Some marketing myths just won't die. Yet the price of accepting myths as truth can impact your bottom line, waste precious resources and mean the difference between success and failure in business.

Let's debunk a few small business marketing myths:

1) You need a big budget to make an impact. One of the biggest things that holds business owners back is the idea that they have to spend big bucks to create a worthwhile marketing plan. That's not true.

Case in point: A nominal amount of money, say around $100 a month, can deliver major results on LinkedIn, helping you connect with your ideal audience and tripling the number of people you reach compared to an organic post. And here's some more good news. Online, small business-friendly marketing subscription services provide different levels of coaching, resources and support to help grow their marketing strategy for the price of a daily latte.

2) Your business needs a huge social media following to reach customers. For years, we were brainwashed into thinking that the number of followers a page has equates to success. And while we spent so much time worrying about our following, we weren't paying attention to who was really engaging with our content.

Compare an agency that has 1,000 followers but only receives an average of 150 likes on each post to an agency that only has 500 followers but receives an average of 275 likes on each post. The latter would actually be considered more successful because they're actively reaching their followers and are getting them to do something—whether that something is commenting, saving the post for reference later or hitting that ever so important “link in bio" that leads your follower to become a prospect.

3) If you're not receiving results right away, your marketing isn't working. If you're not seeing immediate results, leads or sales, then you must be doing something wrong, right?

Wrong. The hardest thing to do is create results in the first four to six weeks of launching a marketing strategy. Why? Like all things worth working toward in life, results take time. If you're paying attention to how your audience is responding and making smart decisions about when to adapt and when to stay the course, the results will come.

4) Small businesses shouldn't waste time or money on marketing. Have you ever heard of a new business getting a loan without presenting a business plan? Well, it works the same way when you try to attract customers without having a marketing strategy. I know you're busy, but if you have a product, service or experience that you promote, then you need a marketing strategy. A business that follows a marketing strategy is much more likely to succeed than one without.

5) Quality products and services will sell themselves. Let's just get straight to the point on this one: Advertising your products or services is critical to company success. Don't believe me? Then why do major companies with quality products or services like Apple, Amazon or Netflix market and advertise so aggressively if their products will sell on their own?

As of 2018, there were an estimated 1.2 million insurance agents, brokers and service employees in the U.S., according to Statista—which means you must market yourself to stand out among the competition. No questions asked.

Maria Grimm is founder and CEO of Relly.