This article is really to give you an understanding of the offline
business marketing world and how it has now transformed to the online
business marketing world. Come with me on a short journey from back in
history to modern day and into the future.
Offline Business Marketing:
The
world of offline business marketing is soon to be become redundant.
Since advertising first began, smart business owners were always on the
lookout for that something new that was going to give them the edge over
their competitors.
In the beginning there was word of mouth
advertising. A vendor sold a product or service to a customer who then
went out and spread the word to his personal circle of influence. Word
of Mouth Advertising in those days had only two possible endings. One, a
positive referral was made that resulted in more customers and more
sales. Secondly, a negative referral was made and that resulted in less
customers and less sales.
Obviously, knowing the importance of
their only advertising medium, good vendors looked after their customers
especially well and were rewarded in return. As in today's modern
business, those that didn't look after their customers suffered the
penalty that followed.
Clever vendors then moved on to Poster
advertising. Posters were placed strategically around the areas
promoting their products and services. Now they had two modes of
advertising. Those that didn't look after their customers so well, were
now able to exploit the Poster advertising strategy. The better the
Poster, the better the results of bringing in customers and making more
sales.
And so the world of advertising and marketing began. Now
since those days we have had a host of other marketing and advertising
strategies come and go. Some lasted longer than others, while some were
so brief they blew out with the next gust of wind.
I won't go in
to all the mediums that we have seen over the many years. The important
thing to note is this, THERE WERE CHANGES. Those that moved with the
changes were able to stay ahead of their competitors, those that didn't
took so long to pick up the change that they lost fortunes in their
business or lost their businesses completely.
Today's world still
has a great deal of off line marketing and advertising. Television,
radio, newspapers and magazines would have to be the main form of media
used. And in the main, successful for those businesses who have the
thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars to pour in to their
advertising.
Large multinational corporations have had offline
marketing campaigns that ran in to the millions of dollars and obviously
their return on investment had to remain high for such colmitments to
continue.
What about the small and medium enterprises? What do
they pay in advertising and marketing? What is their return on
investment? Well let me tell you, they are the business models that are
struggling and close to collapse.
Why? Because they are continually paying for advertising and marketing campaigns that are useless.
Here's an example:
If
you are a small or medium business, ring your local newspaper and ask
to place an ad in the Classifieds Section. What will you get? You will
get a consultant on the other end of the phone who will ask what
Category you wished to be placed in, how many lines or lines and columns
you wish to include.
You will be asked to read your ad content
and they will check the spelling, and how you want it to look. You agree
and that's it. Do you get to look and preview your ad? You can look and
make one minor change, that's it. You then pay for what you get.
There
is no consultation about your marketing strategy, your target market,
your product or anything that will help give you an edge over your
competitor. The consultants are not marketing specialists, they are
telephone specialists who fill in a form.
Your ad comes out in the newspaper and you don't like it. Bad Luck, that's what you get.
Cross
that over to "The Yellow Pages" advertisements. Depending on the size
of the ad, which also means the amount of money you are going to spend
with them, dictates the amount of help you receive. Now understand this,
the average consultant in "The Yellow Pages" is not a marketing
specialist. They specialize in "selling advertising space".
So the
question that begs to be asked is," Why would you go to someone who is
not a specialist marketing agent to do your marketing?" That's like
asking a dental receptionist to do your filling or an extraction. It
doesn't work.
Small and Medium enterprises generally have no idea
what they are doing in relation to marketing their business, product and
service. They have no idea of how to structure a successful marketing
campaign to bring their business more customers. Business owners need to
go to a specialist who is an expert in that field, someone who knows
what they are doing. Someone who is going to build a marketing strategy
that is successful in achieving the objectives set by the business
owner.
Traditional advertising through "The Yellow Pages",
Newspapers and other print media will soon be of little value. The
distribution is localised and viewing is random. Any return on
investment is based on luck rather than a measured strategic marketing
campaign.
