How Jason Bourne and John Boyd Can Guide Your Online Marketing Strategy

Now that Google has released the April 21 update to its search algorithm, let’s take a look at what we need to do to maintain or regain our position on Google’s search results. I can’t think of anyone better than Jason Bourne to help guide us.

I really like Jason Bourne. I read the books when they first came out and loved the movies. After watching them again (for about the tenth time), I found that I like the scene in The Bourne Identity when he is trying to figure out who he is. This is the scene:

Now you’re probably scratching your head and trying to figure out what this has to do with online marketing. Well, in this scene, Jason Bourne has something called “situational awareness”. He takes his environment in and breaks it down into compartments. From here, he can make detailed assessments and plan how to tackle each challenge. We can apply this same approach to online marketing.

Situational awareness is just being mindful about what is going on around you. Being cognizant of what is going on around you helps you make better decisions—and this is one of the most important keys to devising a dynamic online marketing strategy.

We can use a cognitive tool developed by the eminent American military strategist, John Boyd, called the OODA loop, to guide our online marketing strategy. The OODA loop refers to the decision cycle of OBSERVE, ORIENT, DECIDE, and ACT. Boyd originally applied the concept to the combat operations process, and it is now widely applied to understand commercial operations and learning processes as well.

The bottom line is that in competitions, the person who can cycle through the loop the quickest wins. This is what the OODA loop looks like:

The first step, OBSERVE, is the one that will occupy most of your time in your online marketing strategizing. Do what Jason Bourne does: sit with your back against the wall, keep your head up, and observe the various developments in your business.

The next step is to ORIENT yourself. This will help you understand why certain things are happening and how it affects your strategizing. Once you’ve successfully oriented yourself to your surroundings, how will this new information influence your business decisions?

The next two steps are deeply intertwined. They will influence everything, moving forward, in your online marketing strategy.

You need to DECIDE. You have observed your business and oriented yourself so that you can identify your baseline and see your anomalies. Once you see the anomaly, what should you do? Simple—come up with a plan of action.

This leads to the final phase, which is to ACT on your decisions. This is the most important step. Whether it’s an SEO, social media marketing, video marketing, reputation marketing, local search, or other type of marketing campaign—do what needs to be done now!

With the April 21st Google update, many of your competitors will be vulnerable. Rather than becoming the target, take aim at those who fail to implement a strong online marketing strategy.

Here are a few starter questions to consider when developing and implementing your online marketing strategy. Do this to establish baselines so that you can spot any anomalies:

1. Know your customers: For starters, what are the demographics of your customer base? How often do they buy from you? What do they spend each year at your business?
2. Know your market: What is your geographic base? What products and services are the most requested? Do they help build your business through referrals?
3. Know what potential customers are searching for: What are your customers looking for when they search online? What information is important to them online?
4. Know your competition: Where do you stand in online search against them? What keywords are they using? Do they use PPC? What kind of promotions are they running?

Do what Jason Bourne does: sit with your back against the wall, keep your head up, and answer these four questions.

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