If your marketing has gone 

online-exclusive, your business

 may very well fold in 24-36 months!

Ah, but there’s still a chance to save yourself from killing yourself.

• FIRST: Get rid of the person who talked you into putting all your marketing eggs in one Internet basket. Even if it’s family, begone with him or her . . . as well as his or her ideas, which are costing you money, wasting your time, and depleting your energy!
• SECOND: Recognize that, in spite of whatever sales spiel you were fed by that person (or agency or group or team) that you listened to, the whole world –and your target market specifically (unless it’s 110% techie products or services)– has not (N~O~T) stopped reading newspapers, magazines, and direct mail!
• THIRD: The whole world –and your target market specifically– has not (N~O~T) stopped watching TV and listening to radio, or shut their eyes down while passing billboards. They have not stopped reading brochures, or responding to special sales and promotions, news releases, and coupons. They have not even (Aaargh!) stopped responding to telemarketing.

If you think for one minute that your entire universe of customers and prospects is maniacally text-messaging and spending every living moment on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, you are sorely mistaken.  

And anyone who might have bamboozled you into thinking those things is much too short-sighted (and evidently too immature) to take responsibility for moving your business forward.

DO NOT abandon traditional marketing and think that it will be compensated for by a full-commitment plunge into online vehicles and media efforts.

Your website is important. Depending on the nature of your business, your engagement with social media is important. But anyone with even a little marketing savvy and training knows that these are simply ingredients in the total mix.

If you are not using every possible, affordable opportunity to market your business right now, you might as well open your window and throw the money out that you have been spending!

(Ah, and don’t pretend that online stuff is free . . . dig out that old magnifying glass and start discovering those hidden expenses! Prepare to be surprised!)

While most small and medium size businesses appear to have engaged so-called “Web Editors” or “Community Managers” or “Digital Marketing Managers,” fewer than 30% are reported to have a “Marketing Manager.”

Sadly for those misinformed business owners who dominate the 70%, these numbers should be the exact opposite!

Those who pretend to be business experts because they have some computer expertise will be the downfall of many well-intentioned but pathetically uninformed business owners.

“Web” and “Digital” people tend to know nothing of (and care less about) traditional marketing media, and so automatically discard traditional marketing management approaches they think are limited, but which are not!

                                                                                            

Even the teeny-bopper market that most uses handheld electronic devices (and most text messages one another), continues to watch TV and go ton the movies and visit arcades and read magazines and newspapers and attend sporting events and concerts, and open mail addressed to them.

It may appear to be all about hi-tech and emails and the like, but –even this market– indulges in traditional media. How can you confirm this? Run some quick and cheap focus group studies.

But, oh, your “Web Editor” might not know about how to do a focus group study because that requires traditional marketing experience. Okay, focus group some txtmsgs and see what you get!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

www.TheWriterWorks.com  

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

Don’t let your website be 

a junkyard or a playground!

     “It’s Not Good Enough!” is what you may need to say. Don’t “settle” for content (text plus illustrations and photos) that your website guru proposes or offers to prepare for you. That person is not a writer and odds are she or he does not have a sense of commercial art either.

     In fact, don’t settle for anything that goes on or into your website development or upgrading. Your website is your window to the world. It is your first impression. It is YOU! Be demanding about it!

     Why should you not be afraid to say what you want? Because it’s YOUR money, YOUR image, and YOUR business. If your website designer is going to be offended by your refusal to accept what’s been offered or prepared, you need to shop around more. Take your time. Be careful. 

     Don’t let your website (or the creation of one) be a toy, or a playground for some techie who doesn’t understand your business or your message. Don’t let it become a cluttered junkyard. Your site is a serious and critically important marketing tool.

     Many start-up business owners are too timid to say what they think and feel for fear it will cost them too much additional money or because the techie they’ve chosen is a friend or relative who’s helping them get the job done cheaply in order to save money.

     STOP right there! Unless a mediocre representation of your business and a convoluted representation of your message are acceptable to you, website development and re-design services are NOT the place to cut corners or rely on cousins and brothers-in-law.

     Off the top of my head, I can count a hundred websites that I know were created and produced by incompetent designers who had not a single clue about the importance of content and content layout.

     This is especially true in relation to the spacing of words and headlines, selection and use of colors and font styles and sizes of words and headlines, and the impact attached to how words and headlines are broken up and arranged, not to mention the inclusion and maintenance of effective blogs.

     And I’m sure I could also identify another hundred sites produced by “in-house” IT people or employee “volunteers” who are self-proclaimed experts. Oh, and the absolute worst: those who anoint themselves as SEO (search engine optimization) or SEM (search engine management) or (sales) conversion specialists.

     Most of these “specialists” know less than a six year-old about how to best represent your business! If you seek and need a professional image or Internet presence or representation, P-U-L-L  E-A-S-E do yourself justice and shop around for a reliable professional.

     Where to start? There are three reliable professionals shown under Blogroll in the right-hand column on this site’s homepage. How do I know? I’ve worked extensively with all three and all three are excellent. They listen before they create. They send you “drafts” to input before they proceed.

     They each have different styles and different time availabilities and different rate structures. They each make sure you’re satisfied. They don’t charge an arm and a leg. They follow-up, and provide various ranges of support services.

     You will get your money’s worth and end up with a site or revamped site you can be proud of and that works to the extent you commit yourself to making it work!     

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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