What does "marketing" mean to you?

[Bloomdido 10]

I think effective online marketing for smaller local businesses is going to be crucial if they are to compete effectively with the bigger players. They really need to understand how people look for goods and services now.

 

I have seen research that suggests 40% of business owners don't understand how search engines work. I agree that you will have trouble convincing people but I have a plan to get the message across locally.

[FACEBOOK 10]

The internet is going to be huge mark my words.

Edited September 30, 2011 by FACEBOOK
bored

[Skews Me 10]

I think effective online marketing for smaller local businesses is going to be crucial if they are to compete effectively with the bigger players. They really need to understand how people look for goods and services now.

 

I have seen research that suggests 40% of business owners don't understand how search engines work. I agree that you will have trouble convincing people but I have a plan to get the message across locally.

 

Feel free to share your plan with us, or is it a top secret one?

 

I think part of the problem is "Search Engine Optimisation", people put too much faith in it and expect it to work miracles.

 

They also focus too much on "having a web presence", rather than turning it into a way of communicating with customers and generating leads.

 

Lots and lots of small businesses set up facebook pages. How exactly is that going to lead to someone buying something? If anything it just puts people off when they see how unprofessional you are.

[Bloomdido 10]

Very true, many don't even have websites let alone know how to get traffic to produce leads. If I were a tradesman, I would definitely pay to outsource all my lead generation so I could just get on with the job. Sadly I hear "the internet doesn't work for my business", a lot.

 

I hear that too. Or, "I know I should be doing something online". People seem scared to embrace the technology or they don't know who to go to to get sound advice and it can seem expensive. Plus there is the chance of being sold a package that doesn't deliver.

 

Feel free to share your plan with us, or is it a top secret one?

 

I will send you some information via your website. I am putting the finishing touches to mine at the moment.

 

I think part of the problem is "Search Engine Optimisation", people put too much faith in it and expect it to work miracles.

 

They also focus too much on "having a web presence", rather than turning it into a way of communicating with customers and generating leads.

 

I agree. I worked for an infrastructure charity and no-one seemed to understand the importance of branding and developing relationships online despite me banging on about it. Even the 'marketing guy' said he wasn't convinced by Twitter et al.

 

I have also worked with groups to set-up extensive Customer Relationship Management systems to track contact with clients and keep them informed.

 

That lack of understanding and nervousness of the medium gave me the idea for setting-up my own consultancy.

[FACEBOOK 10]

Nice day for it.

Edited September 30, 2011 by FACEBOOK
bored

[Ron Burgundy 10]

Marketing is really about focussing a business on it's customers, finding out what their needs are and meeting them at a profit. It deals with what a business sells, how much they should sell it for, where they should sell it and quite a bit more. Only then does promotion come into it.

 

OK, fair points. Possibly one of the reasons you didn't get that interpretation is that many of the Posters in this section are already business owners and believe (rightly or wrongly ) that they've already got the pre-promotion stuff sorted.

 

I qualify this by adding that I would never have identified all those reasons myself, as I'm not a marketing professional!

 

Quote: Lots and lots of small businesses set up facebook pages. How exactly is that going to lead to someone buying something? If anything it just puts people off when they see how unprofessional you are.

Interesting. We have a FB page, and we present ourselves on there as we present ourselves in person; but not everyone realises the impact of a virtual personality, methinks.

 

We don't use Social Media or our website for e-commerce; for us they are two of many different tools for raising brand awareness and suiting the needs of our customers who may want to research and discuss our business out of "shop" hours. In other words promotion- or, as I thought, marketing

[Skews Me 10]

 

I will send you some information via your website. I am putting the finishing touches to mine at the moment.

 

Yeah feel free to, always happy to hear new ideas.

[Skews Me 10]

Wow, and from a "marketing professional" as well. You don't rate facebook as a marketing tool then lol?

It has certain uses, but for 99% of small businesses it is not nearly as useful a they think it is.

 

The problem is more that they somehow expect to get lots of customers through the door because they have a few hundred "likes", when in fact they have put no thought into any other aspect of marketing at all.

 

Getting the message out there is the easy bit, having a good value proposition and the right message is where people fall down.

[FACEBOOK 10]

An interesting debate.

Edited September 30, 2011 by FACEBOOK

[Tony 10]

Interesting. So you would say it is all about promotion?

No.

 

No, but it is part of my market research. It seems fewer people than I thought understand what the term means. Which of course makes it difficult to convince them that they need my services.

 

 

 

 

Promotion is really only one part of marketing, albeit the most well known part.

 

Marketing is really about focussing a business on it's customers, finding out what their needs are and meeting them at a profit. It deals with what a business sells, how much they should sell it for, where they should sell it and quite a bit more. Only then does promotion come into it.

I disagree. That is only a specific type of marketing. Marketing is simply about creating awareness. The reason for that awareness can be any of a million things, not just profit, customer needs or any of the flim-flam that is talked about by some marketing experts.

 

 

Out of interest, do you think that your own marketing is hitting the spot?

[amohame9 11]

Marketing is going through a very transformational period with the rise of the internet and specifically social media, and any marketer or business owner who doesn't embrace this is going to be left behind. People don't like to be promoted at any longer, they rather do business with someone who is going to engage them, educate them about their products and industry, and finally hear them and take on board their suggestions, mainly customer service. You are able to do all three of these using social media. any marketer who hasn't figured this out, really shouldn't be marketing at all.

[Bloomdido 10]

Most small businesses only have time to run their actual business which you can tell by their 17 facebook fans, 43 twitter followers, non existent ppc campaigns and appearing nowhere on the search engines for the main keywords in their industry. The answer is to pay someone who knows what they are doing an ongoing fee to do this work for you leaving you free to make money from the leads and sales. However, finding someone who can actually deliver profitable results is another matter.

 

Which is exactly what I am going to be offering; A website that makes people aware of exactly what they need to be doing to drive their marketing through an online presence. I will tell them how and where they can do it themselves, but I agree, many people don't have the time or the understanding, which is where I come in.

 

My background is in organisational development on a shoestring. I am used to sourcing free or cheap options and I know developers and designers who I trust to deliver low-cost online solutions.