Worst Internet Marketing Strategy: Claiming Victory

internet marketing strategyOne of the common questions I get asked about Internet Marketing strategy is about how long of a commitment it takes for a website to perform well in search. What I’ve found is that the person is really asking if they can put in a few months of work towards improving their search positioning and then reap the benefits.

When I hear that question, I often think about a quote from Hall-of-Fame basketball star Larry Bird.

Don’t laugh. Hear me out.

Someone asked #33 why he works so hard (in case you didn’t know, the guy was renowned for his work ethic). His response went something like this,

“I work so hard because I know that there’s always someone better than me out there working even harder than I am.”

Before you get mad at me for attributing the quote to Larry Legend because you think someone else said it, forget it. This child of the 80’s remembers it coming from one of my boyhood heroes. It certainly didn’t come from Magic Johnson.

Larry’s quote rings true with Internet Marketing, in general, and search engine optimization and  social media marketing, in particular, for two main reasons:

1. The hard work never stops – even when you’re on top, there’s still work to be done to stay on top. So even when your website ranks at or near the top of search, for example, the fun is just beginning. At that point it’s your job to protect that position from everyone that wants to take it from you.

2. Someone is always working hard(er) – every day that you take off from your content strategy, you can assume that someone else is doing something to beat you. Assume that there are websites – more than one of them – spending time, resources, and money to improve their positioning in search, social media, and online reputation. The greater the competition, the more than needs to be done to not only keep up, but to surpass them.

To bring it all back to the original question , “How long should our company be thinking about committing to Internet Marketing?”.

The real answer is: forever. It never stops. Your company needs to have a smart and sensible Internet marketing strategy from before the website launches and continue it for as long as it exists.

And if you’ve had a website for a while and haven’t had any strategy for using search to bring in leads, then you are behind! You need to put in the work necessary to get caught up with your competition.

What are some other examples of the worst Internet Marketing strategies? Let’s talk about them in the comment section below.

2 thoughts on “Worst Internet Marketing Strategy: Claiming Victory”

  1. Bird!?! You're crazy. I think it was John Wooden.

    Seriously though, I agree with what you said in that poeople do not grasp the fact that search strategies are for the long term. I advise people to plan on at least a year's worth of time and then see what happens.

    Reply

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