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The “Marketing Myths” series is pretty self-explanatory. It’s an ongoing series where I tackle some of the biggest myths I come across in my work as a copywriter/marketer. I do this to help others steer clear of bad marketing advice that can harm their brand.

If you’ve missed any of the previous posts in this series, check them out below:

Marketing Myths: Part 1—Every Customer Should Love Your Brand

Marketing Myths: Part 2—The Customer Is Always Right

Marketing Myths: Part 3—There’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way to do Social Media

Marketing Myths: Part 4—If Everyone Else Is Doing It, It Must Be Right

Today, I want to tackle a myth that every designer and copywriter should be able to relate with. It’s the myth that one of the two is more important than the other.

I’ve witnessed countless debates between designers and copywriters over which element is more important in a marketing piece, whether it’s a website, print ad, email, or brochure.

Copywriters will typically say something like this:

“No illustration can sell a product by itself, but words alone can sell a product without any flashy design elements. A poorly-designed website with good copy can still have a good conversion rate, but a nice-looking website with terrible copy will never convert.”

Designers will often respond in kind by saying something along these lines:

“You need a great design to grab someone’s attention. People aren’t going to stop and look at an ad that’s just a bunch of words. Nobody likes reading, anyway.”

There is some truth to both arguments. The reality is that copy and design are equally important. If one is lacking, the other will suffer. If the two aren’t working together correctly, the message won’t get across clearly.

And remember, design isn’t just about images. Design is also about how the copy is presented. Great design lays out the copy in a way that is inviting and easy to read.

Yes, you can point to examples of ugly websites with good copy that convert well. You can also point to products that sell strictly because of their logo, packaging, or some other design element. Things are sold every day by words alone. Things also sell every day because of great designs.

The two are equal in importance, and in order to get the most impact from your marketing, you need to find a way to make them complement each other.

What do you think—is one more important than the other? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Bad marketing advice is all around us, and if you’re unable to know it when you see it, you could end up taking that bad advice and causing catastrophic damage to your brand. That’s what inspired me to start the “Marketing Myths” series. This will be an ongoing series where I will tackle some of the most common marketing myths I encounter in my work.

If you’ve missed the previous posts in this series, you can check them out at the links below:

Marketing Myths: Part 1—Every Customer Should Love Your Brand

Marketing Myths: Part 2—The Customer Is Always Right

Marketing Myths: Part 3—There’s a Right Way and a Wrong Way to do Social Media

So, now that the formalities are out of the way, let’s take down another myth, shall we?

Today’s myth hits very close to home for me. The myth is that “if everyone else is doing it, it must be right.”

Excuse me for a second while I go bang my head against the wall a few times.

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Okay, I’m back, albeit with a slight headache. I can’t even begin to tell you how many clients I’ve had that have said something along those lines. They will be discussing a project with me, point to some work done by their competitors, and suggest that I basically rip it off and slap their names on it.

Now, this is problematic for a couple of reasons.

1. Copying a competitor’s marketing makes it impossible for your company to distinguish itself.
2. What if your competitors are doing it all wrong?

Just because all of your competitors are doing something doesn’t mean that they’re right. For instance, tons of companies have hopped on the daily deals bandwagon. They send out deals through services like Groupon and Living Social.

Now, many companies have seen success with daily deals. They’ve attracted some new customers and brought in a little foot traffic to their stores, but these daily deal websites also have some major downsides to them. They can create short-term losses, attract the wrong kind of customers (bargain shoppers who have no loyalty), devalue your product, decrease your Yelp ratings, and as a result, decrease revenue over time.

But try explaining this to a client who sees all of his competitors sending out coupons through these subscription services. You have no chance of convincing them that it might not be the best choice for their business.

Of course, this is just one example of what I’m talking about, but there are many other situations where clients believe that since everyone else is doing it, it must be right. It wasn’t all that long ago that clients wanted to hide keywords in the background of their websites, because, hey, everyone else was doing it.

Don’t be a sheep, blindly following the herd. Think for yourself, and dare to try something different.

In an ongoing effort to expose bad marketing advice, I’ve created the series “Marketing Myths.” If you’ve missed the first 2 parts of this series, you can check them out here:

Marketing Myths: Part 1—Every Customer Should Love Your Brand

Marketing Myths: Part 2—The Customer Is Always Right

In this entry, I want to talk a little bit about social media marketing. Over the past few years, we’ve seen companies using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, and a host of other social sites to raise awareness and attract new customers.

Of course, it didn’t take long for the “social media experts” to appear and proclaim how companies should use these platforms to engage customers. I swear that a week doesn’t go by that I don’t see a post outlining some new rules for social media marketing. If you believe these “gurus” there’s a right way and a wrong way to do social media.

I don’t believe it.

In fact, this notion runs contrary to the whole point of social media. The point of social media is that it gives the user the power to do or say whatever they want. If someone wants to use their Facebook to share photos of the food they eat, that’s totally fine. If someone wants to blast links to their blog to the Twitterverse, that’s their right.

This idea that you have to use these social sites in one specific way is simply flawed. There are countless companies having success with their social media marketing, and many of them approach it in different ways.

