The Argument for No Longer Doing What You’ve Always Done
Post by
Paul Wackell – Imagine Web Designs
Principal Designer – Marketing Conultant
Before beginning any website design project with new clients, we spend a great deal of time discussing their current marketing programs and materials. After all a website is a marketing tool, and in many cases today the most important marketing tool a business can have in their arsenal.
We take this time developing an understanding of our clients marketing program because our approach to website design is a marketing centric one. Our number one goal for our websites is to ensure that they generate new business for clients.
It is not uncommon during such discussions to hear “I guess, cause that’s the way we’ve always done it” when asked why do you do that (referring to some approach to marketing). More often than that is hearing ” I don’t know” when asking if a particular marketing effort works or not.
It seems for many small business owners just doing the business is time consuming enough – their marketing tends to by accident. Whatever conscious marketing efforts that do exist, they tend to be based on what others have done for years. There tends to be no formal planning, no tracking, little if any innovation and often, money continually being spent on things that aren’t working. There seems to be a pack mentality to many small businesses. As long as you are in the pack things are okay, pack leaders are few and far between.
In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king, a phrase coined by Dutch renaissance humanist and Catholic priest Desiderius Erasmus is subject to much interpretation, but to me it clearly states that having an advantage over your competition can be the difference between being one of the masses or being the king. In other words, even a small difference can lead to significant advantages.
So, as a business 0wner, do you want to part of the pack, or the pack leader (go Cesar Milan). Pack leaders in training – here are a few things you can do to get out of the rut of marketing as you’ve always done it.
- If you don’t know where to begin hire a marketing and web professional
- Develop and online and offline marketing plan
- Develop a kick ass website, one that is well designed, well written, optimized for search engines, includes code for analytics – just to name a few
- Outsource any of the web tasks you can’t do yourself
- Implement a tracking program so you can be certain where all new clients come from
- Analyze your web analytics in detail at least monthly
- Make changes to your site and your marketing program based on this information
- Embrace new marketing channels, such as blogging, social media like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn
- Schedule time at least once a week to focus just on marketing – it will be time well spent
Well, for me it’s off to my Monday morning scheduled marketing time. I’m off to become a king!
What about you?
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