Did you invest the first ten years or more of your professional life learning about reliable, old school marketing? Prior to ten years ago, it was about local radio, local (cable) television, newspaper, networking functions, trade shows and occasionally an insert or direct mail piece. Life was easy.
And then along came the internet, and everything went to the dogs. (Actually, some say it went to the cats, but that’s only social media.) Now, in this new digital age, it seems that so many of the lessons we learned simply don’t apply any more.
Or do they?
Online business marketing is still the same as what you’ve learned, only the tools have new names, and the ability to use those tools has been upgraded drastically. In fact, what used to take weeks or months to find out now only takes seconds.
One of the biggest changes to occur has been in the field of Test Marketing. Remember when you had to pay for “focus groups” to stand in the mall or the grocery store and ask people who appeared to be your target market a bunch of questions about what they preferred to see/hear/watch? Of course you WANTED to do market testing, because otherwise you could easily waste thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars, on marketing programs that had no appeal (or worse, had negative appeal) to your target clientele.
Now, in the new digital world, all that expense is behind you, and you don’t have to wait to take your new products straight to the marketplace. When you are thinking about the daunting task of moving your business marketing to the online arena, you will need to keep the Five Drivers of Online Business Marketing in mind. Whichever ad works best for you becomes your new ad for your campaign. The big difference is that your ad(s) have been out there WORKING for you the entire time they’ve been tested. You’re making money from your efforts right from the beginning.
And if you’re worried about people finding your ads somehow mysteriously offensive, it’s not a problem. In this day and age of instant feedback (via social media, email and texting) you will know within minutes if your ads have hit a sour note. Kill them before the third complaint arrives. It’s that easy.
When you are thinking about the daunting task of moving your business marketing to the online arena, you will need to keep the Five Drivers of Online Business Marketing in mind:
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Being found is all about being honest. A lot.
2. Site Design: It needs to reflect your business and your goals for the site.
3. Social Media: Think of it as a combination of the golf course and a tradeshow floor.
4. Email: It’s direct mail with a brain, reporting back everything that happens.
5. Multi-Media: Google favors those who show AND tell.
This may seem like a lot, but with just a few hours of work per week, you can move your business marketing efforts online and see a substantial improvement in your customer attraction, relations and conversions.