Digital marketing has seen an explosion in interest and activity in recent years. Small local businesses that never before had an online presence have discovered the benefits of the world of digital marketing.
An effective digital marketing strategy is vital if you want to grow your business. So long as you have a website, one or more service pages, and a digital marketing strategy, you can reach your target customers where they are.
In fact, an entire new generation of digital marketing professionals has developed to cater to those small businesses and help them implement effective strategies to increase their customer flow.
This is especially true for local HVAC and plumbing companies across America. Here at Relentless Digital, we know a thing or two about marketing technology. We offer top-rated SEO services for HVAC companies and have years of combined experience in the digital marketing world. So we know the marketing challenges that HVAC and plumbing pros face!
We also know all the digital marketing myths you’ve probably heard that may be creating apprehension about adopting digital marketing. We have experience and evidence to disprove every one of them!
Let’s take a look at 9 common digital marketing myths and debunk them, one at a time.
1. I’ll Need to Hire a Professional Just to Use My Automation Software
This first digital marketing myth is entirely understandable. We all know how frustrating some software can be. Few things are worse than spending a fortune on new automation software but not being able to get it to work. That’s not likely with our recommended software.
Today, a sizable chunk of your marketing efforts has the potential for complete automation. Gone are the days when you’d have to manually post daily social media marketing updates or send out every marketing email yourself. Marketing automation tools allow you to lighten your burden while also collecting usable data on how you’re performing and how you can improve.
Even if you’re not a computer wiz, automation software is a worthy investment. Along with the upfront cost of the software itself, you’ll need to invest some time and effort into learning the software. That’s where companies like ours can help.
Most automation software now offers ways to manage social media posts, email marketing, and content marketing. These programs give both small and large businesses the opportunity to get more traffic, land new customers, and drive sales.
While you might have a learning curve when it comes to adapting to new automation software, the benefits more than justify the costs, both in time and training. Having a professional to help you can also make all the difference.
2. Social Media Is Old News
Business owners avoid social media marketing for a few reasons that contribute to this second digital marketing myth. Some may think that social media doesn’t have the kind of pull it once had (a very false assumption!), while others worry that they can’t compete against their more social media-savvy competitors.
These beliefs are untrue. Social media platforms remain among the most important ways you as a business owner can engage your target audience and prospects. Social media is where your target audience is, so if you want to reach them, you need to go where they are.
The majority of the world’s population is on at least one social media platform, so ignoring social media will put you at a serious disadvantage. Building your brand doesn’t have to take forever, and you don’t have to spend tons of money to do it, either.
By starting small, posting regularly, and engaging with potential as well as current customers online, you’ll increase your brand visibility and see sales numbers climb over time.
3. You Just Need a Lot of Content, Regardless of Quality
One of the more pervasive myths about digital marketing is that quantity beats quality. Businesses that follow this strategy tend to assume that more posts lead to more money, and that this digital marketing endeavor is all about keyword stuffing and inundating search results with your content. In reality, this could not be further from the truth.
While there once was a time, at the beginning of the digital marketing era, when keyword stuffing and generating more content without focusing on quality could get you more traffic, the search engine algorithms have improved quite a bit. Not only is this behavior not rewarded, but search engines like Google frequently penalize it now.
Misusing email marketing and employing spammy subject lines could now land you on a blacklist. Building a site with a lot of irrelevant content and brute force SEO (search engine optimization) strategies could mean that Google won’t even list you on its search results.
Google saw an opportunity to improve the search experience, so it developed algorithms that prioritize quality over quantity. Users want quick and effective answers to their questions instead of getting overloaded with useless content.
Today, the way to get increased traffic and greater customer engagement is to center your strategy around quality (not quantity) and prioritize useful and informative content. The more concise and “digestible” your digital media content, the better you’ll do with both Google and your target audience.
Answering questions that your customers might have will bring you more organic traffic and more sales. You might even end up on the first page of search engine results, which is your goal!
4. You Don’t Need Content Marketing
Some business owners hear the term “content marketing” and immediately wince or ignore it altogether. Unfortunately, some of those who don’t understand digital marketing think that if they haven’t needed it yet, they’ll never need it. This is a prime digital marketing myth.
