Deadly Sin # 1: Confusing Internet Marketing with Advertising

Don’t use these terms interchangeably; they’re cousins, not twins. Internet marketing is a systematic plan of many business activities that collectively work to attract and retain individuals who are in need of your services or products. Advertising is just one of many communications tools; typically a persuasive message that targets a specific audience.

Although Internet marketing and advertising can appear daunting, the success steps for any Company are six, and only six, fundamental building blocks. These are: Professional Referral Internet marketing, Internet Internet marketing, Branding, Internal Internet marketing, External Internet marketing and Public Relations. Understanding this simple outline allows everything else to fall into your Internet marketing’s proper place.

Deadly Sin # 2: Spaghetti Internet Marketing

Effective Internet marketing is planned communication, so create and follow a well-considered and specific Internet marketing plan. When you market without a plan, it’s like throwing strategies against the wall to see what sticks. We call that “spaghetti Internet marketing,” and it can be truly brutal on your budget and your Company. Plan your Internet marketing carefully, preferably with the guidance of experienced professionals like Swoboda Marketing who know the ins and outs. We can steer you toward the tactics that are proven to work in any given situation—and help you steer clear of the things that will fall flat. Continue to adjust your plan as you learn, but don’t start throwing spaghetti at the wall. Plan first, then execute.

Deadly Sin # 3: Analysis Paralysis

Internet practitioners tend to be scientifically minded analytical thinkers. That’s great when it comes to practicing law, but not so great when it’s time to launch a Internet marketing campaign. Sometimes you think so long and hard about what to do that you confuse thinking with action. Thinking and planning alone don’t attract potential clients. Actions do. Give yourself a short deadline for making your decision, and then do something! If this is difficult for you, just remember that no Internet marketing strategy is forever. You can make improvements next time. Analysis paralysis is dangerously similar to…

Deadly Sin # 4: Internet Marketing Decisions by Committee

We aren’t sure why, but when it comes to Internet marketing, everyone seems to have an opinion. Partners, staff, associates, spouses, potential clients, friends and the guy who cleans up all want to give their two-cents. Many a Owner has put a valuable Internet marketing plans aside because they couldn’t agree on the minute details involved in executing the plan. When you wait for complete agreement between all that has an opinion, you may find yourself waiting idly by as competitors beat you to the punch. Even when you finally reach a group decision, the result is often a watered-down version of an effective vehicle that will wind up doing little or nothing to accomplish your growth goals.

The solution is for Internet Company’s and practice owners to come to agreement on objectives and budget, and then engage a qualified third party to write a Internet marketing plan. Once the plan is approved,

you’ll need appoint ONE person within the Company to take on the role as “Internet marketing Director.” Empower him or her to make all decisions and approve the elements of your campaign, and evaluate his or her performance periodically based upon results. In this manner, you’ll avoid massive hassle and lost opportunity.

Deadly Sin # 5: Inadequate Training

If external advertising is a part of your Internet marketing campaign, it’s vital that you make your staff aware of the plan and ensure they receive excellent training in the handling of these new potential clients. Advertising generated potential clients will naturally be more skeptical and hesitant than referred potential clients. They will come to your Company or practice with different questions, mind sets and concerns than the potential clients your staff is accustomed to. That’s not to say that advertising can’t attract “quality” potential clients, or that advertising makes you look “needy.” Potential clients who call you from advertising are in fact exactly the same types of people you are used to attracting. The only difference is that because there was no referral, there is no implied trust, so you’ll have to work a bit harder at the outset to build relationships quickly. This is a vitally important topic, and we’ve seen hundreds of otherwise good Internet marketing plans dashed upon the rocks due to inadequate staff training and preparation.

Deadly Sin # 6: Treating Internet Marketing as a Cost Center

Internet marketing is a revenue center, not a cost center. You must treat it as such. That means you need to be willing to give Internet marketing sufficient budget and time to succeed. More importantly, rather than focus solely on how much a given Internet marketing vehicle costs, you’ll need to consider what it returns compared to its cost. Is $10,000 for a given tactic or strategy expensive? Not if it brings you $50,000 in revenue! From today forward, always calculate projected and actual Return On Investment (ROI) figures (simply dollars in divided by dollars out). Internet marketing that works is actually not a cost at all, it is an investment. Your goal should be to find strategies with a 3:1 to 5:1 (or better) ROI. When you do, you should generally invest more in order to make more. In the end, you’ll multiply your winnings by creating successful, ongoing Internet marketing systems. (Try to get returns like these with your mutual funds.)

