Today more people rely on the Internet to communicate, work, shop, and connect. This consumer behavior has changed the market landscape significantly, which for small businesses, can help or hurt their bottom line, depending on how well they've prepared for the trend. In this article, I will discuss five assumptions business owners often cling to that can unintentionally hurt their business. Since there are more than five assumptions to cover, I will discuss five more in a future article. Let's get started.
First Five Outdated Assumptions Small Business Owners Should Avoid:
1st: "I don't see my competition investing or making moves on their web-based marketing yet, and because they look like they are still doing just fine, I don't think I need it."
In today's competitive market, to gain an edge over your competition for years to come, you need to put together a smart marketing plan that will help you get ahead of the game, by better adjusting to current market trends. While responding directly to your competitors is a good idea, it does not apply in this situation because web-based marketing for businesses today is no longer an add-on, it's a must. Today the internet is THE place where people go to find information on almost everything they want, including your products and services. Web-based marketing is often the wisest investment you could make when it comes to your business marketing campaigns.
2nd: "I have a few business partners who refer the majority of customers to me; therefore I don't think I need Internet marketing."
Things change over time and you can't be 100% sure that your current referral partners will be around in the future. They may move to another location, sell their business to another party (who might have their own interests regarding business referrals), or unfortunately go bankrupt for some reason. Therefore, you should diversify your marketing channels to prepare for these scenarios by investing in online marketing, including: website marketing, social media marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO). Try not to rely on a small number of direct referral partners. As the saying goes: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."
Today, experts confirm that successful businesses (now and in the future) are not necessarily those with big budgets or long client lists, but those who have lots of strong, on-going connections and high sustainable search-engine rankings.
3rd: "As long as my business is listed in the Yellow Book and/or Newspapers online and in paper ads, the majority of my target customers should be able to find me…"
Unless your business is food delivery for seniors who live alone and don't have the Internet, it's unlikely your customers will find you through paper advertisements alone. Even senior care centers are found online (through search engines, website, or social media) by people who arrange for their elder relatives to be cared for in nursing homes. While advertising in the Yellow Book and newspapers might help, they likely will not provide your business the exposure needed to fully capitalize on today's market trends. A majority of people search on Google.com, Yahoo.com, and Bing.com for things they want to purchase. People also rely on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linked In, etc…for recommendations and referrals. If you assume that Yellow Book and newspaper ads alone are good enough to attract the majority of your target customers, you might want revisit your marketing plan. It's a good idea to diversify your investment by establishing web-based marketing efforts, including a website, and social media sites.
4th: "My website, which I pay $5 a month for, is good enough to allow my business to succeed online."
This likely depends on how you define "online business success." If your success means generating two to three times the return on your investment (ROI) which is $5/month, then that is reasonable. However, if "online business success" means using this kind of website to generate hundreds or thousands of dollars per month, your cheap website likely won't get it done. Why? Because most often this kind of website is a template website and uses shared hosting in order to provide you with its cheap price. These two factors alone will prevent you from optimizing your brand for online marketing success. For more details on this topic, please visit:
http://www.proweb365.com/reading-for-15-minutes-will-save-100-percent, and also the related articles at the bottom of this page.
It's always a good idea to have your website custom designed to set your brand apart from your competitors and host it on a premium host (a non-shared host) to enable your site to load fast for end-users, especially during high web traffic hours.
5th: "I think my business website (that was built 3+ years ago) will help me attract customers just fine. It's not broken, so I don't need to fix it."
Because your website is the first thing customers will learn about you, it is very important to position yourself professionally online and make sure your site functions correctly, is user-friendly, and is mobile friendly. Customers probably will not call to tell you that your site does not meet their expectations; they will just leave quietly and find your competition. Also, if your website is 3+ years old, you should have a professional web design firm go through your site to do diagnostic testing to see if your site is functioning correctly, is user-friendly, mobile friendly and compatible on five different web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, and Safari). Don't wait for customers to call and point out the problems to you. Most importantly, within the first 60 seconds of landing on your site, viewers should easily understand your key messages and the products or services you provide. This is a key factor that contributes to your business's online marketing success.
Conclusion: These are five assumptions business owners often have that can unintentionally hurt their business. If one or more of these five apply to you, you may want to revisit your marketing strategy. The sooner you establish a strong position online for your business, the better the chances that you will succeed among your competitors for years to come. I wish you all the best. Please, watch out for another set of five assumptions which I will discuss soon, in my next article.