David-versus-Goliath-Style Online Marketing by Edward Azorbo
My first “Business” was thirteen years ago. I sold my old science fiction books (a genre that I’m still passionate about) in the streets of stockholm.
From adolescence onward, my professional career has varied constantly.
I’ve been a nightclub bouncer, a dancer, a model, and finally, an entrepreneur. I’ve done a little bit of everything, and I’ve actually done quite well at each stage.
But there’s one thing that beats everything I did previously, and that’s what I’m doing right now:
Designing strategies for businesses that want to be more successful online.
We’re going to change the pace a little bit today. In the last two posts I’ve talked about how to get your potential audience’s attention.
Today I’m going to talk about how to be an Online Marketing strategist.
Why would you want to be a Community Manager, which seems to be all the rage right now, when you can be an Online Marketing strategist?
To be an Online Marketing strategist you need to understand what strategy means. A lot of people confuse tactics with Strategy.
Before getting into the definition we need to clarify two things: what it isn’t and why it’s absolutely necessary to have a clear idea of your Strategy.
What it isn’t:
Posting photos on Pinterest
Tweeting on Twitter all day
Posting on Facebook
Why is it necessary?
To understand why it’s necessary, let’s go back to biblical times.
David had to go up against Goliath and decided not to wear heavy armor, opting instead to arm himself only with a sling.
He shot his stone straight into his opponent’s forehead and… boom… Goliath was dead.
Having a Strategy is necessary because your online business has competition like David had with Goliath. You have challenges and obstacles; so you need to “think,” to define a “Strategy” for achieving victory.
Strategy is necessary because the world of the Internet can be overwhelming if you don’t have a clear Strategy.
With every new fad that comes out of the social networks, like Instagram and many more, you’ll feel like you need to be on all of them. You won’t have an intelligent criterion of your own to let you know if it’s a feasible tactic for you.
Even worse, due to the rapid changes in the Digital Era, you won’t know how to recognize the new opportunities that can launch your business to the next level.
There are a lot of definitions of Strategy. I’m not going to give you an MBA-style dissertation with a bibliography. Instead, I’ll give you a simple definition that I use to help formulate my ideas.
At my Online Marketing Agency, for clients of Rebels we usually start most projects with a service that we call “Vision Day,” a day for clarifying one’s vision.
For me it’s the optimal way to create a secure foundation. First we have a vision and create a personalized strategy for the objectives that they want to pursue, and then we look at implementation and the tactical part.
The question is always:
The what?
What position do we want to have on the market one/two/three years from now?
The why?
What combination of analysis, actions, communication methods, and other resources will position me on the market such that my victory will be almost automatic?
“Good Strategy means identifying a position of maximum opportunity on your market for your business and having a plan for getting to that position. It means eliminating obstacles and making the competition irrelevant in the most efficient manner with the resources that you have based on your own strengths.”
The What and The Whyare the Strategy. The How is the tactics.
If I have a clear Strategy, the best tactics will follow naturally.
You save a lot of energy and effort when The How is so clear.
For David, the tactic was using the sling. The strategy was clear: to have maximum mobility and speed while going for Goliath’s weak spot.
When the Strategy is clear, the means are interchangeable.
David could have used a bow or any other type of weapon that allowed him to hit his target with maximum speed.
There’s another lesson here: the basis of your Strategy is to use tactics that play to your strengths.
David was an expert in the use of the sling…
When we combine a good Strategy with a brutal implementation of tactics, victory is assured.
The Problem with Online Marketing in Spain
When people recommend using social networking as the only Online Marketing solution, to me that seems about as smart as using a screwdriver instead of a hammer to drive in a nail.
Can social networking to everything…? NO.
Is posting content on Facebook all day the best option? It depends.
Should you think about SEO? Maybe yes, maybe no.
If my objective and strategic vision is to grow my database, then perhaps spending all day on Twitter or Pinterest might not be the best tactic for my objective.
At the very least, generating a database via Email Marketing would be ten times more efficient… Or buying traffic from Facebook and taking it to a landing page would be more effective.
Start with The What and The Why before launching any tactic. Resist your instinct to always be focused on whatever new thing pops up in front of you.
The clearer your understanding of Online Marketing tactics and how they work, the more possibilities you’ll have to fit them into your final Strategy.
The best crack Online Marketers are good strategists and are incredibly good at implementing tactics.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Sun Tzu, a master strategist:
“Strategy without tactics is the slow road to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
If you haven’t yet read the post about how to use attention-grabbing techniques to maximize your Online Marketing, click here to read it [nota: hyperlink aquí].
By Edward Azorbo
edwardazorbo.blogspot.com