For example, JetBlue Airways uses Twitter as a customer service tool. They interact with customers who have issues, provide updates about flight times and delays, and work to improve the overall flying experience for customers.

Undoubtedly, you’ve heard people say that you shouldn’t use Twitter strictly to advertise to customers. Well, don’t tell that to Dell. They have a Twitter account specifically setup to broadcast deals to customers. Virtually every Tweet they send out is an advertisement for one of their products. But guess what? As of the time I’m writing this, they have 1,534,842 followers. Clearly, they’ve had success by using an approach many social media marketers would tell you is wrong.

The point is there is no right or wrong way to do social media. There are things that will produce results for your company and other things that could possibly damage your brand, but every company is different. The only way to find out what works for your company is to experiment.

What do you think—Is there a right way and a wrong way to do social media?

To combat the surplus of bad marketing information that’s all around us, I’ve started the “Marketing Myths” series. If you missed the first installment of the series, you can check it out here:

Marketing Myths: Part 1—Every Customer Should Love Your Brand

Today, I’m tackling perhaps the most pervasive myth in all of business: The customer is always right.

How many times have you heard that? You may believe it, and you may even preach it to your employees. You might think that you have to bend over backwards to please a customer, no matter how unreasonable they’re being. You might be afraid that if you don’t kiss your customer’s behind, he will leave you forever and convince the world that your company is the worst ever.

But the truth is the customer isn’t always right. And in many cases, rather than bending over backwards to appease them, you’re better off simply letting them go.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you should automatically get defensive and cut ties any time a customer makes a complaint. I fully believe that you should always try to smooth things over if at all possible. You need to figure out what the customer is upset about and what, if anything, can be done to fix the problem.

However, there are often situations where a customer is being unreasonable.

Let me give you an example.

Several years back, I had a client who was starting up a commercial construction business. I was hired to write their website copy and a number of blog posts. We had a contract that outlined my fees, and the client agreed to them.

When the project was finished, I invoiced the client. He mailed me a check, but it was short of the invoice amount. I assumed it was just a mistake, but when I emailed the client to see what had happened, he responded that while it was a mistake, he didn’t feel compelled to pay the rest because he didn’t think it was really all that much work to do what I did.

WTF?!?

Obviously, I didn’t take “the customer is always right” approach to handling this situation. No, I stood my ground, and fought for the rest of my payment. When the client came back apologizing and wanting me to work on another project, I refused. In short, I fired the customer.

Now, not all disputes will be so ridiculous in nature, but you will probably encounter situations where customers are clearly wrong and you need to stand your ground. Not all customers are right for your business. Often times, your business (and your mental health) will be better off by letting the customer go away angry.

Do you think the customer is always right?

When you live and breathe marketing all day, every day like I do, you hear a ridiculous amount of mind-numbingly awful information. And it comes from all directions—self-proclaimed marketing gurus, clueless business owners, idiots with blogs (not me…I hope!), marketing newbies who just don’t know any better…the list goes on and on.

My point? There are lots of marketing myths floating around out there. That’s why I decided to start a new series titled “Marketing Myths.” Clever title, right? In each post, I’ll focus on busting a particular marketing myth.

Have a marketing myth you want me to debunk? Share it with me by leaving a comment.

So, let’s get this thing rolling.

Should every customer love your brand?

Whenever I start a new project for a client, I spend time interviewing them about their company. I go over the basics, including: Who is your target audience?

The answer I get more often than not?

Everyone. We want everyone to be our customer. Our products and services should appeal to everybody.

It sounds great, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to run a company that is beloved by everybody?

But the reality is that’s not going to happen. And you know what? That’s a good thing.

Your company shouldn’t appeal to everybody. If it does, you’re probably playing it safe, and you probably don’t have a loyal, passionate customer base.

See, too many companies try to be all things to all people. They take a shotgun approach to their marketing, hoping they’ll hit a wide audience. More often than not, the marketing that’s supposed to connect with everyone connects with nobody.

Why is that?

The answer is actually pretty obvious. Everyone is different. A 16 year old teenage boy from New York isn’t going to like the same things as a 70 year old, retired lady in Florida. When you try to appeal to such a wide audience, you’re going to have a hard time winning anyone over. Your marketing message will be weak, generic, and uninspired.

That’s why I recommend taking a sniper approach to building your brand. Pinpoint the exact type of customer you most want, and focus all of your marketing on attracting that person. You’ll be able to create a message that resonates effectively with this ideal customer, and as a result, your marketing will actually start to attract loyal, passionate customers who love your brand.

As I’m typing this post, I’m looking around my home at the various products I have. The first things I see are an XBOX 360 and Playstation 3. You’ll notice I didn’t say Nintendo Wii, even though it’s far and away the highest selling console. Why don’t I have a Wii? Because the Wii isn’t made for gamers like me. The Wii was designed to be a gaming system that could be enjoyed by casual gamers. Wii’s are enjoyed by families, at parties, and even at nursing homes.

The Wii isn’t geared toward me. Nintendo doesn’t want me as a customer. They don’t need me. And you know what? That’s fine. They’re more successful because of it.

You can’t be all things to all people, and not everyone should love your company. The sooner you accept that fact, the sooner you’ll be on your way to building a truly great brand.