Marketing is so ingrained in our lives, yet it’s wildly misunderstood. Many people claim to have a full grasp of what marketing is, but when it comes down to it – businesses seem to know very little. At least not enough to execute it successfully. Why is that?
This is because of all the pervasive misconceptions about marketing that float around. While there are too many to address, here are the 5 most common.
1. We don’t need it
Perhaps the most common (and most frustrating for marketers) is the stance that marketing is unnecessary in the eyes of many business owners. It can be seen as an added expense that doesn’t pull in enough return on investment. The reason these businesses believe they don’t need marketing vary from being too small, current success, and simply trusting that what they’re already doing will carry them through.
But the truth is that every business can benefit from the awareness, revenue-generating, and audience-expanding tactics that marketing brings to the table.
2. It’s just about visuals
Any seasoned marketer has heard this one before. “Marketing just makes things look pretty,” is a sentence we’ve encountered far too often by businesses who aren’t marketing savvy. Shocking, huh? They’re always surprised to learn that marketing goes beyond making a brand aesthetically appealing, it develops brand positioning, audience engagement, go-to-market strategies, digital footprint, and so much more. Suffice to say, marketing isn’t just a pretty face.
3. Marketing is easy
There’s not much in business that is truly “easy” but for some reason, marketing is assumed to be a simple task. And if that were truly the case, wouldn’t more people do it successfully? Marketing is a science, and it takes experts to execute it with a tangible amount of success that drives lead generation, awareness, and retention while developing a return on investment. So, if you’re not able to hire an in-house marketing department, marketing agencies are the best bet.
Your business will get all the advantages of having a marketing partner without the need to develop one yourself. But not all agencies are right for every business, use these tips to help establish a great relationship with an agency.
4. Products sell themselves In theory, yes, a good product will sell itself. That’s not quite the case. A product will only sell itself when it’s packaged, positioned, and messaged to the right consumers. This is where marketing excels and connects the dots between departments. By combining product knowledge, brand positioning, audience segmentation and more – the right product will sell itself to consumers through targeted and purposeful marketing tactics.