digital marketing strategies and analytics are not meant for start ups
A common misconception, small sized organizations have is that they feel they are infants and should not be touching digital marketing.
However, after honing in on your approach, it’s extremely necessary for startups to define their social media goals. While many large, established organizations use social media to merely facilitate growth in all areas of business, it’s more likely that a startup can focus on one or two of the following: Building Brand awareness, distribution of content, Lead generation and Customer acquisition.
Being born in the era of big data, startups can benefit the most and can build these capabilities to leverage it into their business models. Take a look at how Uber has been leveraging geo-spatial data and location intelligence to nurture its emerging empire. Currently, brands must actively seek that rare species of marketers, who are alternatively known as Data Scientists. Sadly, along the way to the Internet’s gold rush era, there have been various unskilled Internet marketers who misled, misrepresented and failed to help organizations create a fair path to success.
Myth 4: SEO is literally on its Deathbed
When someone claims that SEO is dead, what they mean is that it is not their cup of tea. There are only two possibilities. One possibility is that they may have tried to make SEO work, but despite their best efforts, it failed miserably. The other possibility could be that they never even tried. Maybe they read an article on web about it.
Look back and analyze the SEO of 2010? Which is surely dead. Loads of black-hat and gray-hat techniques have literally gone to seed. SEO as a discipline appears a lot different and varied these days than what it used to then; it’s much more integrative, and mere keyword optimization and proper site architecture won’t take you as far as it used to before. But it has also been developed to incorporate extremely important initiatives like UX, conversion rate optimization and CTR optimization.
Myth 5: My target audience is extensively vast and wide
This can lead you to a catch 22 situation. Casting a wide net often indicates a lack of focus, which can typically harm you more than it helps. You have to zilch in on specific, niche characteristics, even within a conceivably vast demographic of users. Identifying real customers can be absolute tedious balancing act for those brands which are universally appealing.
If you think your target audience is extensively vast and wide, rethink. Trying to please everyone is undoubtedly a noble goal, but this tactic is seldom successful. It’s ideal to focus on ten people that will truly love your brand, rather than hundred people that kind of just like it.
The Road Ahead: Unravel the Power of Data
The days are gone where you can spam updates and it will hit people’s news-feeds. Organic reach has been crippled drastically. Creating a deeper level of relationship with customers is going to get them coming back to you again and again, right analytics strategies can help you accomplishing this. A tsunami of data and potentially powerful business insights on the way. You need to figure out if you’re willing to ride the wave or search for higher ground.
