Three Common Marketing Myths Busted by Google in 2019

Before we dive headfirst into 2020 or even into reviewing the fourth quarter, I wanted to take a moment to address this past year as a whole. More specifically, I wanted to share “Three Marketing Myths Busted by Google in 2019.”

Because you can’t exactly make good New Year’s resolutions for your marketing department if you’re operating on misinformation from the year previous.

MYTH 1: VIDEO IS SLOW AND EXPENSIVE TO PRODUCE.

Of all the marketing myths we encounter, this one seems to pop up the most. Can’t imagine why. Could it be because we, gee I don’t know, make marketing videos? In fact, we’ve been aspiring to help disprove this misconception for some time as well.

Yes, video can be expensive…if you’re doing it wrong.

Companies, especially in B2B, see the egregious cost of high-production-value advertisements like Superbowl commercials or TV spots, and they assume all good videos must cost the same. So when their marketing teams even begin to mention video, the CEOs or CFOs respond, “There’s no way!”

But there’s good news, friends. Google asked Media Lab to find ways to make video faster, cheaper, and more effective…and indeed they did! In fact, they’re not the only ones.

We recently filmed an interview with Wistia (to be released in 2020) and we learned much the same thing from them. They actually conducted an experiment called “One, Ten, Hundred,” around how budget affects marketing videos. Their verdict was revolutionary.

Production value isn’t the key to success– it’s actually your creativity!

Our show is another great case study on the matter. If you plan ahead before a production, you can end up with hundreds of valuable deliverables in the end– instead of just one.

Planning ahead required foresight in multiple areas, like knowing your audience and where they’ll be watching. If you want to attract attention on social media, you can likely achieve plenty just with that 4k camera sitting in your pocket. We used to pooh-pooh smartphone videos, but they’ve grown common as a way to be genuine and deliver bite-sized pieces of information to busy, cynical audiences who aren’t ready to give you much of their time yet.

You can also get more bang for your buck with videos if you map them out in your sales funnel ahead of time. Top-of-Funnel videos should be sleeker and shorter. Later, once your leads are more sales-ready, you can focus on education over entertainment.

MYTH 2: MORE DATA IS ALWAYS BETTER.

On the surface, this idea makes more sense at first. We’re always harping on how important it is for digital marketers to measure data. But that’s the thing about marketing myths– they’re easy to believe. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so widely-accepted.

Companies who are struggling to dip their toes into digital tactics may find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of data they can now track.

Just like setting up marketing automation requires a marketing process before you can really begin, sorting and understanding data requires a measurement process first. Maybe one day you’ll be able to monitor and understand the significance, however minor, of every single metric. However…you just can’t feasibly start off that way.

For one thing, digital marketing data can often come in from multiple sources– and each source may measure different KPIs. For example, YouTube allows more data on video views than LinkedIn, which has more data on views than Facebook…etc. But LinkedIn is less flexible than either of the others when it comes to sorting those views by time period.

It may take your company some time to determine not only a system to equally compare data from both sources– but also which of the two sites is a better platform for your company.

As with most new tools or assets, start small. Focus on a handful of major milestones that you know are definite must.

Remember, just because you can develop a product, doesn’t mean you necessarily should. Right? Similarly, just because you can measure all sorts of data…doesn’t mean it will be able to do you any good just yet.

MYTH 3: HUMANS ARE BEING REPLACED BY MACHINES.

This is one of the few marketing myths that is also prevalent in the world at large in general: especially industrial B2B.

A combination of job scarcity, increased discussions around the rise of IoT and AI, and a schmorgasboard of science fiction tropes has made much of mankind skeptical and even angry about increasing automation.

Then again, mankind also worried that inventions like the automobile, the dishwasher, and the motorized tractor would bring about similar ruin.

But what actually happened? People who had previously been slowed down by mundane, tedious, or even dangerous tasks were suddenly able to pursue more specialized and inventive activities. In Google’s words, “It’s about understanding what machines do better than us and letting them get on with it, freeing up humans to lean into what we do uniquely well. It incites inspiration and creativity.”

Besides, just because something has “automation” in its name doesn’t necessarily mean that after you set it up, it will simply run by itself. Things like marketing will still originate out of a human process; and they will expand and grow more nuanced under human supervision.

Similarly, some tasks will always require a human touch. Chatbots are definitely great timesavers, but if they’re not able to refer leads to a real sales rep where needed, they may bring more harm than help. People who want a genuine interaction with other people don’t like being forced to interact with a machine.

Like measuring data, automation is an excellent tool if properly planned and monitored.

Just because you can automate something doesn’t mean you immediately should. Automation will never be able to replace human relationships.

And marketing myths should never get in the way of your company’s journey to improvement.

(Click here to watch the video this blog article is based on.)

 

 

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