Online marketing is an increasingly tough nut to crack. It is gradually becoming a business operation that cannot simply be solved by cash alone. In the online space, competition is becoming stiffer, while barriers-to-entry are getting lower, with cheaper bandwidth and server space as well as the emergence of numerous scalable turn-key solutions causing saturation. This phenomenon is especially pronounced in the online retail market; while ten years ago online retailers would be able to solely rely on banner/display advertising and wait for sales to roll in, today’s online retailers would find such a strategy unworkable. Search engine optimization, social media marketing, and even A/B testing are increasingly necessary for successful online marketing.

There exists a misconception that these newer marketing strategies are cheap or free, a claim that could not be further from the truth. Although one could probably 1) learn the skills necessary to pursue these strategies and 2) actively spend time applying said skills, all without spending a single cent, one should not neglect the economic cost of employing such a tactic, not to mention its impracticability. On the other hand, employing marketing executives for this purpose or outsourcing to service providers would incur real expenses (and get the job done). Still, the outsourcing or delegation approach is much less obvious when it comes to social media marketing – after all, how hard can it be to peddle offers and engage the community? Contrast this to search engine optimization where considerable technical skill is required.

The fact is that social media marketing is neither cheap nor easy, and it should be treated as such. Social media marketing has always been tricky, because it mixes social and economic norms. Any business that sees real value in social media marketing should thus give it the attention and tact that it requires, since having a poor social media presence is infinitely more expensive than no social media presence.