My Internet’s Not Working…
Almost every day, we talk to people about their Internet marketing efforts.
Most of the conversations start off something like this:
“We started a company blog last year but haven’t seen more visitors to our site”
“We spent a lot of money on Google Ads and got very little return out of it”
The DIY Web Marketing Myth
Today, putting up a web site and getting a Facebook account is so easy your grandma could do it.
But setting up your marketing tools is just the beginning.
Now the hard part begins – establishing a presence on the Internet, driving traffic, converting traffic to leads and ultimately increasing revenue.
And trying out social media with a couple of interns and a tiny budget just doesn’t cut it anymore.
The bar continues to be raised every day.
To make matters worse, the easy accessibility of free tools like WordPress, Facebook, Twitter etc. give people the false impression that the tool is the solution.
All they have to do is set up their free Twitter account and their marketing woes are gone forever.
This is just plain false.
Yes, in the hands of skilled technicians, tools are indispensible. But in the wrong hands, they can be disastrous or at the very least ineffective.
Would you trust your 5 year old with a chainsaw? I hope not.
It’s the same idea with web marketing.
Google’s own Avinash Kaushik even says that you should invest 10% of your budget in tools and 90% of your budget in people.
It’s that important.
Web Marketing Has Grown Up
Most companies tend to be good at some parts of web marketing, but not others.
For example, some are great at creating content but aren’t good at generating traffic from it.
Others are great drivers of traffic but don’t know how to convert all those new visitors to leads.
This common problem is often why their web marketing efforts fail.
And it’s not easy to get right. It takes skills, perseverance and a willingness to try and fail until you get it right.
These days, if you wish your web marketing efforts to succeed, you need access to:
- Marketing strategy talent
- Top notch design and user experience talent
- Keyword and expertise
- Writing ability (hired an out-of-work journalist yet?)
- Editorial and publishing experience
- Video production capability
- Conversion optimization experience
- A/B testing experience
- Analytics interpretation experience
- Lots of time and energy
Inbound Marketing Methodology
Regardless of whether you hire those skill sets in-house or you partner with an agency, make sure they have the skills and methodology that covers all the bases of inbound marketing.
Not doing so, can result in less than stellar results in your web marketing program.
Spark Inbound Marketing Methodology
Here at Spark, we think about inbound marketing all day long. If you’d like to chat with us about our Inbound Marketing Methodology, drop us line.
