RIGHT NOW, INTERNET MARKETING IS CHANGING THE BUSINESS MODEL FASTER THAN ANY OTHER TIME PREVIOUSLY
Many businesses will simply not survive in their current format and will need to be ready to adapt to fast changes in coming technology should they wish to remain viable.
Gone are the days where a small business can rely on a physical office or retail location to attract new customers. Research clearly shows that those small businesses who are bucking the economic trend and are experiencing growth can attribute most of the growth from online marketing or having an online presence.
Shoppers now have more choice at their fingertips than ever before. Statistics tell us that nearly 50% of people will not do business with a website that does not load correctly, is cumbersome and slow to use or is not designed to be viewed on the persons device. Coupling this is the fact that consumers will use a number of different devices across numerous platforms throughout the day. Mobile is now expected.
A quite remarkable number bandied around is that approximately on 30% of Small Businesses have an internet offering that can not be viewed on any platform and even more astounding is that close to 30% of small businesses in Australia do not have a dedicated website for their business. With over $92 Billion transacted in 2013 via mobile gateways a figure that is over 300% higher that 5 years ago these retailers are missing the opportunity to capture sales from this group of people. They are in fact promoting their business to a little over half of their available markets.
When the internet first arrived it took many years for people to feel safe enough to purchase and pay for things online. Sites like Ebay were the pioneers that made online purchasing an everyday event. With the introduction of the internet, there were benefits for small business owners in that it allowed a particular organisation to reach many prospective clients wherever those clients may be.. Even if you have one store or location you could now advertise your goods/services anywhere in the world.
The hard part for Small Business Owners though is the fact that getting your business on the internet and getting noticed is not an easy task. Think of the Internet as the biggest shopping mall in the world with new shops opening and others closing every millisecond. Each operator ever more keen to promote their products and services with the latest gadget or plug in.
Think back 20 years ago; having a small flyer designed and printed was a two week-long event – if you were lucky! Today you can order printing from any where in the world and have it delivered to your door within a few days. Not only do you have a product and service far more superior than 20 years ago you also have literally thousands of competitors worldwide all trying to get your business.
The lesson for small business is don’t regard the internet as a medium for advertising your business, if you look at it from that angle you might as well take a classified advert out in every paper in the world. Obviously there needs to be some narrowing down of target markets, research needs to be conducted and testing and improvement is extremely important to develop a profitable distribution channel. All of these things are part of the core principle of Marketing, Product, Price Promotion & Price.
People often confuse marketing as being only advertising related, they feel a catchy slogan or an amazing offer will be enough to sway people to their product or service over their competitors. However Marketing is far more of an exact science that relates to getting a product to market whilst earning the greatest amount of return on your investment of time and money.
Think of Marketing as the recipe to product success; just like with baking a cake some ingredients suit better than others.
The answer and solution is working out what ingredients and at what amount need to be added to your cake mix to bake that award winning masterpiece. Sacrificing water for milk or cream for eggs does not work just as mixing the wrong marketing tools together will not work either.
To succeed online you have to harness and maximise the unique qualities of the web, this includes being able to find a way to offer your clients or customers a better way of doing things or a better experience than they can get elsewhere.
The words Online marketing – these two simple words placed together cover an enormous amount of subject matter, This is where a good marketer will understand that this raw data needs to be filtered and targeted to a point where you now have a method to communicate effectively to those who may be seeking your product and services and what you are promoting is an enticing offer that in some way is better than your competitors.
Remember as a Small Business you do have some leverage over large competitors in terms of speed to market and the ability to be adaptable without a big bureaucratic noose around your neck. As a small business owner you need to maximise these weaknesses in your competitors Armour and cement your place in the market place before someone in a far far distant place finds your customers and begins to drag them away.
REDDOG Business & Marketing Strategies is an agency that differs from many other marketing consultants as we are salespeople and small business owners ourselves and first and fore most we agree and understand that having the biggest glossiest website or the best pay per click budget is worth nothing unless they are proven to be the right ingredient used at the right time in the right way.
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