THE DIY ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGY:
If you're in business, you understand that a marketing strategy is a must. However, what many business owners don't want to face is the fact that a marketing strategy requires funding, or a marketing budget.
This has become a very confusing issue over the past 5 years. As the Internet began to grow, many business owners found themselves caught in a trap that still exists today. That trap is the decision to employ a do it yourself strategy.
At the start, this actually made some sense. Website owners were curious with this new technology and were constantly told the playing field was now level. A level playing field allowed for an organization to apply an online marketing plan using a much smaller budget.
The bad news is that this perspective is no longer accurate and the truth is, the longer it takes to treat your website as a competitive marketing tool, the more your competition is passing you by. Why? Because the do it yourself approach is hurting much more than it's helping.
Here are some more example of the technology required to have a productive website:
CONSIDER WHAT "THE DO IT YOURSELF" METHOD CAN DO:
Studies have been completed to show the statistical differences and expectations when attempting a do it yourself online marketing strategy compared to partnering with an actual, certified expert on the subject.
The simple fact is that there is just too much exploding technology for an upper or middle level executive to take on themselves. There is no point, and certainly no results in taking this skill set on individually. I'm sure you can imagine the time saved by hiring an expert.
I tell business owners to keep on doing what they do best and partner with a team that can apply their digital marketing better than they can. After all, what will happen if you stop doing what brought you your success?
Here are some of the main reasons why a DIY Internet marketing strategy will hurt more than help:
1. Reason #1: Unproductive shift of focus.
Like I mentioned above. If you now need to be concerned with the skills needed to apply SEO to your website, where do you think that time will be coming from? Your focus should remain on your area of expertise. You can see what the data says in this video.
2. Reason #2: Proper education required
Is the proper skill set in place? If not, you will have to spend the time and effort needed to learn how the major search engines decide to rank your site on page one. You will have to understand this process for each and every keyword you deem important. And, what keywords are important? You can't guess on these keywords. You need real time data to help you make the right decisions. If your keyword analysis and development process isn't accurate, everything you build on top of this process will not hold up. This is only one in over a hundred different technologies and skills absolutely required for digital marketing success.
3. Reason #3 Productivity suffers
I'm sure this also makes sense to you when you consider how effective a certified professional can be compared to someone that needs to learn many of these skills. In fact, there is real time data that shows the effect experienced in new traffic when an experienced search engine optimization professional configures a web page compared to someone new. Use the preceding link to take a look.
4. Reason #4 The marketing strategy is incomplete
Building a comprehensive marketing strategy takes reasonable time, effort, knowledge and an appropriate budget. That's right, budget. Many business executives or owners think they will save money by "pressing the magic buttons" themselves. This isn't accurate for many reasons:
- Spinning wheels always costs money.
- Any sponsored advertising requires dollars.
- Do popular directory listings make sense (Yelp, Yahoo, ect.)?
- Is social media advertising a good option?
There are so many monetary concerns connected to a developing website, it can actually come back to kill a business. How is that possible? Just use the wrong image in your blog or on social media and a copyright attorney with bad intentions will cost you in a big way.
5. Reason #5 Development & momentum
Something I see often, or should I say hear often are the words... "I'm finished". When it comes to a website, there is no such thing as finished. The development of any website is watched closely by the powers that be like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Twitter & Facebook. If you don't have a strategy to consistently develop your website using:
- A blog post twice a week
- A video post when possible
- Twitter posts up to 10 times a day
- Facebook posts daily
- LinkedIn posts daily
- Landing pages created frequently
- Constant SEO adjustments
your website will be seen as dormant. A dormant website holds low value in the eyes of the major search engines. On the other hand, fresh content development leads to a chain reaction that will benefit a website in so many different ways.
TRANSLATION:
The best and most effective method to building a successful online marketing strategy and plan is to find and partner with a certified online marketing agency. An agency with all of the tools, resources and knowledge that are hard to come by. Resources that are no longer a luxury, they are a requirement.
If you have competition, you need the ammunition that builds visibility, reliability and most important, authority. Watch this video to really understand what authority means to a website.
When you stop to think about everything that is (or should be) involved with a powerful website development strategy, you will start to see the payoff to working with a certified online marketing expert.
What do you think and what is your experience when considering a team to help your company jump this obstacle?
