When it comes to marketing your small business, every person has an opinion on what you should be doing. Whether it be traditional flyer drops, to large scale billboard ads across the highway exit, it can feel impossible to know which direction is best for your small business. However, what’s inhibiting the path to successful marketing is the numerous, and persistent, misconceptions about small business marketing, the digital space, and building a profitable business. In this article, we address the most widespread myths head-on, sharing with you the reality of promoting your business successfully, and the misconceptions rescinding your profits.

Myth: You need big money to market your small business

While it’s nearly impossible to market your business without any funds in your marketing budget, you don’t need millions to start promoting yourself. With basic marketing options offering free options, such as social media and word of mouth marketing, and paid alternatives costing you just a couple of hundred dollars to get started, there is an opportunity to suit every budget.

While you may not have the money now, it’s essential to understand your future digital marketing prospects. Requesting marketing quotes from professional marketing specialists doesn’t cost you anything to pursue, yet they hold valuable insight into your business potential and the budget you need to achieve your goals.

Myth: You don’t need social media

Despite what others in your profession may say, there isn’t an industry immune to the need for a social media presence in this modern landscape. However, there are no rules to which specific social media platforms a business should have; businesses are encouraged to use the platforms relevant to them, rather than signing up for all of them, and never using them effectively. If this means a business only has one social media platform but utilises it extremely successfully, this is a better marketing strategy.

Myth: Paid advertising doesn’t work

In recent years, Facebook, Instagram and Google Ads have become the mainstay of digital marketing, and many businesses have turned to these options to promote themselves. With this significant influx of use has come the misconception that these options don’t work, purely because users have approached paid advertising without the knowledge, experience or proper budget to run a successful campaign. The result has been thousands, if not millions, of money spent on unsuccessful paid advertising, and many assuming it’s the advertising avenues at fault.

Myth: Having any old marketing is enough

When it comes to marketing, there is no such thing as ‘set and forget’. While once upon a time ago a business could place a sign out front of their shop and their business profits would revive instantly, this is no longer the case, and businesses now must actively pursue daily marketing efforts to be competitive. These activities involve posting to social media, creating online content, refreshing traditional marketing material regularly, and continually innovating new ways to stand out.

This concept is also true of the small business website; creating a website, going live and never reviewing the content ever again isn’t enough to drive traffic to your site. Website design trends are continually evolving, as well as the approach to search engine optimisation, and past efforts can become quickly redundant if not analysed continuously and reviewed.