In today’s world of small businesses and start ups the task of making ones
marketing efforts worth the while have driven many companies into debt. Times
get a bit rough and they are forced to take out loan and spend it on marketing.
They get some business but not enough to keep growing and cover the loan. So
another loan is taken to drive in the business needed to keep afloat -- A
vicious circle that can wear on ones nerves.
While most small businesses are started from an entrepreneurial dream, that
dream can quickly fade to angst and maybe even dread as the bills pile up.
One could go and put in the market research, create some well crafted
promotional pieces and it still won’t generate the demand they need.
So what would be the underlying cause of this? The problem is not with the
dream; in fact those dreams are what built our country to what it is.
The problem is not with their marketing, it is with their ability to facilitate
an interest for their services. Let us remember that marketing is only creating
an interest or demand for more information. After the marketing, sales enters
into the mix and is what will directly get them to purchase.
So we know that marketing will generate interest of some sort but you have two
main types of people that will be interested. 1) The people that call or come
directly to the business and 2) the people that want to do their research.
So how does this affect your marketing? Well for starters, as a business owner,
if you don’t address the people doing research on your service, one can greatly
reduce the effectiveness of any marketing dollar spent.
With so many customers’ being driven to the internet for research, it is an
obvious first place to start.
One will want to look out for how easy it is to find the product online,
coordinate the marketing and PR key words used to match the key words you own in
the search engines or target in a pay per click program. When people go to a
search engine, they won’t always look just at your product. Many times they will
look for your competitors as well. What might they search for? Most likely it
will be the key words you used in your marketing! By giving them the keywords to
search that one owns, a quick advantage can be gained resulting in more
business. Lastly, one must have a website that is a proper representation of the
business. More specifically, a website that is as professional and functional as
one can afford. Aside from relevancy, the look and ability to get the content
they want is one of the largest factors in that person going with that website.
So how does one control the correct content? Well, that goes right back to the
marketing and PR. Everything on your website must tie in perfectly with the
messages and solutions represented in the marketing. This leads to a much more
effective website and marketing.
This does not mean that one must go through and change all their marketing, but
it can mean the website is stopping business from coming in.
So in essence, I am really talking about web presence management. From the
websites ability to look and feel great, to its relevancy to the public and
delivering the exact answers and data desired.
Of course, there is so much more a website can do. But step one is getting a
control over one’s web presence so it can really open the door to improved
solvency without having to invest more into marketing.