Marketing Myths That Need Destroying

Marketing myths get propagated around businesses.

I’m going to pick on two and debunk them. If you want you can debunk your favourite marketing myths in the comments.

"Referrals Are The Best Source Of Customers"

It’s true that referrals are a great source of customers. And there’s no doubt that they are more loyal and less price sensitive than those who haven’t been referred.

Unfortunately some businesses take this to mean that they only need to use referrals to get customers.

Even if you have a well developed referral process (you have haven’t you?) a time may come when referrals dry up. It may be for a week, or a month or a few months.

What if the referrer you rely on goes bust? What if they start referring to a rival?

What happens then? Do your sales dry up?

And if referrals dry up they’re not the best source of customers anymore.

And that risk remains when you rely on just one way of getting customers.

To reduce that risk every business needs different ways to get customers. That means if referrals dry up for a while the business is not exposed to a sudden loss of income.

"It’s Not What Your Copy Says, But How You Say It"

The myth is that people are swayed by the way a message is delivered. Certainly delivering a message in an usual way, or with a flourish will get it picked out from the crowd.

However, if you don’t follow-up with something that your victim thinks is worth reading they’re going to bin your letter or click off your site quicker than you can say boo to any passing geese.

And that includes graphics. Yes I know all about the misquoted "a picture is worth a 1,000 words." That phrase  is believed to be made up by Fred R. Barnard rather than Confucius and its literal translation is  " A Picture’s Meaning Can Express Ten Thousand Words." Which doesn’t mean a picture should replace 10,000 words. Although I think sometimes I’d prefer it!

Think about that old-fashioned article the newspaper. You probably see the photograph first on the front page but you’re most likely to check the headline before deciding whether it’s worth reading. Lose people’s interest with the headline and they’ll flick to the next page, or maybe not even buy the paper in the first place.

Anyway, the point is that while how you say something is obviously important, what you  say is vital.