Online Marketing

Written by: Gary Horsman

Online Marketing – There Is a High Cost to Blending In

Do Things Differently (and better)

When it comes to marketing I see that many companies copy one another. Rather than trying to stand out they try to fit in. It is almost as if they are trying to blend in.

To be successful you need to understand your audience and then stand out from the crowd. There is a high cost to blending in.

We do this all the time when we go through our week. We get invited to the beach or a pool party and we need to dress appropriately. We accept a dinner invitation and we think about how to dress. The Deloitte Leadership Center calls this “appearance covering”. We wear the right thing to “fit in” not to stand out (or perhaps to not stand out too much).

With a website you want to have it “dressed” properly. You actually want it to stand out in the crowd and look gorgeous. That is why it is very valuable to use a professional design and to add your own professional graphics and images. Make your website standout with a great graphic design.

When it comes to your content this too must shine and stand out. Work with a professional copywriter to get your content right for your business and target audience.

Make sure that the SEO (search engine optimization) is done to stand above the competition. When it comes to SEO to be placed higher in search results means to be better than the competition. It is the “what needs to be better” and “the how” that hangs up most website SEO efforts. It also takes knowledge of what the competition has done well so that you know where the bar has been set. You don’t need to be perfect you need to be better than all the competition.

For online marketing, your website approach needs to be integrated. It should not be segmented. The graphic design, content and SEO has to be unified and fully integrated. Do not fall into the trap that you will first get the design right, launch the website and then work on the content and finally have someone “slap on” the SEO.

The final point that I will make relates to links. If your website blends in with its design or content then you will not gain in-coming links and this will lower your position in search. A wonderful design and delightful content helps to gain in-coming links and this is often the missing factor for many websites when it comes to achieving a strong position in search.

If you blend in then you will pay the price. The price will be a site that is not linked to and this is a double penalty: you will not gain search position and you will not experience the traffic that the in-coming links can produce. The price will also be a site that, if found, will not engage and/or convert. This is a high price to pay.

If you want our take on online marketing & content marketing then I invite you to use our content marketing tutorial series.

You may also enjoy this post on advertising and content marketing.