If your business is doing well and you’ve not yet invested in a strong digital presence, it can be tempting to assume that it’s not something you need. However, without marketing online, your competitors will have an edge and will eventually start to chip away at your success. 

Digital marketing doesn’t have to be complicated to work well. Here’s a look at three marketing myths and the truth behind them, which will help you get well on your way to creating a strong online brand.

MYTH: Customers in My Industry Aren’t Found through Online Marketing.

It’s certainly true that some fields immediately lend themselves to online marketing while others aren’t such an obvious fit. If you discount the possible advantages that creating a digital presence could offer, you could soon find you’re lagging behind. 

Research shows that 81 percent of buyers will check out companies online and do their research first before taking the plunge. In other words, if your products or services aren’t available online, you will be losing four out of every five possible sales. 

Check to be sure your website is mobile ready. Not only will your customers appreciate it, Google will too. Google is favoring sites that are mobile friendly vs. those that are not. You can check your site here:

You don’t need to invest huge amounts in online marketing, but having an up-to-date and easily accessible digital presence will pay for itself several times over. 

MYTH: No One Will Be Interested If I Put Lots of Text on My Website.

You might not think that your customers will be interested in long pages of text, but if you get the content right and it’s laid out well, it could be more popular than you think. 

Customers want content that is relevant and helpful. This is far more important than trying to keep any text on your website brief. In many cases, businesses may be discounted because there’s simply not enough information for a customer to make an informed choice. 

In addition, the goal of being online is getting your site seen. Search engines value longer content which is of a high quality. If you invest in this approach, your site will be ranked more highly. This, in turn, will allow you to be seen by a greater audience—and more potential customers. 

MYTH: Social Media Is Only for Kids.

Social media has hit the headlines in recent years, but if you use it smartly, it can be an extremely powerful marketing tool. 

A quarter of all buyers use various types of social media to discuss recent purchases or to gather information. By having an effective social media marketing strategy, you can make sure that you’re available to your audience and have the opportunity to present your brand as accessible, friendly, and most of all, expert. 

What You Can Do Today

If you haven’t already done these things, then start here:

• Add contact forms to your website. Most everyone has a contact form on their Contact Us page, but consider adding it to other pages as well. Tie all those contact forms into Salesforce and then decide what actions should be taken once a form is complete. 
• If you’re using Pardot, you have a world of opportunity open to you. 

• Add tracking code to your website. The tracking code is a short piece of code that you will place on your website. This code places a “cookie” on each visitor’s browser. The cookie follows the visitor’s actions while they are on your website. Cookies can be controversial so if you have any doubt about using them, check with your attorney or content directors. Pardot uses cookies to keep track of visitors to your site. Once a visitor has completed a form that asks for their email address, all the information associated with that visitor cookie, is now assigned to that email address and the visitor becomes a prospect. Once they are a prospect, you can decide how to handle them — through scoring or actions. 

• Set up Custom Redirects to track any content that you place outside your website. For example, maybe you post a white paper to your LinkedIn page. You can add a link to that white paper that lets Pardot know it was clicked and that it was clicked from your LinkedIn placement. You can add custom redirects links to any online advertising to easily track the performance of that ad. Anything that you can add a link to, you’ll want to create a custom redirect for it so you can track performance. You can also add actions to each of those links. 

• Use messenger bots to help increase subscribers or even qualify leads. These bots are getting better and better. Check out one from Drift (https://help.drift.com/integrations/salesforce) — it allows you to set appointments, sign people up for your newsletter and even qualify visitors and send them immediately to a salesperson if the criteria fits. It integrates easily with Salesforce. If you do a lot of business on Facebook, you can use a bot like Many Chat (www.manychat.com). 

 If you have questions about any of this, please call us at 800-375-3879, email us at connect@thefurygroup.com  or complete this form:

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