One thing that constantly surprises me is the corporate sectors misunderstanding of on-line marketing. Regardless of the difference in the way that the internet has changed our consumption of information, one fact still remains the same: a good marketing campaign requires solid planning and a strong hook. In fact if anything the internet has made this even more important.

All too often I find that business owners and marketing managers are quick to throw money at the internet without actually understanding how it works. Unfortunately certain businesses (who shall remain nameless… for now) are taking advantage of this naivety and returning little to no results, by utilising techniques (such as AdWords and SEO) that show some growth and minor financial return for the marketing budget.

Understandably business owners and marketing managers have grown wary of all things web based. This means that those businesses who are trying to build proper campaigns are being seen as door to door salesmen selling nothing more than snake oil.

On the flip side we see that many business owners and marketing managers have cottoned on to the concept that on-line marketing is the way forward and is returning something (unlike many sites developed prior to the .com boom). They hear all of the “experts” running around talking about buzzwords like “SEO” and “Social Media” and trendy products like “Google AdWords” and they want a piece of the pie.

So what does this contradictory combination mean to the legitimate on-line marketers of the world? It means that these businesses end up trying to feel out the water and gauge results using small budgets, in a conservative effort to see if these forms of marketing can work for them. They know it needs to happen NOW as the competition is on the same tip, but they can’t afford to trust legitimate on-line marketing businesses because they’ve been burnt before.

This in turn places both businesses in a bad position from the start. A Google AdWords campaign needs to be well researched for a start and secondly it takes money to get results. Many businesses utilising the AdWords system have spent thousands of dollars on pay-per-click with on-going analysis of what is and isn’t working for them. This means that the business paying for the advertising will not see the results they want despite the best efforts of the company providing the service.

Before it gets to this point it is up to the on-line marketer to ensure that they have informed the client to the best of their ability. A strong web campaign should not start with AdWords, first and foremost the business needs to have a strong site with easily accessible information. If a visitor to the site cannot find what they want in less than ten seconds they will navigate away. As you can see if this happens the money spent on a campaign that gets them to click through to the site is wasted.

Like any campaign an on-line campaign needs to be worked on from the ground up. If the company doing your web marketing has not taken the time to develop your on-line campaign in sync with your off-line campaign then it is likely they are spending your money on advertising without having planned out a strategy that works for your business.

For on-line marketers don’t try to sell the buzz word or product of the moment, it may bring you money straight away but you will lose clients when the bubble bursts. Be sure to review what your clients business actually needs rather than jumping on the latest web bandwagon. We have seen on-line marketing crash before (we all still shudder at the ramifications of the .com bust) let’s not let this happen again or businesses will lose faith in the web all together.