SEO | May 6, 2015
Suits: What Can Harvey Specter Teach You About Digital Marketing?
Don’t be sad season 4 has ended. The moment you’ve been waiting for is just a few short weeks away (start the countdown). The charismatic and charming Harvey Specter will be back on your screens soon! The self-proclaimed best lawyer in New York and the rest of Suits’ cast of colourful characters will return with the release of season 5 this June.
Up there with Game of Thrones and House of Cards in terms of viewing figures, Suits has quickly become a roaring success, both in the US and here in the UK, and it’s easy to see why. Witty, clever and with a drop of romance to spice things up a bit, Suits has all the drama that we try to avoid in our own everyday lives.
Ladies want to be with him and guys want to be him, but did you realise Harvey Specter could teach us a lot about digital marketing? Let’s take a look at his most iconic one-liner quotes and how you can apply them to your day-to-day work in the internet world.
WARNING! May contain spoilers.
1. “I don’t have dreams, I have goals.”
Although we’re pretty sure that he was talking about how emotionless he is (and that’s not good for anyone) this quote speaks volumes in digital marketing. Set yourself realistic objectives!
Everyone dreams of being the Rocky Balboa of the internet; becoming the underdog small business to take on giants like Wikipedia and the BBC to rank as No. 1 on SERPs. This may be possible… one day, with a lot of hard work. But for now, take things one step at a time and set your business realistic short terms goals.
Give yourself actionable goals in Google Analytics so you can collate vital data, such as conversion rates, to evaluate your digital marketing efforts and their effectiveness.
2. “What are your choices when someone puts a gun to your head? You take the gun, or you pull out a bigger one. Or, you call their bluff. Or, you do any of a hundred and forty six other things.”
Okay, so admittedly we’d struggle to think of 146 alternative methods to achieve what we want, but we like what this quote is saying; in simple terms, think outside the box. Stand out from the crowd and you’ll gain a lot more traffic to your business site, hopefully increasing conversions too.
3. “First Impressions last. You start behind the eight ball, you’ll never get in front.”
Mike Ross certainly made an impression at his unscheduled job interview. He ran from the police, lied about who he was and then dropped a briefcase full of drugs in front of his interviewer. Yet he got the job! We’re not suggesting you become a criminal overnight (really, don’t) but you should certainly work on making a memorable (for the right reasons) first impression.
If you’re going to have a business website, do it right. Your site is an extension of your company so make sure it looks good, is easy to use and provides visitors with all the information they may need.
And if you want to get a running start with Google, make sure to employ a qualified copywriter from day one. Optimised site copy and meta data could be the difference between that prime spot on the table or starting behind that pesky eight ball.
4. “The only time ‘success’ comes before ‘work’ is in the dictionary.”
This is the ideal quote for describing the difference between black hat and white hat digital marketing strategies. We talk a lot about this here on our blog, but that’s because it is important.
Here at Liberty Marketing we believe in ethical practices so our completely transparent services provide our clients with access to what we’re doing at all times. We’ll never build dodgy links from porn or gambling sites, spam clients or build pop-ups. Do things the right way and you’ll reap the rewards in the long run.
5. “I don’t pave the way for people… people pave the way for me.”
We can all learn something from Harvey’s arrogance, sorry ‘confidence’. You may have a business to run, but your website should be focussed on your customer’s needs, not your own. Happy customers come back time and time again; they leave positive reviews and share your content.
So take the issues raised in point 3 and get to work. But remember, you may be optimising for robots, but it will be people reading and absorbing your content!
6. Win your battles before they’ve even been fought.”
Harvey Specter is known for the number of cases he wins before even entering a court room; he’s fond of a settlement. And you can do the same.
Don’t wait for a Google algorithm update to come along and penalise your site. Stay ahead of the trend and up-to-date on the digital marketing news to pre-empt any major changes and put solutions into action before they hit.
For example, the recent April 21st mobile update could have seriously affected some of our clients’ rankings. But we notified them weeks before the change came into effect and minimised the disruption.
So in the case of your next digital marketing conundrum, stop and think, in the words of Mike Ross ‘WWHD’ –what would Harvey do? Don’t, and you may just get ‘Litt up’!
