Why success online requires persistence (and a good strategy)

Good online business & marketing ideas aren’t short of coming up with. I know this because on any given week people email and call me asking for advice. These ideas usually equate to them seeing the end result - “I want to sell more of XYZ online” or “I want to build a social network around my brand”. However, what often happens is that they fail to see the small details that make up the bigger picture and how these work in unison with each other. This is why a web strategy is important.
You see, you may have great online business ideas but you probably won’t make a success out of them if you don’t follow up with a solid, measurable strategy. Amongst other things, a web strategy defines predetermined goals and milestones, the expected results, and the ways in which they will be attained. Furthermore, a web strategy should facilitate incremental growth based on successes. What do I mean by this?
Web marketing consists of an array of online activities all aimed at communicating with a targeted audience to deliver a return on investment. These activities integrate with the overall marketing and communications strategy but require that we break them down into steps, both in terms of measurement and rollout.
I’m a firm believer in developing a platform that becomes the heart of all further web marketing initiatives. Often the website is this platform (but not always the case). This platform then becomes the core of the online communications strategy.
Building this core and ongoing successes takes time though. The key to building and growing it is measurement. There are two reasons for this:
Measurement allows you to see what works and what doesn’t, in turn giving you the data needed to optimise for results in an almost real-time basis.
Measuring your online successes fuels you with the motivation to keep at it, constantly evolving your ideas and businesses with the Web.
By nature, we are humans who like instant gratification. However, credibility and experience takes time. Credibility often results in relationships with target markets and experience often results in rational decision making. The two are fundamental on the Web.
Success online is achievable by anyone really. It just needs a good strategy that can be regularly measured to be effective.

by Gino Cosme