What on earth is Corbett on about now. Well unfortunately people I’m seeing this happen so much at the moment because everyone is looking for their silver bullet.
Something has happened to society, personally I blame Amazon, but in reality it’s the internet and social media. We can get our groceries delivered, we can buy things for delivery on the same day. We can gratify ourselves in looking at how miserable other people’s lives are on Facebook. We can choose anything to watch on demand.
Gone are the days of waiting for your favourite show on TV, no more waiting two weeks after ordering a settee. It’s now or never.
Unfortunately more and more of this is creeping into business and particularly marketing. Every business wants their silver bullet, the quickest way to make the next pound ring in to the bank. It’s usually driven from owners and MD’s. I get it, we all get it. Stakeholders, shareholders all wanting a piece of the cake. Survival breeds panic. Panic breeds the silver bullet hunt.
But there is a problem. A problem they don’t want to listen to.
Let’s take Google as an example, because we all know them and we get it. You can advertise in Google shopping and in their AdWords program. You can climb the rankings to be top in the organic listings. You can optimise content to be in their AI generated section. But, for the big bucks there are restrictions in place…
Google doesn’t allow you to just pay to be top of the ads with a bunch of money. Try and increase your budget by A LOT and it will baulk, your ads will be rubbish for weeks. It has development time in there that they say is to gather data and get the right people for your product, service or website. Let’s be honest after the mid 2000’s they are checking you are legit. I remember being asked as a university student to develop a website to take orders for the new PlayStation 2 in time for Christmas, that wouldn’t arrive. You’ll be pleased to know I didn’t take the offer, but it was a time for scams.
You don’t just change a page and become top of the organic listings anymore. There are measurables in place to stop it happening. Search engines need to believe you are legitimate and a good reputable company. You can blame me here, I may have been a pioneer for same colour text as the background, spamming keywords into websites. It worked, my word did it work. I smashed my targets in 2003 with this approach. Sorry world.
Google doesn’t want you on their GMB or maps if you don’t exist or use virtual headquarters. They want a business in a premise to serve that area. If you are UK wide and you don’t have physical offices in a place you want to trade in then use service areas… Stop with the get arounds, stop with the virtual offices. Play by the rules and be rewarded.
The point here is that search engines need to give the best results for a search term. Not somewhere that doesn’t exist, not a scammer or businesses that are poor in service. They check everything. EVERYTHING!
The problem is that in a world when your book is delivered on the same day and you can book a holiday without leaving your living room, everyone’s patience has diminished. Knee jerk decisions become common place. I’ve seen some fantastic agencies lose clients over the chase for the silver bullet, great work gone. Overnight. Saddening.
When you have internal pressure to make things happen and demanding MD’s the default is to flip flop. Flip flop marketing isn’t great for results or stability. Flipping from one tactic to find the silver bullet, for it not to work then flopping to the next tactic that doesn’t work.
Digital marketing works well with a strategy, patience and the end customer in mind. Guidelines, auctions and algorithms are there to ween away the poor businesses, scammers and pirates. So don’t be like them, be a good company.
Ok, here’s a game changer for you. There are less paths to resistance for a silver bullet. If you are B2C look at Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. If you are B2B look at LinkedIn. Social media vetting isn’t quite as stringent and needs the community to step up to stop the charlatans. Don’t be put off by it, we have seen returns on investment on Facebook much higher than Google AdWords. We’ve seen companies made on TikTok that before wouldn’t have seen the light for 6 months.
All is not lost people, just know your tools, how long they take and how to implement them. We are advocates of a multi channel approach to marketing, build it and they will come. Just at different times. Just with different return on investments. Just don’t flip flop. If you are a marketing manager or head of marketing and connect with this article, stay strong. We know you are right.
Flip flop you can’t stop