Deadly Sin # 7: Insufficient Delegation

A well-designed Internet marketing plan includes countless moving parts. Don’t try to oversee everything yourself. Delegate tasks and use the resources at your disposal to make your Internet marketing efforts blend seamlessly with the operations of your business. Call a staff meeting. Make sure everyone understands your vision and strategy. Pick the right people to lead appropriate tasks. Hint: if everyone is responsible for a given task or outcome, no one is responsible. You need to assign specific tasks to specific people with specific deadlines. If you are working with an outside Internet marketing agency (generally you should), you’ll want to delegate as much as you possibly can to them, but at the same time help them to help you. You’ll also need to agree exactly who is going to do what.

More Deadly Sins…

We wish we could stop at 7 Deadly Sins, but the truth is, there are several additional egregious Internet marketing sins that you would do well to avoid.

Deadly Sin # 8: Inconsistency

Decide why your Company (or practice) is better, and then make sure the messages you convey are consistent with that end. Potential clients will lose trust if they walk through your doors to find less than they were led to expect. Also, be consistent with your Internet marketing plan. Don’t stop running a newspaper ad just because the first insertion didn’t ring your phone off the hook. Give your campaign time to work, but you also need to know when a change in direction is a good idea. Generally, you’ll want to get expert help in this area, because there is nothing like the voice of experience to guide you.

Deadly Sin # 9: Failure to track the source of new potential clients

In Sin #6 above, we discussed the urgent need for you to consider Return on Investment (ROI) for all of your Internet marketing decisions.

If you don’t track the source of every new client, you’ll never be able to determine the effectiveness of each of your various Internet marketing tactics, specifically.

As a result you could easily stop something that unbeknownst to you is actually a home run, or worse, keep throwing hard-earned money at a losing proposition. In spite of their protests, you MUST convince staff to track the actual source of every new client, from the very first call into the office. Once you have client data, you can easily go back and calculate approximate ROI by strategy. Only then will you be able to make smart decisions about Internet marketing going forward.

Deadly Sin # 10: Hiring the wrong Internet Marketing talent

It is always difficult to evaluate someone from outside of your own area of expertise, and Internet marketing is an area that is particularly problematic. The trouble is, a lot of Internet marketing people “show well,” but quality varies wildly. Heck, even VPs of Internet Marketing often fail in their assessments of Internet marketing talent. Here are some of the most things to look for:

Internet Marketing Experience: Internet Internet marketing is a small, specialized niche, and few people are truly experts. Look for experience with at least 100 Internet clients, and thousands are a lot better.

Internet marketing Strategist: You don’t need a graphic artist, writer, salesperson, Internet marketing administrator, web person, media person, etc. These people (assuming they are good) have very specialized expertise and are best suited to be part of the larger team, led by a Internet marketing strategist.

Continuing Education: You need someone who is committed to continuing education in order to master his or her craft (books, coursework, seminars, newsletters, etc.). You do NOT want someone who hasn’t opened a book since college.

Results Orientation: One of Internet marketing’s dirty little secrets is that few marketers have any real experience selling Internet services. Worse, being creative people, they think they are successful when they win awards for being clever (silly us –we thought you were paying for results.)

Deadly Sin # 11: Trying to be a “do-it-yourselfer”

At the risk of seeming self-serving, we strongly recommend you avoid the temptation to be a Internet marketing “do-it-yourselfer.” There are several reasons why…First of all, this is your reputation we are talking about. Nothing should be more important to you. Remember, people make judgments about what they can’t see based upon what they can see. Similar to how you make judgments about restaurant quality based upon the décor and cleanliness, people make judgments about you based upon your Internet marketing. Amateurish efforts will make you look, well, amateurish. Secondly, while “feel good” Internet marketing seems relatively easy, getting potential clients off their lazy chairs to pick up the phone and call you is hard. Really, really hard. In fact, few DYI marketers can do that, so your chances of success are slim indeed. Finally, it really won’t save you money, which generally is the sole reason for “do-it-yourselfing.”

Bad Internet marketing costs exactly the same to print or run in ads as good Internet marketing. Worse, chances are you won’t redo bad Internet marketing, you’ll simply quit. Which leads us to the worst sin of all…failure.

