Smart phones, texting (SMS), email, search engines, niche/enthusiast web sites, facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, mobile apps, voice mail, fax, telephone, FedEx, USPS, smoke signal, etc. Be wherever your customers go.
You don’t have to have your message everywhere within the new media, just be where your higher value customers go. For example, who under 30 uses either the Yellow Pages or the White Pages everyday? Each year fewer older people use them. If your business has even a basic listing in the phone book then you’re already on the web, with or without a web site. However, you have little or no control over your marketing message unless you have a web site and a message that you control. You’re lumped together in a general list with all your competitors and quasi-competitors; your distinct message or advantage goes missing. Or worse, negative ratings on sites you can’t control.
Although free social media pages require only your time and writing effort, facebook and twitter pages greatly lack valuable content. Twitter, facebook, and google don’t share much information, they’re “walled gardens,” like AOL was. It’s your properly built web site, with plenty of relevant and unique content, that places you high in the search results. Use your content-driven web site as your marketing hub. The search engines will reward you.
All other marketing efforts, including broadcast and print, revolve around your web site because it’s the one permanent location for your business. Broadcast and print media are perishable and usually irrelevant to most of the audience. On the web, however, targeted video, audio, copy, and artwork can live on and on.
Phone me, Karl Loveless: 937-523-0380
