One of my favorite blog posts of 2008 came from marketing blogger and author, Seth Godin. The particular post I’m referring to actually got on his own list of favorite posts from his personal blog in 2008.

The title of the post is, ‘The Secret of the Web’. (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/the-secret-of-t.html). Catchy title eh? Needless to say, I read it. In the post Seth says, “The irony of the web is that the tactics work really quickly.”

The tactics Seth refers to are online marketing tactics. Seth also adds that, although tactics work really quickly, “..its the strategy that is the hard part, not the tactics.”

I tend to agree with Seth on this point. Tactics can be successful very quickly, yielding tangible results. However, tactics can also fail very quickly and yield no results. For this reason, the real key for making any online business a success is to put a long-term online marketing strategy in place and stick to it.

With so many online technologies that come and go, new tactics, if tried, must be measured against something that is constant. With no long-term online marketing strategy to measure new online tactics against, you’re essentially just shooting in the dark expecting to hit your target. Short-term tactics with no strategy base can sometimes even hurt your brand or kill off customers.

Because I have tried random online marketing tactics with former businesses, I understand how frustrating this can be. I’ve also seen the other side of the coin. I’ve worked with multiple companies that have a clear online marketing strategy in place. Tactics, if they didn’t fit into the long-term strategy, were simply not used.

After seeing the success of these companies in the online realm, I am convinced that sticking to a long-term marketing strategy is key for the success of any business online.