Deadly Sin # 12: Doing nothing

From time to time, we’ll speak with a client who tells us proudly, “I’ve never done any Internet marketing.” If you are still in business, you are Internet marketing. You may or may not be advertising, but we assure you that you are Internet marketing. The only question is, “How effective are you?” After all, in today’s world, consumers are exposed to over 3,000 commercial messages a day. A day! That means you are competing for mind share with Internet marketing and advertising agencies which control multi-million dollar budgets. Worse, and this is new, you are now competing with colleagues who employ sophisticated Internet marketing companies to get their messages out.

The business of Internet gets harder every year, and competition has become a huge factor for thousands of companies and practices. Doing nothing is equivalent to denying a battle is raging, and then choosing to stay unarmed. The worst part? It’s the opportunity cost. Unless you take action, you’ll never know what could have been.

Word to the Wise

Now that you know what pitfalls to avoid, waste no time in designing and implementing an effective Internet marketing plan for your business. Simply beginning the process can seem daunting. Don’t settle for avoiding mistakes; begin now—right now—with a self-audit.

Your Internet Marketing Audit: The first seven questions…

There are several hundred probing questions to ask yourself and others, but here are the first seven to begin an honest self-examination:

• 1. Are you using an Evidence-Based Internet Marketing approach? Does your Internet marketing system include Proven Strategies, a well-designed Internet marketing Plan, Effective Implementation and a means to Evaluate Results? All four of these components drive the process. If you’re missing one or more you are not operating at maximum strength or capturing full potential.
• 2. What’s the date on your Internet Marketing plan? Even carefully-considered plans become dated if they are not challenged routinely—at least quarterly. If it’s been six months or more since you took a fresh look at your Internet marketing plan, carve out some quiet time to evaluate. Do you need “refreshment” or a completely new course of action?
• 3. Do you have clear and specific goals? Not everyone is clear about the marching order of these terms—goals are quantified and at the top; strategies support goals; and tactics implement the strategies. How have your goals changed? What are the new goals and how did you set the goals? What strategies and tactics are needed to achieve the goals, new or otherwise? Did you realign your budget for what’s changed?
• 4. Is your Internet Marketing budget right for the job? There are no less than six different methods for setting a Internet marketing budget. How did you set your budget and does it achieve the goals? Do you have enough resources—time, dollars, people—in the right places to make this a winning plan? Above all, Internet marketing is a revenue center—not a cost center. Expect performance of 3- to 4:1 overall. (See item #7.)
• 5. Does your branding message clearly differentiate your company or practice? If you are the “only game in town,” branding and positioning for your institution might go unchallenged in the marketplace. But increased competition means there’s no sliding by — potential clients and community need to clearly hear and understand exactly how you are different and better. Do you have a branding message?
• 6. Are your Internal, External and Professional Referral programs working together or independently? Some components of a well-tuned plan run all the time, while other segments may be seasonal, and still others are keyed to a target audience segment or needs. Does your plan coordinate all these elements, providing desired overlap or avoiding conflict?
• 7. How do you measure response and Return-on-Investment? Sadly, many hospitals, practices and other Company’s don’t have a reliable tracking system to identify the source of new potential clients and to measure the effectiveness of their Internet marketing, advertising, promotion or referral efforts. Regardless of the size of the firm, the program or any of the strategic or tactical parts—if you don’t track you just don’t know what’s working. Do you have a tracking system? Is it working? Is it reliable and accurate? It’s impossible to manage the plan or calculate your ROI without this part of the equation.

…plus, a great tip…

Don’t let the Treatment Plan get ahead of the Diagnosis.

In our consulting work with Company’s, someone calls to say they “need a flyer” or “have to have a newspaper ad” or whatever else they think is right and/or an immediate Internet marketing tool for their business. Don’t jump ahead. Allow your marketing agency to do their job.

Call us if you need help finding these answers.

Internet Success Strategies can guide your Internet marketing providing ethical, creative and evidence-based Internet marketing strategies. Success in Internet marketing requires the ability to recognize, identify, plan and capitalize proactively on opportunities as they present themselves. This process requires a common group vision and common goals, effective planning, skillful execution, consistency and frequency in communication strategies, as well as a process of measuring, quantifying and evaluating Internet marketing performance so that real-time adjustments can be made to increase the performance and profitability of the Internet marketing efforts. We understand what works and what doesn’t work in Internet marketing and advertising. We know how to effectively communicate your value to your various audiences in ways that help them appreciate and utilize all that you have to offer.

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