Busting 3 Digital Marketing Myths
Original photo credited to MAARTEN DE BOER/GETTY IMAGES
Last week, in honor of Myth Buster’s final season we decided to bust some digital marketing misconceptions we hear about all the time. Seriously, we get these three rebuffs constantly. To make it hit home, we pulled in actual stats from actual client campaigns that we’ve run over the last year. This way you know we’re not simply quoting number from a report, but instead have actually proven the misconceptions ourselves. Let’s get started!
1. Social Media is for brand building only.
Okay, so this one is a little tricky. If you’ve read some of our other blogs, you know we are all about engagement first. We focus our clients’ social media strategies on actually being social and creating conversations, not on selling. We preach not to worry about sales or even likes. Now for the “OMG Becky, look at that BUTT” moment - this doesn’t mean social media can’t produce sales. In fact, we believe focusing on authentic conversations will actually lead to more sales!
Emily Heisey, President of Kinesio Kids (@kinesio_kids on Instagram), started her social media presence in January of last year. Over the course of 12 months, she DOUBLED her appointments from the year before. The only difference? A well-crafted and executed social media strategy. By providing as much free, helpful information as possible via social media, trust and an audience of over 20,000 followers was built. This audience turned into extremely loyal clients with almost zero hard selling.
Good social media builds a conversation and a brand, but can also authentically drive sales.
For a deeper dive on what exactly we did with Kinesio Kids, read our case study.
2. NonProfits can’t generate donations through online advertising.
Digital advertising has the ability to show you a significantly more clear picture of how your dollars are being spent and what you receive for that spend. It also has the ability to reach far more people with significantly better targeting for less money than traditional advertising. These are huge benefits to a world where nearly every dollar is a donation. Yet, nonprofits often struggle to move their marketing efforts online.
At the end of 2018, our client, the Center for Transforming Lives, decided to mix up their Home for the Holidays donation drive. Using a strategy that combined paid search, display and social media ads and an email campaign, CTL received $3 in donations for every $1 spent. To top it off, the campaign drove enough package donations for 110 families.
If you’re a nonprofit, how does a $3+ return per dollar spent sound to you?
3. No one clicks on Google ads
I can’t express how many times we’ve heard people tell us they never click on Google listings. Our counter? Besides how Google has built a thriving business off of their search ads and couldn’t keep it going this long if it didn’t provide results, we have an Oil and Gas client that can help show us all the light.
Searching for a way to drive more sales at each of their stores, the client brought in the great Trey Sprinkle for a website redesign and us to drive traffic to that site. Using a search campaign, not only did we see over 4,300 people click their ads and head to the website, we saw a wide range of actions resulting in sales.
The ads drove close to 500 "conversions," or valuable actions, including calls to their stores, online orders, and directions to their multiple locations. Each of these actions resulted from someone clicking on one of those search results with the little green box saying "ad" underneath it.
Clearly, the ads were not only clicked on, but drove actions and sales.
Wrapping Up
It’s hard to know what out there actually works, especially when you don’t understand it. We recognize the hesitancy to put money into something you may not get. However, while traditional advertising is effective, we shouldn’t write off digital advertising because of a lack of knowledge. Search, social media, and online targeting can be more cost effective and better ways to reach your specific audience.
If you have more myths or questions, we’d love to hear them. I’d be willing to bet it’s one that we get consistently and could answer it quickly for you. Don’t hesitate to send us a message or get in touch!