I think all of us here agree broadly that:
Being on page 1 of Google should be just part of ‘The Marketing Plan’ not the only strategy.

SEO is also very much another part.

But most importantly, social media marketing is probably the best source of traffic today.

– Face-to-face networking
– Online networking (forums, etc)
– Social media marketing
– Content marketing
– Email marketing
– Referrals
– Trade shows

” agree your business plan shouldn’t hang on a single #1 ranking term within google. Similarly, a business plan should not list organic SEO as it’s single source for revenue or lead generation.

However, a carefully constructed website, reliant on white-hat SEO techniques to develop traffic and build authority can be a ‘primary’ source of traffic and subsequent product/service sales.

A site which utilises SEO to develop a wide source of well positioned keywords/phrases should find a route to market which is both primary and the most cost-effective.”

Certainly a lot of my business comes through web pages that are listed on the first page of Google, but I also

have growing lists of susbcribers
run free teleseminars
tap into other markets by being a guest on teleseminars
have an affiliate program
submit articles to Ezine Articles
am active in forums and on Twitter
get referrals from delighted clients

Everything I do to promote my business is online.

I do comprehensive keyword research
Use keywords where the search engines like to see them
Offer helpful solution orientated content

And my business grows as my web presence grows.

As any marketer will tell you, it’s essential to develop a structured marketing plan that lays out your business objectives and strategy, what tactics you will use to reach your goals, how you will measure the effect of each tactic and how you will control the effectiveness of the plan.

SEO is undoubtedly a key strand of any marketing plan, whether B2C or B2B, but one of only several tactics you could employ. The others might include telemarketing, events, social media & PR, direct mail, advertising etc etc etc. The list goes on and you will need to tailor this mix depending on your business, objectives and of course which will best reach out to your prospective customers.

Relying on Google, or any single marketing communications tactic, is unlikely to be effective in the long run. But then any investor will know this and improving the marketing plan will probably be one of the first areas they go to work on if they invest in a company.

On the other, it’s just scary that marketing has dissolved down to simply “people see us when they search”. Admittedly our own marketing strategy is very simple and could be expressed in a few sentences (if I were forced to do this, Google wouldn’t feature highly, ironically) – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t planned and reasoned.

Some people who are new to business also make the mistake of believing that a “plan” becomes rigid, makes you inflexible and is generally a constraint restricting you – rather than tool to help support and structure your activities.

We make plans. We revise them frequently. They help us to stay on track – because while you’re focussing on what is happening with your feet RIGHT NOW it’s all too easy to take your eye off the goal and miss the net entirely!

My experience with my training course marketplace http://www.trainingcoursebooker.com website has been a sobering lesson in this.

First getting on the first page of google organically is very hard.

Secondly I have suffered from a chicken and egg problem, (trying to get courses published with no paying customers and getting paying customers without any courses published). I have now enlisted the help of an experienced marketing expert who was very quick to identify a number of problems and the lack of a proper marketing plan. They are now working with me to create a ‘robust marketing plan’ with Objectives, Goals, Stratergies and Plans. Being on page 1 of Google is one of the important Goals but it is not the only one any more. There is a lot more ‘business goals’ to running a website that have to be considered.

It will probably take a good few months to finalise my marketing plan and start executing it but I am convinced that it is the right approach. Being 1# on Google as ‘The Marketing Plan’ is why so many companies went under when the .com bubble burst and if The Pitch judges where the investors who accepted this and funded the project, they would most likely have been burnt.

However, a carefully constructed website, whether B2B or B2C, reliant upon white-hat SEO techniques to develop traffic and build authority can be a ‘primary’ source of traffic and subsequent product/service sales.

A site which utilises SEO to develop a wide source of well positioned keywords/phrases should find a route to market which is both primary and the most cost-effective.

Food for thought!

Further, Google is becoming less and less relevant.

It’s interesting to note that if you ask someone in the generation below me to ring a doorbell, they use their thumb to do it. This seems weird to me as I use my index finger. But then I haven’t been brought up using my thumbs primarily for texting; if I had then my thumb might also have become to the dominant digit.

It goes to show how new technologies can change habits in a generation. And a new generation could see Google confined to the rubbish heap. People are now increasinging asking the crowd for answers through Facebook and Twitter rather than combing through hundreds and thousands of pages of historical content on Google.

Stats are already showing how much more time new web users are spending on social networks compared to where we’ve spent our focus. It makes sense as availability of social networks becomes, through mobiles, ubiquitous that they also ask questions and for recommendations that way too. Why go and sift through a library of answers other people got when I can just ask my followers? People are asking real people for help rather than depending on a bot and a database, mainly because with real people come real answers.

It’s already happening. Just take a look at the opportunities for business that we’re unearthing through our Twitter Sales Leads tool. Most of the posters of those business needs probably never thought to go to Google.

There’s a chance that depending on Google will become as shortsighted as depending on Yellow Pages seems to our generation of business folk now.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz