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I hope this isn’t the way you think of the Internet: A TV With a Buy Button
Unfortunately most businesses make this very assumption. They assume that the best way to market their products and services online is the same way that we have done through traditional marketing channels like television.
They build marketing strategies using one method: Repetition
But this type of advertising isn’t a feasible strategy for small businesses using the Internet to sell products and services.
Here is why.
There’s No Money In It
My first attempt at starting a business (which ended badly) based its entire marketing strategy around print advertising in newspapers and direct mail. I burned through a lot of cash. Fast.
To my larger competitors, this was a great strategy but for a small start up with limited funds, there was no money in it. I simply couldn’t REPEAT my message enough times to my prospects to compete as a brand with these larger, more established businesses.
Chances are, you can’t either.
Repetition Is Avoided At All Cost
Traditional advertising strategy is rooted in the repetitive branding that takes place when you see a logo or hear a jingle hundreds if not thousands of times.
The Internet is used by billions of people each day to find information and entertainment. But once we have seen a message, we don’t want to see it again.
This doesn’t lend itself well to traditional advertising methods. Escaping your repetitive message is just a “back button” away.
There is another way.
Educate Your Market
I write and speak about using Content Marketing to establish yourself as an authority in your industry. Using valuable and consistent content creation coupled with the free tools available to us on the Internet, you can create marketing that your prospect will SEEK.
I teach that the techniques and strategy around creating consistent and valuable content and delivering it to your target market through social media channels, email and blogging technology.
You will use this content to create raving, loyal fans of your business. These fans will be your best customers. They will create more fans and they will refer business to you on a regular basis.
Not only is this strategy a viable one, it is the ONLY viable strategy available to us on the Internet.
You will find that by using this strategy your business will be leveraging the strengths of the Internet rather than operating under the illusion that the computer is nothing more than a TV with a buy button.
This is a guest post by Russ Henneberry. He is an Internet Marketing professional making his home in Saint Louis, MO. He writes and speaks about how tiny businesses can make mighty profits using a personal computer, a little imagination and a few well placed dollars. You can read his Content Marketing blog here. If you want to write a guest post contact us . Image credits elescher68 :
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