Online Marketing in 2020: Is Now the Time?

The New Year is a time of optimism. Just witness the "resolutionists" at the local gym courageously weightlifting, cycling, and running their way to the new, healthy person they hope to be (photo source).

Unfortunately, we know from experience that most people relapse into bad habits. Maria Konnikova explored this topic in The New Yorker:

"When the psychologist John Norcross researched New Year’s resolutions, in the nineteen-eighties, he found that more than fifty per cent of Americans made some sort of resolution. After six months, only forty per cent had stuck with it. When Norcross followed up two years later, the number had dropped to nineteen per cent."

Read: "Why We Make Resolutions (and Why They Fail)"

So why do we feel so compelled to make resolutions (and why do we so often fail)?

Apparently, as Konnikova writes, "The beginning of a week, a month, or a year forms what the psychologist Richard Thaler calls a notational boundary"--a turning point, or new beginning. The beginning of weeks and months inspire optimism for many people, and the beginning of a new year inspires extreme optimism for most people.

This optimism is hard to sustain. So many people end up failing. Why?

We're "too positive." We set unreasonable expectations, and condemn ourselves to failure. As Konnikova writes:

"Many backsliders relapse because they have overestimated their own abilities, underestimated the time and effort involved in staying the course, or have an exaggerated view of the effect that the change would have on their lives."

The Pitfalls of Resolutions

Overestimating abilities. Underestimating time and effort. An exaggerated view of change.

From a business perspective, these pitfalls ring especially true, especially for that oft-overlooked aspect of business, online marketing.

Online marketing firms receive a lot of attention at the beginning of the year, when business owners feel optimistic about starting new online marketing campaigns. 

Yet many of these campaigns are doomed from the start, essentially because of the pitfalls listed above. The best way to avoid these pitfalls is to be aware of their influence in your own business. 

Overestimating Abilities 

Far too many online marketing firms oversell their abilities, and far too many business owners take the bait. This pitfall is so insidious because most businesses can truly benefit from online marketing.

To succeed, however, both the online marketing firm and the business owner must fairly assess the current abilities before setting a course for future growth. By analyzing your current abilities you can clearly see your deficiencies--and how you might improve with the addition of new talent or protocols. 

Underestimating Time and Effort

Business owners often set unrealistic expectations for marketing campaigns. These expectations are encouraged by the same marketing firms who oversell and under-deliver. Real marketing, especially online marketing, takes time.

As we noted in a recent post, online marketing is not a quick fix.

Read: "Two Simple SEO Truths"

For example, Organic SEO can be a time consuming process. Most websites require about six months to be ranked by the major search engines. Of course, proper optimization can create results within a week. But the most important result, the result that will benefit your product or service, is worth the wait: When optimization is complete, your website will maintain a durable spot on the first page of the major search engines.

An Exaggerated View of Change

This is the hardest truth for some online business owners to accept--but it is the most important. If you sell a high-quality product at the right price, you deserve customers. And by "product" we mean the actual material good or service and the customer service and marketing. Often it is not the exact product that fails but the customer service and marketing.

However, many online business owners expect online marketing to make up for product deficiencies. A dishonest marketing firm will take your money without any consideration of the quality of your product. But an honest pro will tell you what is best for you--and often that means improving the product in tandem with your marketing campaign. 

True Business Resolutions

Now is the time to think about change. Now is the time to think about hiring a high-quality online marketing firm--like SEO Sparta. A new marketing campaign can inspire dramatic results, but only if the campaign is commenced with a clear estimation of a business' abilities, the time and effort required to make a change, and a clear view of the dynamics of the change.

If you are interested in transforming your website into a money-making tool or are interested in exploring opportunities to outperform your competition, we encourage you to contact SEO SPARTA.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

Contact us