Whether you’re launching a new product in the market or building a new business from scratch, there are a few common marketing myths we wanted to clear up before you venture out on your next campaign.

Myth 1 – You should focus more on the features of your product than its benefits

Reality: Customers want businesses to answer the magical question of “What’s in it for me?”

They want specifics about how the features (or what the product does) make their lives easier and gives them a tangible benefit. Vague promises of “increasing sales” or “saving time” won’t work for customers.

But one company known for showing the benefits of their products, and doing it well, is Apple.

With the release of their most recent Apple Watch Series 6, the brand uses a catchy headline to quickly grab the reader’s attention, which is immediately followed up with a rundown of its features:

– Measures blood oxygen levels with a new sensor and app
– A portable electrocardiogram (ECG)
– Constant monitor fitness stats
– Enhanced Retina display

Then they reiterate how this device gives the wearer a powerful, convenient tool to live a healthier life.

Each section of the Apple Watch landing page pairs a sexy product image with an in-depth description highlighting the benefits of the device.

They have a clear understanding of their customer’s demands. These people want to embark on a health journey aided by technology, and Apple is the brand to facilitate it.

Myth 2 – A/B testing should only start at the beginning of a marketing campaign

Reality: Depending on the KPI’s you’ve established to measure your campaign against, you’ll need to conduct A/B testing throughout its entirety.

Like every experiment, you’ll need to keep testing and evaluating the results. If you’ve never run a marketing campaign before, here are some metrics to consider measuring.

– Website traffic
– Call-to-Action (CTA) conversion rate
– Landing page bounce rate
– Cart abandonment rate
– Cost of customer acquisition (COCA)
– Social media engagement/reach
– Email open rate

A/B testing can become extremely granular, and with digital marketing, details matter.

Depending on your business goals, these metrics can reveal how successful a campaign is. They’ll also let you know if there’s a need for new or different products based on performance and customer feedback.

Myth 3 – Marketing insights should solely dictate your design strategy

Reality: Marketing and sales teams need to work in tandem to ensure the customer receives a consistent message.

If the design of an email campaign or landing page is solely dictated by marketing, they’re missing out on the sales team’s valuable insights. Their data and perspective could help yield a better campaign, which would move the company closer to its strategic goals.

According to the Demand Gen Report, the biggest schism between sales and marketing teams is caused by a lack of communication. Somewhere the wires are getting crossed, and everyone is not on the same page, resulting in launching campaigns without all of the information needed to make it a success.

When both sides work together to inform the design and content of a campaign launch, it leads to:

– Getting better, qualified leads
– Receiving more accurate customer data
– Improved feedback and communication about campaigns

If one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing, it’s difficult for creative teams to produce effective copy and designs.

Myth 4 – Products from smaller brands have no chance of beating the “big guys”

Reality: Ingenuity and creativity can take a small company from unknown to famous in a very short time.

Long ago, in 2012, the Dollar Shave Club was a personal hygiene company providing men’s razors as part of a subscription service. They were a scrappy brand without a huge budget or dedicated fan base.

And the competition? They were going up against Gillette, a $50 billion behemoth, who was the reigning champ in this space.

As the underdog in this fight, Dollar Shave Club capitalized on a segment the competition wasn’t serving—budget-conscious customers. These people wanted quality blades at a low price.

In a direct-response video posted on YouTube, Dollar Shave Club proclaimed, “Our blades are f***ing great!” and used humor to show the superiority of their razors.

Within 48 hours after the video’s release, Dollar Shave Club’s website was so overrun with visitors that it crashed. After getting back up and running, they added over 12,000 new subscribers to their service within a few days of the video appearing on YouTube.

It shows that launching a product doesn’t mean that your business needs to have a huge team and budget behind it. Actually, it might work out better to stay small.

In the end, Dollar Shave Club was acquired by Unilever, but they still live on as a fun, relatable brand that bucked marketing norms and took advantage of social media to expand their reach.

Myth 5 – You should only focus on the marketing tactics

Reality: Before producing any campaign content, you have to create a marketing strategy that satisfies customers’ needs and wants.

It’s not entirely uncommon for businesses to focus on designing emails, writing blog posts, and creating other content without really considering the person on the other side of the screen.

They aren’t asking the big questions about their audience, such as:

What are they looking for?

And how can the company align its products with their expectations?

Yes, it’s important to produce marketing materials that capture people’s attention, but keeping it, and more importantly, making them come back for more, is a bigger challenge.

This is why you need a solid plan that guides the tactics. Not the other way around.

To do this, think about how they use products, find information, or interact with any other marketing touchpoint. Once you have a clear understanding of the customer’s mind, you can work backward from there.

Myth-busted

While the tools marketers use change on an almost daily basis, the rules haven’t. The customer’s needs always come first, and your marketing initiatives should center around answering their burning question of “What’s in it for me?”