The Saddest Thing in Life is…

..well, wasted talent. Or wasted opportunity. Something like what Chazz Palminteri dove into in “A Bronx Tale.” Over the weekend I got caught up on some digital marketing reading and read a great piece by my friend Danny Sullivan in Search Engine Land. Without taking sides (and, I’m not taking sides either), he profiled how Trump & Clinton (again, without taking sides) are effectively blowing it in Search Engine Optimization.

In addition to the article’s very valid points, it got me thinking about so many missed opportunities that exist not only in search, but the vast majority of digital marketing. Digital marketers get so caught up in framing up practices and building tactical outlays, they forget to include certain modular components in their overall strategy. A good modular strategy allows one to accommodate the ever changing landscape marketers face so they can effectively insert new tactics as they come.

The art and science of SEM (and yes, I am one of those purists who only refers to SEM as the combined efforts of SEO and SEA, go look it up) is one of the key areas marketers fail to take advantage of opportunities that are only available in# certain verticals. Publishers, news outlets, retailers and many others have certain advantages or tactical implementations only available to them. So whether you are looking at search, media or anything else, make sure you build a solid strategy, but allow for changes as they come and keep an eye out for opportunities that may only apply to your business.

Or maybe the whole thing is rigged. Or crooked. Oh my, here’s where I leave you.

This post was originally posted on LinkedIn.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/saddest-thing-life-kevin-ryan/