Posted by Mike Moran

Most of you know that I wrote a book on Internet marketing called “Do It Wrong Quickly”–but some overlook how important the “quickly” part is, because otherwise you’re just doing it wrong. The point of the book is to experiment with your marketing until something starts to work. You can’t overemphasize how important speed has become in marketing.

Think about how you end up with the right approach. You don’t know the right answer to start with—you find it by trying a number of possibilities and seeing which ones work best. The former CTO of Amazon once told me they could change a font at 9 am and by noon know if it was a mistake or not. Then they’d change it again, always searching for improvement.

Contrast this approach with that of the average company, which redesigns their Web site once a year. If it takes ten tries to get the right font, Amazon figures that out in a few days. The average company takes ten years.

What about your company? Do you spend your time lamenting about how those new cool Web companies seem to have better ideas? Mayeb they don’t. Maybe they just execute faster. Maybe instead of studying an idea until the it whimpers and cries for mercy, they just try it. If it works, it’s a keeper. If not, well, not.

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About the Author: Copyright Mike Moran Mike Moran is an IBM Distinguished Engineer, expert on Internet marketing, and the author of Search Engine Marketing, Inc., the best-selling book on search marketing. Mike also writes the popular Biznology newsletter and blog.