Imagine this scenario:
You just tossed up a brand new eCommerce website selling physical products. You spent a good amount of money developing it and it looks great. It was built by a developer who had SEO training, so you are pretty confident that it employs all the best practices. You’re selling a product with a reasonably high profit margin and you are all set to open your doors. At your first marketing meeting, you and your team sit down to decide where to spend your budget. Now, for the big questions! Where does it go? What are our best options?
Ok, you’re convinced, SEO and PPC. As your getting ready to finalize your budget breakdown, your marketing director, out of the blue, drops the bomb. “What about we take 80% of the SEO budget and spend it on social marketing?”…
Now, I don’t know how many of you remember the early “golden” years of the internet. I’m talking about back around 1998 when the web really was golden. Where all it took was a few weeks of time, a decent idea, and an e-mail account and you could set yourself up with a guaranteed cash flow pouring into your merchant account. Well, our business owner friend in that scenario, whether he knows it or not, was just proposed an opportunity that can certainly be compared to the “golden” days.
I have to admit, it took me a little bit of convincing to believe that social networking and other social media could really create such an incredible chance to grow a business. Don’t get me wrong, the idea that groups forming around specific topics and likeminded people coming together to share content, logically sounds like a perfect way to hone marketing to specific demographics. I mean, think back, when has there been such an easily accessible means of pushing your product or service in front of the eyes of potential customers who you know, without a doubt, are interested in some way? The need for convincing came when I had to think about sacrificing funding for other, more proven, marketing efforts.
So what did I do…. research…, well that’s not true, I had some of my team do the research, but the idea stands and let me tell you, I’ve had rocks hurled at my head that hit me with less force than what I was shown.
Let me give you a quick kick yourself….
