There’s a lot of bad advice on the internet about marketing. Developing a strong online presence is dependent on so many factors that authors often attribute their success to things that they were doing wrong all along.
Here, we’re going to take a look at a few marketing strategies that are often touted as being extremely useful, when in fact, they constitute some fairly poor advice.
1. Posting Consistently to Increase Your visibility
We understand why this idea has become so popular over the years. You start a blog, you run out of steam, and yet you force yourself to maintain a consistent blogpost rate. Perhaps you’re posting twice a day, perhaps once every two days.
The fact of the matter is that 10 rehashes per week are going to serve much less purpose compared to 2 unique and thoughtful posts that you put real effort into. If your content is well-written and original, it’s going to lend a lot of credit to your blog’s reputation. If it’s divisive, even better. Don’t just write for shock-value, though. Use your head to create truly engaging material that your audience will find useful.
The point is, despite what SEO gurus may preach, quality is much more important than quantity. Approach every aspect of your blog with this mind-set, and an organic audience will follow.
2. Investing Heavily in Advertising
Paid ads are a great way to increase exposure to your business, in moderation. Word of mouth, however, serves several benefits beyond just being much more affordable (also known as “free”). A recommendation from a real human being carries much more weight than a purchased placeholder on Google. It is going to mean that new visitors give you more of a chance, and trust you more.
So, how do we get people to recommend your business to their friends? It’s simple. We deliver products, content, and services of exceptional quality. Once you impress a customer, your honesty and integrity will provide the foundation of an unbeatable reputation. Not only that, but most people are willing to spend more money for a company they believe can be trusted rather than one they found via an ad.
3. Investing in Both AdWords & SEO
It might be tempting to believe that purchased Google advertisements and a keen SEO expert can only benefit each other. However, studies have shown that web users click on top organic results much more frequently than paid ads – 94% organic to 6% ads. That’s a huge margin! Additional reports from Google show that 81% of the time, organic and paid listings for the same site do not appear simultaneously.
So, it might be better to drop the AdWords altogether and instead invest in white hat SEO, which has long term value. It may be a bit more challenging to get on page 1 of Google search results than it to pay for an ad, but it’s worth it. Once you reach page 1, as long as you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll stay there and continue reaping the benefits in the form of new business. With AdWords, however, you have to keep forking over money to pay for an ad that isn’t even giving you significant traffic or leads
There’s a lot of advice on the internet that implies formulaic success for digital marketing. While much of it is useful, some of it is just recycled garbage that seems good in theory, but falls way short in practice.
And because Google continues to change the game, it’s critical to stay on top of the changing effectiveness of various strategies. What is a no-fail gem today might be a waste of time tomorrow.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: 3 Marketing Strategies You’re Using That Don’t Work And What You Should Do Instead
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