Marketing Online Is Simple? Well Yeah, If You Don’t Care About Results.

Usually, I don’t blog about other blogger’s articles in a negative way. But recently I read one of the laziest pieces of internet marketing info I’ve ever read.

The article in question, was written by someone named Matt McGee, which I do have respect for. I’ve read a lot of his stuff and it’s consistently good. But recently, he put out an article entitled “Online Success Is As Simple As This”. In the article he lists 4 simple steps to having success online. 1) Have a well seo’d website. 2) Have a great and active blog. 3) Be active on social media websites. 4) Have good products and good services.

Now, I will put out a disclaimer that I am speaking in the context of helping small businesses trying to market themselves locally, not companies marketing nationally. But even on a national level, i don’t agree with the lazy strategy.

Reason #1: Success Has To Be Defined

There’s lots of ways you can have success marketing online. Most companies do it to generate leads. Some do it to sell product through shopping carts. Other reasons include: email list building, helping market a product or service to be sold offline, promoting events, wanting people to download free programs, wanting to keep people on the website as long as possible so the website can sell advertising, and the list could go on for awhile. Matt’s article never defines what his version of success is.

Reason #2: SEO Used To Perform Wonders-Now, It’s Over-Rated

I actually just wrote a completely different article about why I believe SEO is now over-rated. You can check it out here.

Reason #3: The Mainstream Average Small Business Owner Has No Clue How To Use Facebook For Business

Sometimes when I’m talking to clients about us helping them with social media, they reply, “Oh, I’m already doing it.” What they mean by that most of the time is that they created a Facebook page for their business. And that’s it. They think that they’ll get referrals by just setting the page up. They have no clue that there’s waaaaaaay more to it than just setting up the page. So how is a small business owner going to have success in social media if they don’t even understand how to use it?

Reason #4: (And This Is The Biggest Reason) Neglecting The Other Stuff Will Damage, If Not Ruin, Your Campaign

How is online success “simple” if a company has a reputation problem? Meaning you type the company’s name into Google and negative stuff pops up on the first page. What if someone on their iphone can’t pull up the company’s website? What about call tracking? How can it be “simple” if there’s no call tracking on the website and you have no clue how many actual leads the website has generated? Online success, or more specifically internet marketing, is a process. With LOTS of tactics and strategies where some are, and some aren’t, relevant for different companies. For some companies, blogs are not going to help them because their customer base still reads trade magazines as opposed to online blogs. Same with social media. It all depends on the individual company.

In conclusion, internet marketing is not a one-size-fits-all service. Every company is different. Online success happens when you learn about what results the business wants, come up with the best strategies for it, and deliver the results. I guess the reason the article bugs me so much is because it’s bad information, like Matt McGee’s article, that causes people like me to re-educate clients on how we can produce the results they want.