This post is written for Marketing Managers / Directors / VPs
I wrote last that SEO is Dead, so it’s only right I justify that position with some explanation and personal thoughts on what to replace it with.
So much is changing on a daily basis in the world of online marketing that just keeping up with the latest trends demands significant investment of time and dedication. Even with the advent of smartphones and news aggregators the task of keeping abreast with opportunities and avoiding the pitfalls of being labelled a black hatter is becoming somewhat tiresome, to the point of indifference.
To be honest, this is where I arrived some months ago. Trying to second guess Google’s bot and spam team together with endless demands by scrupulous vendors to offer me SEO services and online marketing platforms left me with an unpleasant taste in my mouth. So, I abandoned it all and went marketed naively and this is where I recommend everyone position themselves.
This is not to devalue the increadible think tanks and opinion leaders int he industry, I’m not trying to set out to discredit the unmistakeable acheivements that these people claim and that are acheivable and presentable by any Marketing Manager. My point is that by getting to obsessed with algorithms, keyword ranking, onpage optimization and the like it will make you lose sight of your purpose as someone responsible for heading a marketing function.
My attitude is simple. I took the simple advice from Google and let it permeate all my planning and decision making. Give visitors a top-notch experience and your sure to grow your bottom line. For too many years, I like many marketers became too wrapped up in keyword research, ranking and click through rates. In optimizing the flow from search to landing page to ensure maximum conversion rates. It works well and I’ll not challenge this for a second, but I began to miss the point of marketing in itself ‘Understand what your customers want and give it to them in a effective manner (and do it profitably)’
Many years ago when studying Marketing I was taught the most basic premise of marketing, something we all know but often forget.
If you make one customer happy, he’ll share his experience and soon word of mouth will deliver the cheapest marketing campaigns you could hope to create.
For many marketers this has by necessity been abandoned because for so long the web had ineffective tools, or the tools adopted by the masses were not accepted by the boss as viable and worthy of investment.
I believe this changed last year and 2012 will be the year Social Marketing replaces SEO as the most invested in channel outside traditional media spend.
Ignoring Social Marketing now is a mistake for any company. Embracing it now is an opportunity like embracing SEO 10 years back.
Facebook and Twitter have become the defacto social engagement and broadcast networks, I believe this is now wrapped up like Google did with Search so many years back. What changed in the last year is the adoption of Facebook & Twitter login tools to power so many new related and unrelated services. As Matt Cutts said that his only regret in closing his Facebook account is he now finds himself unable to register for other sites. This speaks volumes about the power these networks have obtained in our lives. Indeed millions of dollars are being invested and earned every day based on the technology provided by these networks to power 3rd party sites.
Combine this with the release of Google+ which in a few short weeks is too young to predict it’s actual impact but the way Google have already integrated it into their main services we can be sure that it’s here to stay. The advent of Google + Your World is the basis of the game changer, this is the opportunity that if missed will have us kicking ourselves in coming years. G+YW has the potential to reset the way search results are delivered rendering years of SEO work obsolete and opening a new door to owning the 1st page of search results. It’s name is social, it’s based on your social circles and the growing voices and experiences within them.
For this reason, I abandoned SEO and am now exploring the uncharted territory of Social Marketing.
