A lot of business owners I talk to on a daily basis ask me weather online marketing would work for their business or not. My answer is that the question should not be if online marketing would work, but rather what kind of online marketing would work and what needs to be done to make it work.
Often businesses have tried different online marketing tactics such as PPC or SEO and didn’t get the results they were looking for. Based on their experience they assume that online marketing is just not working for their business. Others believe that only companies that sell products online would benefit from online marketing. As one of my clients stated when I first met with him “I don’t have an ecommerce store, so why should I care how many people come to my website, since they can’t buy anything on it?”
It is a very common misconception among business owners that you need to sell online to make any profit from online marketing. On the first look it makes sense that you want your visitors be able to buy from you right then and there. However if you think about different business models it really just requires a different strategy. If you can’t sell your products and services online you can still communicate with potential clients and add them to your sales funnel. They might not buy from you right away, but the internet gives you an opportunity to build a relationship with your target audience over time.
This is extremly valuable in todays marketplace where people want to trust the business they buy from. Once people find your website based on your SEO or other online marketing camapiagns you should offer them an action they can take to build a relationship with you. This can be through a downloadable report, email, social media such as Facebook or Twitter or a forum or blog where you they can directly communicate with you.
The most important factors for online marketing success are the right strategy, proper research and testing different tactics to see which one works best for your market. If you do all this you will be able to create business from your website no matter what you are offering. So if you feel that online marketing is just not working for your business, give it another thought and talk to a SEO consultant about different strategies for your online marketing. With an effective online campaign you could truly outsmart your competitors online and position yourself as the top business in your industry (and often for a much lower budget than other traditional advertising methods).
Tags: online marketing for local businesses, online marketing for offline businesses, online marketing for small businesses
