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PLEASE BE AWARE: This is an old article, and while we think there are still nuggets of good advice included here, it may be out of date. Things move very quickly in the world of Digital Marketing, Lead Generation and Conversion Rate Optimisation - so please see our latest news for the most recent advice on how to get more out of your website and online marketing.
When Alan Sugar decisively raised his finger in the direction of Mark Wright during the recent Apprentice final, a loud murmur was heard coming from online marketers across the web. Rather than support their industry peer, many took to blogs and social media to vent criticism and condemnation of the 25 year old’s business plan. A lack of originality within a crowded market being the chief appraisal.
Looking forward to seeing how Climb Online solves its own marketing issue – http://t.co/Uvvl0X4AkW is a real climbing biz #apprenticefinal
— Stephen Lepitak (@StephenLepitak) December 21, 2014
Surely if you outsource to outsourcers then you enter into an infinite loop and the world ends? I mean, surely? #TheApprentice
— Hugo Rifkind (@hugorifkind) December 21, 2014
I, on the other hand, gave a little cheer. We were running a competition in the office to guess the winners and losers of the show and Mark was my Red Rum, but that wasn’t the only reason for my lack of cynicism.
Climb Online, the winning proposal for Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment is for an online marketing and SEO business with a USP that offers a personal service for small to medium sized businesses. It might not be a ground-breaking idea but personality can often be hard to come by with web marketing companies.
Okay, we’re a little smug because this is one of the services that we provide so it is encouraging to see support for it from one of Britain’s leading business figures.
Personality of service is something that we pride ourselves on at Xposure.
There are dilemmas for the Apprentice winner to deal with as he gets his new business up and running. Not least that the domain name for his brand name has already been taken by a rock climbing business from the North East of England.
Mark’s plan also looked to falter somewhat from its noble promises, when he revealed during the final that the he plans to outsource some SEO labour, which undermines his pledge of ‘personal’ service.
Businesses are bombarded by emails and calls from those promising to make their website ‘climb’ up Google’s rankings and this has contributed to a relatively poor reputation for the online marketing industry. Unfortunately, the pitch for Climb Online did little to differentiate the brand from so many others within the field.
The winner’s business plan was also criticised by experts for being out of date. One thing you cannot afford to be in the world of SEO and online marketing is out of date. Google is constantly updating its algorithms and online trends move fast.
(Read here about the latest major SEO update from Google)
Although pitched as an ‘online marketing agency’, Mark suggested that SEO would be at the core of the business’ practices and, as affective as having a high-ranking website can be, it is not the be-all and end-all. There is a lot more you have to do if you want to get the best out of a web marketing campaign and this is something Climb Online’s clients may miss out on.
I think there is a lot Mark could learn from the Xposure team. As I just mentioned, online and digital marketing is so much more than SEO, therefore it is only part of our strategy. Social media, Adwords, blogs, branding and especially the business’ website are all part of the service we provide.
And about that USP… Well, our client’s receive a truly personal service because our staff are all in house – not outsourced – meaning that if someone has a query about their website they can speak to our developer, Matt. If they need advice about press releases or running a blog, they can speak to Esme. And so on. We all have our areas of expertise, so we can provide that “personal marketing team” which Mark promised his potential clients.
I think it is likely that Mark won on the grounds of his personality and his salesmanship, rather than his business plan. If he wants to provide his clients with the complete ‘web marketing’ service, he’ll have to do a lot more than optimising websites for Google rankings.
