While it is true that the internet and the world wide web is important to getting business and social media is just as important, having a website is NOT Enough these days to get traffic or for that matter, getting business to your door.
These days, almost EVERYONE claims they can get web traffic to your front door. The problem for most people in business comes down to:
Who are your customer you really serve?
How are you going to serve them?
If I have a business that makes let’s say pizza in small town USA and I hire one of those “web traffic generator” companies who manages to get me traffic but.. what do you do with customers in New Deli India who found your website and want’s a vegetarian pizza delivered to their place? You can just imagine all the complications that come from this…
Will you accept rupees for the pizza?
How will you deliver the pizza?
Is this a scam?
You get the picture.
I’d say the local pizza business wants a local customer that he can provide service for.
I am NOT convinced of the real value of buying “AD WORDS” or for that matter whether people read ANYTHING these days. I am not really even sure that “SEO Optimization” works … well maybe in the short term until the search engine providers change the search algorithm again. (Google has updated their algorithm multiple times since they have come into business.)
I AM convinced that if someone sees a picture of a nice looking … uh… LAMA (or whatever captures your attention) that you will take a look at whatever is presented. For this reason I am a fan of DIRECT MAIL.
People WILL look at the mail. For two reasons:
1 – They are looking for a CHECK. Whether it is a tax return check or a paycheck, money in the mail is a good reason for me to look in the mail.
2 – They are looking for a BILL. The threat of losing electrical power or phone service for an unpaid bill makes me look through the mail.
Anything else they find in the mail will be kept or discarded depending on what their needs are in the moment.
With a properly designed website AND direct marketing material you will get the following:
1 – Reach your local customers in the area. You can target specific neighborhoods of people likely to use your service.
2 – Offer them incentives to come to your business. Let’s say a coupon that gives them a discount or a free service.
3 – Through the website, track how effective your direct marketing postcard is reaching your potential customers. Using technologies like smartphone friendly QR codes, you can track who are reading your ads.
It will cost you money, BUT it’s not that expensive. The results ARE measurable. The average direct mailer campaign (with decent marketing collateral) reaching 500 potential customers will yield around 2% response rate. You will get around 10 customers for the cost of around $80 in postage. That is about $8 per customer. One customer should more than pay for the cost of the direct mailer campaign. The rest of the customers who come in will help you meet your bottom line.
It takes money to make money, however if you do this right, the results are predictable. From this you can:
1 – Control the rate your customers come in the door. You will NOT overflow your businesses ability to meet demand.
2 – Control the rate you business will grow. As the revenue comes in from meeting your customers need, you can choose to expand you business to handle and service more customers.
This is food for thought on how to grow your business.
Let us know how we can help your business grow and stay profitable.