Are you planning on opening a small brewery with your best friend? Or are you running a billion-dollar enterprise? If yes, wow, we’re psychic! And if you fall anywhere between these two categories, you’re going to need a digital marketing checklist.
Let’s start with busting some myths you may have come across in your research on how to best promote your company. In this article, we list a few we found to be too absurd not to dispel, so read on if you want to market yourself in the best way possible!
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Having a Website is Enough to Market my Business
Yes, you absolutely NEED a website. There’s no way you could get far in the 21st century without one (unless you’re like a shoe shiner or something vintage like that). But that’s not nearly enough.
Website development isn’t easy – it requires skill, expertise, and probably hiring someone who checks those boxes. After you build the website, that’s when the really hard part comes in – putting something in there. To make sure your website doesn’t sit empty and collect dust, you’ll need:
- Content writers to create informative articles of value that will educate the audience about your products and services,
- SEO specialists to direct people’s attention toward your page,
- Copywriters to write clever and catchy copy that will capture the audience’s attention and get them to make a decision,
- Digital designers to make sure all of the hard work stands out visually.
SEO is Dead
Depending on who you ask, SEO is either your BFF or completely dead. In our opinion, it should be like a neighbor – someone you stay on good terms with but don’t really make a priority.
You can’t completely ignore the concept of SEO and rely solely on organic ways for people to find your website. However, you can’t cater to Google at the expense of your content’s quality either. Your readers aren’t stupid; they’ll catch on if you try to cram so many keywords that the text ends up unreadable and unnatural. The point is to make the website both Google-friendly and user-friendly.
Receiving Negative Comments on Social Media is not Good
You probably already know how important it is to create social media profiles as a company. You can sell your products on these platforms, do some networking, and communicate and build rapport with your audience.
No matter which approach you take and how you present yourself in the online world, the moment will inevitably come – you’ll get some hate. Naturally, you’re going to feel bad about it and start to worry that it may negatively affect your brand’s reputation, but in reality, it’s the complete opposite.
You can use negative comments to prove that your customer service skills are superior to your competitors’ by responding quickly and addressing the issue publicly. You’ll also gain insight into which areas you need to work on. Listen to those you’re trying to cater to.
Even though you may be tempted to do so, refrain from deleting the negative comment. Chances are someone’s already seen it (at least the original poster has), and that looks way worse than having a dissatisfied customer here and there. At the end of the day, any interaction boosts your engagement, so they’re really doing you a favor.
You Only Need AI to Generate Content
In the past couple of years, AI has seen a huge growth spurt in terms of both advancements and availability. Everyone with internet access can now use websites such as DALL-E2 or Jasper, but you should know how unreliable they can get. Other (paid) options are much more functional but still can’t replace actual digital designers and writers.
The main issue with AI-generated content is that it lacks nuance and can easily be recognized as such. We’re still very far from having a robot that can perfectly adjust the tone of voice in the copy it ‘writes,’ but we can always hire talented and educated writers who’ll have no problems with this.
The lack of creativity AI puts into its work will also negatively reflect on your SEO. In August of 2022, Google published a guide in which they stated they’re putting in the effort to promote content written by people, for people. Google could also mark you up for plagiarism should another company use the same AI as you and get similar results.
If you think replacing humans with AIs will save you some money, you’ll still have to pay editors to check and improve upon the robot’s work.
Branding = Company Name and Logo
Your company’s name and logo are the most noticeable and memorable things about your brand. But they’re not the only ones, and the other segments deserve the same attention as the most visible ones.
The first thing you need to determine is your company’s mission and vision. Ideally, you should have these drafted before starting the company. The mission statement is intended not only for your customers but for your employees and investors as well. It shouldn’t be longer than two to three sentences, and it should contain all the basic info on what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. A vision statement is very similar, except that it focuses on your goals for the future.
A brand is also your company’s personality and culture. Employee satisfaction directly affects customer satisfaction, so don’t shy away from sharing pics and stories from the office, but keep in mind that if your employees are genuinely dissatisfied, no amount of marketing will make up for it. On the other hand, your company personality is completely up to marketing to share – this is what you stand for. For example, Ikea is associated with family and creativity, while Volkswagen reminds us of stoic precision.
Okay, But What Do I Do?
Anyone who’s in marketing had to learn their tricks from somewhere. And sometimes, the original sources just aren’t that reliable, and the myths live on through repetition. The best way to learn is through practice, by testing, trying out, and failing and getting back up hundreds of times. To spare you the heartache, we wrote this article that busts the most common digital marketing myths.
But these were just the basics. If you want to do things the right way and make sure you don’t skip any important steps, here’s a checklist you can follow! It includes everything you need from digital marketing, separated into different categories, and further dissected into specific steps. It’s based on years of experience and made with love, so don’t miss out on it!