What Influences The SEO Landscape Today? talks about how quickly our online world has changed and the role that SEO still plays. If you are finding it hard to stay ahead and don’t know too much about how Social Media is integrated these days, then I suggest you have a read. Enjoy.

For many, that is where it ends. Well, make no mistake, any kind of online initiative involving the three just mentioned is invaluable, but most miss the value of ongoing marketing initiatives. Fingers may be pointed to shortened purse strings, marketing budgets being slashed or even the state of the current economy due to the “recession”, but I think there may be more to it than that.

I think it has more to do with a complete understanding of the channel or rather, a lack thereof……

To illustrate my point, let’s look at a perfect case study.

Somewhere late in 2006 a television commercial was aired about a housewife baking with Stork products while talking about blogging. You’d probably say, “So, what’s the problem?”

Well, if you were promoting your products and you’re talking about blogging, shouldn’t you support the message of the TV Ad by actually having a product blog? Needless to say, there was no blog for Stork products or even a company blog. This left many consumers confused and the opportunity for Unilever to capatilize on this campaign was lost. There was no correction or even a follow up after this.

One year later longtail got involved and discussions began to create a social networking site for the Stork Brand, called foodcrEATions. This was a much talked about topic once it went live in June of 2008 (see Stork Comes Round, Foodcreations, Social networking for chefs? and SA’s First Foodie Social Networking Site by Stork) and apart from just the social aspect other marketing initiatives like PPC, SEO, SMM and WebPR were implemented to strengthen the Brand online.

Great success was achieved in just two months and the site recorded 12000 visitors and 135000 pageviews with each visitor remaining on the site for an average of 7.5 minutes viewing 11 pages. A total of 1300+ active registered users were captured.

5 months later after continued SEO, WebPR, PPC, Social Media Marketing, associated online campaigns and a foodcrEATions newsletter, the site hit just over 20000 visits and a database of over 4000 users.

What happened after that was tragic and resulted in a decrease in all areas of visibility. After November all ongoing eMarketing initiatives were halted and already 4 months later the result of that can be seen.

Site visits have plummeted by 50% to only 10 000 in the last month with very little activity on the site in terms of new content being created.

To longtail, watching your “creation” die a slow death has been frustrating and a feeling of helplessness was amplified by a lack of interaction on the site.

Public interest of another kind has also been stirring with some Internet Marketing specialists using foodcrEATions as a case study to illustrate my point that ongoing initiatives are a crucial part of your marketing strategy. Doing things on a once-off basis is wonderful, but forgetting to continue is a critical error.

In the online digital world we call the internet, change is a reality. It is constantly happening and your perfect number one ranked listing in Natural Search Results quickly falls off page one or your outdated site is quickly shunted and replaced with a more up to date source of inspiration.

Nowadays one cannot afford to not continue tweaking your site, test whether it works, create new content or promote your product offering in a new way or format. You cannot afford to stop communicating with consumers out there who is looking for you, wanting exactly what you are offering.

To regain trust and interest is harder than the original acquisition and this is the sad fact that so many marketers forget, so please keep even the basics going and don’t lose complete credibility with your loyal users!