Create a Complete Small Business Marketing Plan
Are you maximizing today’s continuously advancing technology in your small business marketing strategy?
If your answer is “Yes” you can move on. If your answer is “No” or “I don’t know,” then you are at the right place.
You are a small business owner. You spent many years in perfecting your craft and growing your business. Chances are you did not spend the same amount of time learning how to market yourself or your business on the internet. You network and study your business trends to stay abreast of changes in the market, but again, it is likely that you do not do the same for you advertising plan. This is to be expected. However, the irony is that the advancements in advertising technology are far out-pacing the changes in other areas. With the evolution of the internet, social media, smart phones and tablets many business owners have let their small business marketing strategies fall behind the times, and the times are changing rapidly.
Back in the day business owners bought ads in the phone book or advertised in newspapers and on T.V. The ability to mass mail letters, flyers or brochures to prospective customers allowed a more direct approach. Then the internet came along and everyone needed a website address that they hoped people would remember when they needed it. Now with search engines like Google and Bing you can show a specific ad to a specific person in a specific town searching for a specific service. How’s that for direct advertising? You can show ads to people based on their internet habits, their social connections, their language or hobbies. The best part is that, in many instances, you can reach these prospective customers for free! Most people have not embraced the changes in internet, mobile and social technology. Some will even tell you that these things are hurting our ability to build relationships with prospects or customers. However, the exact opposite is true. These changes, when used correctly, allow you to personalize an exact message to someone in need of your service. You can connect with them directly and instantly when they need you most, and when your business with them is done you can get immediate feedback to ensure quality service and help with word-of-mouth advertising. These technologies truly allow for customized content to reach targeted consumers providing them with a unique experience. These services are changing the way we all interact, as professional service providers, business owners, prospective customers, clients and peers.
How do you take advantage of these tools in your business?
There are hundreds of companies and people out there right now waiting to pitch you their online marketing plan. They want to invoice you for their time and sell you a bunch of services, whether you need them or not. They use technical jargon, loads of acronyms, meaningless statistics, and whatever else they can hurl at you to convince you to spend thousands and thousands of dollars getting your advertising strategy up-to-date. Many of these businesses are well meaning and successful, others are simply trying to take advantage of busy people. Our goal at Adapting Online is to help you understand your options and give you a road map for creating and implementing an online and offline marketing strategy, regardless of whom you hire or if you do it yourself.
Collectively we have nearly 30 years of experience working exclusively for small businesses. We have managed over 15 million dollars in ad spends for both online and traditional media. We have produced television commercials, billboards, flyers, video ads, and more. You name it we have probably developed an ad for it. Needless to say we feel as though we have the marketing experience in each medium and we want to share that knowledge with you.
We developed Adapting Online as insiders in the small business marketing world. It contains details and advice from our extensive knowledge of internet advertising. We have helped businesses harness the power of the internet and emerging technology. No matter the size of your company or budget available we will help you understand the importance of a comprehensive, multi-medium branding and marketing strategy. Whether you are a partner in a corporation or a solo business owner this website has something for you. Regardless of your tech skills you will leave our site with an understanding of your advertising options and the ability to intelligently question any web development company. If you are just starting your business we will provide you with a strong foundation for visualizing and creating your brand as well as many tips for monetizing that brand. Building your brand correctly the first time is far easier than recreating it after it has been burned. There are many initial advertising decisions to be made that, if not carefully thought out, can cause major damage. We will provide you with the things to consider at the beginning and at each step along the way. If you already have bits and pieces of an advertising campaign working, you will find ways to expand and improve it. You will find additional methods or ad placements you may not know about and tips for developing a broader campaign.
This is not intended as a once over process. Each step needs to be reviewed, revised and repeated frequently. As we take you through the circle of your small business marketing campaign we will discuss where to start, how to build your online brand, managing your reputation, going social and integrating and promoting it all through traditional offline media. We will review the varying costs and surprising free features you should take advantage of. All along the way we will identify the different means of branding versus exact targeting prospective customers. There are so many ways to create brand awareness, as well as to speak directly to your target market. Our goal is to make sure that you are cognizant of as many of those avenues as possible, to open your eyes to marketing possibilities you may not have heard of and to help you make the best advertising decisions for your business. Times are changing and technological innovations are touching every aspect of our lives – now is the time to make sure that your business is keeping up.
Basics of Small Business Marketing • Building Your Online Presence • Effectively Using Offline Marketing • Driving Traffic and Analytics