Using your marketing activities online to promote your business
I often wonder how many people still fear the internet. Hundreds? Thousands? The fear that some entity online is not who they say they are leaves people doubting proclamations of successful ventures and offers as “something too good to believe.” With that assumption, companies are reluctant to invest in online marketing and prefer to speak to the “off-line” space and crowd. They must assume that investing marketing dollars in things like direct mailers, newspaper ads, tv and radio spots, or even billboard signs will help “brand” their business. Yet, so many prospects turn to the internet. Does that cheapen or diminish the value in online research? What are people searching for when they go online?
Let’s consider that business as we know it tomorrow changes and we all go back to conducting business like our predecessors. How does that impact the consumer today? How can the consumer verify and shop-compare your offers? What if you had a phone number to call to find out more about a company – and only a phone number?
Know which do you prefer? More importantly, how invested are you in developing your own content?
Developing your own content gives your company more control of your leads online
What is happening with business development efforts is the unpredictable nature of doing business. How long is your sales cycle? What are patterns and data suggesting in your customer portals? How big is your referral business or renewal business? How can you capitalize on that?
These are the real questions to consider in developing your own content, believe it or not. It’s not entirely a creative process. In fact, it’s a process already modeled after a successful online marketing software company called Hubspot coined as Inbound Marketing.
The process is content with a purpose. Your content strategy must align tightly with your sales process. Most companies struggle with determining their sales cycle. We help companies figure that out first because inbound marketing efforts is a process to position your content in a way that represents the buying stages of your target audience. Without a process in stages, you have content that fills index counters and not much else. No way of you really knowing how to extract value from those invested hours in writing that article, blog, or e-book.
Identify your sales process
Find out who your buyers are
Position content in funnel stages
Promote your content
Measure and align
LUXA Enterprises offers outsourced inbound marketing services for small and mid-size businesses in the Tulsa and surrounding areas. If you’re considering a short or long-term approach for your growth needs, give us a call for more information at 918-928-7288.