People are sick and tired of advertisements being pushed
in front of their faces. It is said that an average of 2000
advertisements are placed in front of us every single day. Ask yourself
how many you can remember from yesterday through newspapers, magazines,
billboards, t.v, radio etc. The answer, probably half a dozen, maybe if
you're good.
So, what is happening to your business ad? Nothing.
Online Business Marketing:
Why?
One word, internet. The internet has now changed the world of
advertising and marketing forever. The trend towards the internet is
moving faster than any other medium in history. The younger age groups,
Generation X and Generation Y are using the internet multiple times
daily. It is now their chosen form of networking and communicating. We
now have phones that communicate on the internet.
Guess what? Now
the Baby boomers are getting in on the act as well. Just have a look at
Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The older generations
are now using the internet to communicate with their families around
the world. Add Skype and other similar programs that allow F*R*E*E phone
and video calls around the world. Any business that is not on the
internet now, and not on the internet in the next year or so is
seriously in big trouble.
What do you think the modern generation
do when they are looking for a product or service? They don't run for
the Yellow Pages that's for sure. They run to their computer or laptop
and do a Google Search, that's what they do.
What doe this mean for your business? You need to be marketing your business, products and services on the internet.
How
do you do this? You need a Website. The Website is your online virtual
shop, office or whatever your business front is. It is open 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. It is open for business while you
are sleeping, on holiday, in your shop or where ever you wish to be. It
never closes unless you or your landlord close it down. (Yes, even on
the internet we have landlords that you have to pay rent to on a monthly
basis)
Your business is open for customers to browse, leave their
details for followup, or purchase a product or service. And they do all
this without you having to be there, how fantastic is that? That is the
power of the internet.
How do people find you? Imagine a highway,
any highway. Imagine your Website is a store front on that highway. Now
imagine we incorporate strategies that were once the powerhouse
strategies of offline marketing. Imagine the Word of Mouth which in
internet terms is Social Networking, Poster Marketing which we call
Article Marketing, Television Advertising we call Video Marketing, Radio
Advertising we call Podcasting.
Just as in your offline
marketing, we use all these strategies to drive targeted traffic to your
Website. Traffic are potential clients. The difference to offline
marketing is that online, only people that are looking for you will find
you. That means they WANT what you have. They will get to choose
between you and your competitors who they find online. When they choose
you, they have already got their credit cards out and sitting in front
of them. That prospect is now a customer.
You now have the
opportunity to get directly in front of thousands if not tens of
thousands of potential customers. To win their business you will first
need to be online, and second have a marketing campaign that is
successful enough to get you in front of them.
Whether you are a
local or international organization, small or medium enterprise or
multinational, your marketing campaign will have to incorporate your
target market. Your campaign will have to target your distribution and
servicing area, so if you only do local stuff that is cool, if you
distribute and service internationally then that is cool as well. The
internet allows you to advertise globally and locally.
Costs:
How
do the costs compare? In our experience an internet campaign could set
you back a few thousand dollars to set it up at the start. Most good
providers will have a payment plan to suit most people. There are
on-going monthly fees anywhere from about $10.00US depending on the sort
of campaign package you need.
So let's say it costs you
$5000.00US to set up your Website and implement a marketing strategy.
Add an average of around just say $100 a month. The monthly fee is
equivalent to paying rent for your building and costs associated to
that.
Compare those costs to an average Full Page ad in a certain
directory which could set you back tens of thousands of dollars per
year, add in your newspapers ads which you place weekly, as well as any
other limited advertisements. The cost to you is enormous in comparison
to an online Website presence.
I hope that you have been able to see the benefits and the obvious need to have an online business presence.
I
hope this article has been of value to you. I look forward to being
with you on the next article where we will share Marketing Strategies
that could save your business literally thousands of dollars. You don't
want to miss that.
Here's a tip for you, it doesn't matter what
industry you are in, what product or service you provide. Your business
is about marketing. If you fail to market your business properly, your
business will fail.
