Marketing made for me

Posted Sep 24, 2009 5:28pm

It could be argued that marketing a business or organisation in 2009 is as tough as marketing gets.

Consumers are inundated with information, they’re extremely time poor and recent economic shifts have rattled their pockets one too many times. Add social media, the internet and other amazing technology to the mix and its a straight out nightmare for the average small business owner, not for profit or political party.

Or is it?

There was a time when communicating with a large number of people cost a large amount of money and created a large headache. Well not any more.

The 2009 Sensis e-Business Report found 54 percent of businesses now operate online in some way with consumers 87 percent more likely to conduct research online prior to making purchasing decisions with small businesses.

What influences these decisions? Is it the big marketing spends and flashy campaigns? No. It’s their family and friends on social media like Facebook and MySpace and their findings from a Google search.

You see consumers are more educated and tech savvy now then ever before. As a result, they are also, more often then not, more in touch with what’s happening in a market then the actual service providers.

They share, chat and critique all behind closed doors driving marketing managers mad. Their newfound skills and knowledge also makes for an empowered consumer whose patience for spin and wanky ad campaigns is pretty thin.

Therein lies the greatest opportunity for small business ever! How?

Get amongst it!

Create quality websites, use social media to get people talking about your brand and communicate directly to consumers for next to nothing.

I recently had a businessman say he didn’t engage email marketing for example, because he was told that x number of recipients would cost him $23,000. Jesus! was my response and I won’t write his when I told him I use a piece of technology that will talk to say 815 people directly for about $20 bucks.

This technology, coupled with website statistics, enable my clients and I to track everything. Within hours of commencing a campaign, we answer the following questions with ease:

- How many people received our material?
- How many opened it?
- How many deleted it?
- From those that opened it, how many followed links to our site?
- When on my site, how long did they stay for and what did they look at?
- What’s happened to my website visits since the distribution?

One client was receiving about 700 page hits a month in February this year. They bought me in to lift their brand awareness and image and as of September 21 we have their visits up to a monthly average of 2700 with no mainstream advertising or pushy selling. This obviously left a boost in my client’s bottom line and a smile on her dial.

So talk to your market directly. It’s more effective, can cost bugger all if done right and will enable you to build a strong brand position based on your key goals and relationships.

In essence, as consumption and buying habits shift so too must your marketing approach. And with the right support, marketing is just not that tough after all.

Talk soon,
Hobbsy