In the early-to-mid 20th century, radio, print, and TV changed the marketing landscape and presented new methods for advertisers to reach their target customers. Today, we’re in a new era. Having a strong social media presence, leveraging email marketing, and posting content to your website are what it takes to get your brand in front of people and become part of the conversation.
5. SEO Is Antiquated and Unnecessary
Another, more recent, digital marketing myth is that the digital marketing technique of search engine optimization (SEO) is past its prime—or worse, unnecessary. The truth is that, to the contrary, SEO remains a marketing juggernaut.
SEO is simply the process of optimizing content on a business website to increase its visibility on search engines and boost its ranking online. When you turn to the internet to expand your business’ reach, you need to play by the rules that work online.
In this case, the rules come from learning to please Google Search’s algorithms to secure a high rank on the return pages when people search for a keyword relevant to your business.
A marketing strategy that embraces SEO and thinks about Google search will not only improve customer experience but also allow you to tap into the world market. Think of content marketing as your way to draw in prospects and solve a customer need. SEO is a way to get bring those internet prospects into your sales funnel to begin with.
6. Results Either Happen Right Away or Not at All
Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, it’s pretty unrealistic to expect to see results immediately after embarking upon a strategy for digital marketing. Our culture has conditioned us to look for instant gratification. However, the best digital marketing strategy will include both fast-acting and long-acting approaches.
Some forms of digital marketing, like SEO, take time to bring in results since you need to build an organic high ranking. Pay-per-click (PPC) digital advertising, such as Google or Facebook ads, can kickstart your results as you infuse more funds upfront into the ads and see immediate results.
When it comes to online marketing, the best course of action is to build a strong, mobile-friendly website, work on optimizing it for the long haul, and use some paid advertising tactics for short-term results.
7. You Just Need for People to Like You
It’s easy to get lost in brand identity and assume that once people like you and your brand, they’ll want to buy from you. Unfortunately, this isn’t how customer behavior works. A prospect needs to be interested in and trust your product as well as find your story interesting.
If you have a physical store or you provide a direct service to people’s homes, your likeability is definitely part of the equation for small businesses. Customers can also get a taste of your and your brand’s personality from email marketing, a blog post, ord from your social media posts, especially the way you respond to negative comments.
8. Online Marketing Is Only for Bigger Businesses
One of the most common digital marketing myths is when an owner assumes that only large companies can afford or benefit from online marketing. While larger companies do invest heavily in online marketing (and commonly have large followings), that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a niche for smaller companies to thrive.
Research shows that a business of any size can gain advantage from digital marketing. Whether you have a single employee or one hundred, you can stand to benefit from optimizing for mobile devices, having a stellar website, and investing in digital strategies.
The best part about this is that you don’t need a huge budget to start seeing results. Marketers and research agree: Some sort of online presence is better than none at all and provides advantages beyond traditional forms of advertising. Website hosting is cheap, and social media accounts are free. There’s never been a better time for a small business to spearhead a new digital marketing approach.
9. The Online Audience Is Too Big to Target Effectively
The final of our digital marketing myths is that the online audience is just too big to be able to target prospects effectively. Some business owners feel that they’ll just be another company yelling into the void and that they should spend their efforts staying local.
Marketers have the ability to target leads regardless of geographical location, so you can connect with potential customers that you simply wouldn’t have had before. In reality, traditional marketing is more of a broad “shotgun” approach where you don’t have the capacity for nuanced targeting. Digital marketing, on the other hand, allows for very precise audience targeting.
Reach Out to Us for Digital Marketing for HVAC Contractors
If you’re looking for cost-effective ways to expand the online reach of your contractor business services, digital marketing will help get you there. With these nine digital marketing myths dispelled, you’re well on your way to boosting traffic for your business.
Are you unsure of where to start with your content? Learn more about blog article ideas to increase traffic here. Get in touch with us at Relentless Digital in Wisconsin today at (262) 393-4241, and we’ll help give your traffic the boost it needs.
