Beware of Bandwagons

Beware of bandwagons! They hurt when you fall off.

And another quote that goes hand in hand:

If you can see the bandwagon, you are probably too late.

In any industry, including marketing, it is easy to look at others success and just ask, what are you doing. Then copy that. What works from one business may not work for another. What brings success to someone may not deliver the same success for you. Is it that the ship has already sailed? Not usually. Bandwagons in marketing can have detrimental effects. Here is a true story.

We had a client that called and fired us. They said that their competitor told them they should just spend their money on AdWords and not worry about their website or online content. Sound advice? If you are the competitor. You see, my client was actually starting to show up on the Google maps searches and in organic listings. But the phones were not ringing off the hook. Yet. They were almost there. Like you could see light right at the end of the tunnel. The “competition” was doing the same thing.

In a weak moment this client quit creating relevant content (we did it for him) and managing social media. He threw all of his marketing budget into AdWords. About 6 months later, he called and asked if we knew how to analyze his AdWords account. We did. He did it all wrong. He spent tens of thousands of dollars and received very little in way of new business. And what’s worse, he thought this competitor was a friend. Fast forward 6 months and he is out of business and his “friend” is ranked #1 on most of his keywords (and coincidentally not running any ads in AdWords).

So no matter what the “bandwagon” of the day is. Do your homework and before you jump on, make sure it makes sense and is not just a bunch of hype! People will say a lot when they are trying to sell you something, including a plan to beat you in business! Ouch.