As a business owner, you know the importance of promoting your products and services to increase awareness, interest, and ultimately, sales. You also know promotion is the first thing to get put on the backburner when sales are slow. This doesn’t happen because marketing isn’t a priority; it happens because keeping your business running smoothly and making sure sales are strong is always your first priority.
The danger lies in forgetting how crucial marketing is to ensuring new customers find you, learn how you can benefit them, and decide to purchase from you. While word of mouth marketing will always be the best “free” form of marketing, no business can rely on it alone - especially a small business or a startup just entering the market. If people don’t know you exist or know why you’re better than the competition, how can you expect them to become customers?
The old days of push marketing where messages were distributed to and received by the masses are long gone. Your potential customers have become information connoisseurs, consuming the specific info they want through the channels and on the devices they most prefer - and there are countless options to choose from. Push marketing doesn’t work anymore; these days you need to build relationships.
Building relationships can’t be accomplished if your company isn’t visible and accessible to potential customers. Simply put: you need to be in the places your potential customers are spending time. Are your customers spending time on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest? If they are, then you need to be there. Are they spending time scouring Google search results for information? If they are you should be there, too. And, not only should you be in the spaces your customers play, you should be actively engaged and having conversations with them. It sounds simple enough, but it takes effort and time to do it correctly, and requires an understanding of best practices for multiple platforms.
When they learn what social media management, search marketing and content creation truly entails, many business owners simply give up. It’s too overwhelming - too much information to digest and use to form a plan of attack when they’re already so consumed with keeping the business operating as it should. Giving up and ignoring marketing activities can be a critical mistake. Opportunities for new customers and for business growth are out there - you just have to be willing to find them.
“I just don’t have time.” We’ve heard this concern over and over from business owners and we understand the difficult position you’re in, which is why we developed Interactive Hat, a program customized for individual business that assists with managed services such as email marketing, social media and digital advertising. Interactive Hat is the ideal solution for companies who don’t have the time or lack necessary skill set to develop and manage content in house. The goal of Interactive Hat is to provide businesses with a program that’s tailored to meet their needs and features a variety of services, including:
- Original content creation
- Keyword research and paid search campaign creation and management
- Organic search optimization
- Google Analytics reporting
- Ongoing content updates to website
- Enewsletter and email content, design & distribution
- Social media platform styling, content creation, and monitoring
- Editorial calendar development
- Blog posts
If you aren’t being proactive about your online marketing activities, it’s not too late to start. Now is the time to commit to increasing your company’s visibility and reach online, and engaging with potential customers on a consistent, meaningful basis. Interactive Hat can help you do this with a minimal time and cost commitment. Contact Werkbot today to discuss your company’s goals and various ways we can help you achieve them.