Online Marketing Myth
Online marketing is absolutely the most effective way to market your business.
False.
Yes, you read that correctly. A hammer doesn’t work when the job requires a wrench. Online marketing is tremendously powerful, but it’s not automatically the right tool in every instance. Deciding when and where you’re going to spend business resources (that’s money and time) on advertising is not easy and it depends on a number of factors.
Have you been in business less than a year?
In our experience, new business owners don’t give enough thought to marketing before opening the doors. It’s likely not in the business plan as a line item with any dollars attached (assuming there is a business plan). Factor in the inability to accurately forecast cash flow during year one and you have a recipe for extremely sporadic marketing. Did we mention online marketing works best when applied consistently?
How big is your intended audience?
48 inches tall to ride the roller coaster. 16 years old to get a driver’s license. Minimum numbers that must be met or exceeded before the fun can start. Online marketing is no different. Most small business owners fail to appreciate the minimum threshold needed to sufficiently reach their potential customers. Google AdWords will let you spend $50 a month if that’s all you want to spend. But we’ve never seen a campaign that small, do anything, ever. If you can’t afford the buy in, just skip the poker table.
What does your business do?
You own a small, neighborhood pizza place. Congrats, there are hungry people using Google right now looking for a slice of pie. However, if you own a business selling the next Snuggie there’s bad news. Before Snuggie launched a major branding campaign on national television, no one was googling “blanket with arms” or “backwards robe”. Suffice to say, there are products and services that still require traditional media to be successful.
We could go on, but you get the point. Online marketing, like any tool, works best when applied correctly. But there’s something else you need to understand if your marketing campaigns are going to succeed.
