SMEs: Why Internet Marking doesn't SEEM to work for them-
By Leslie Abbott
SEO? SEM? PPC, CTR? CTA? Google Rankings? Social Media? Quality Score????
Most Small to Medium sized business owners (who are ultimately the marketing decisions makers), don't know what any of those acronyms are or mean. Well, they know one: ROI... and sadly, they are not making any because of the blood suckers in this industry.
I'm so tired of people telling me they've been "Burned" by Other Internet Marketing Companies in the past.
What is wrong with society today?!
Do people just want to take advantage of SMEs these days who know nothing about Internet Marketing?
Or is it because the players in this marketing space don't know what they are talking about either?
Frankly I think it's a lot of BOTH.
Business owners know that they need a website to secure their referral business and generate new business from people who don't know them, but they don't know the first things about any of it.
It's unfortunately an internet marketing sales rep's job to educate them on all of it and sell them the right package.
THAT in itself is the fundamental problem.
Firstly, the internet is an ever-changing, extremely competitive marketing avenue.
Nothing stays the same.
New competitors join in, old competitors fall off- and some are always there trying to "out-bid" you.
There is no such thing as a "package"!
A successful Internet marketing program must be "customized" for a particular customer taking into consideration many aspects such as their industry (and how competitive it is), the state of their current website, their current online visibility, their competitors (and THEIR visibility), their target region, and their specific goals (short and long term). It must be customized by a professional that has years of experience, knowledge and case studies of running successful campaigns in the past.
Commonly, IM sales reps haven't been trained properly on what works and doesn't work for different industries- and they try to push customers into a pre-set "package" for a pre-set price/month.
We have companies like YellowBook (now Hibu), Yellowpages (now outsourcing their IM to "Marchex), and Verizon (now "SuperMedia), who have been selling YellowPage ads in directories for decades all scrambling around trying to sell ANYTHING to ANYONE... because their manager (who also know less than the reps themselves) are telling them to- well actually, they are not telling them to- they are threatening the loss of their career if they don't... and companies thrown in there like RealLocal and AdZoo REALLY messing everything up.
So, there has been nothing but a feeding frenzy of sales reps and customers and IM providers, buying, canceling and switching (repeat) for about 5 years now... and everyone's heads are spinning.
The reps don't know what they are doing, the providers don't know what they are doing, and the owners are left with a bitter taste in their mouths, no ROI and the assumption that Internet Advertising doesn't work.
Well, guess what?
It does.
Why do you think Google makes over 38 BILLION dollars/year?!
The only way a SME will ever sign up for a successful IM program (one that produces a very positive ROI) is if they take the time out of their busy day (which they seldom have) to sit down and listen to (which they don't want to- because they have spent so much money in the past with the directory companies and didn't see ANY results) a professional Internet Marketing Specialist (who is a rare breed), and sign up for a "customized" campaign which is usually a LOT more money than they spent before (Oh, because it will actually WORK!).
That's a LOT of stars to get aligned...
I'm wishing (on one of those stars) that it starts happening.
(Because yes, I'm one of those specialists)
http://eReachConsulting.com
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