Why You Need Social Media & Local Marketing
While the principles of business have not changed, our ways of doing business including getting and retaining new customers certainly have changed over the years. While there are some businesses that have been able to survive and prosper without having much of an online presence, it is likely that in the coming few years, this will change.
If you are not actively recruiting new clients and customers using social media and online local marketing, it is likely you’ll see your client base decrease. This is all about demographics and discovering what people are doing, how they make business buying decisions, and how you can be sure to take advantage of that.
Old Ways Of Getting New Leads
While previously, a business could almost be guaranteed of some leads by taking a large ad out in the Yellow Pages or some other business phone directory, many people today who will soon be making buying decisions have never even seen the Yellow Pages in their lifetime. If they have, they thought of it more of a curiosity while in all likelihood, it was tossed into the blue recycling bin the day it arrived at the door.
But even telephone directories that relied on business advertising for their existence have seen the light (several years ago in fact), and have changed their own marketing strategies in order to try to convince businesses to part with some advertising dollars. Unfortunately, many of the sales tactics used have included some empty promises and fake stats about website directory use and that money spent could have been far more effective in other ways at picking up leads and new business.
Word of Mouth has always been a powerful way of obtaining new leads and will always continue to be, however, even the way “word of mouth” happens now has changed. While 20 years ago, two friends or business associates could have a conversation during which some business or service is recommended to the other. That type of recommendation is very powerful, but today more and more “word of mouth” recommendations are happening online and in Social Media. That means consumers are seeing more recommendations for even your competitors than they used to be. So, they still have to find out how to make a buying decision.
New Ways Of Obtaining New Leads & Business
What you need to be doing now in order to keep your business in the mind of new and existing clients can be learned by studying demographics and reading up on marketing studies. So, let’s have a look at what is going on, both in what people are doing and how they think about business advertising, promotion and engagement before they buy.
Today, the generation that is frequently referred to as Millennials are the ones who have, or will have very shortly, the largest buying power as well as the ability to make buying decisions. Whether it’s for themselves or because they are in positions at other businesses, in order to know how to grow your customer base among them, you need to know what they are doing and how they are making decisions. Millennials, sometimes called “The Millenial Generation,” are generally referred to those who were born between the 1980’s and early 2000’s. They have known technology almost all of their lives and are used to it, use it for regular decision making, and are comfortable with it. They make buying decisions based on how they use technology.
And it is this group of people that will have a tremendous impact on how your business thrives, survives, or not – in the near future. Let’s take a look at some important statistics that you need to know:
- Sixty three percent of Millenials use online Social Networks to stay updated on brands and businesses.
- Fifty-one percent admit that they are persuaded or influenced by online social opinion
- Forty-six percent, when making online buying decisions, “count on social media” in order to make buying decisions.
- 27 Million pieces of content are shared each day.
- 329 Million people read blogs each month
- Search Engine Optimization is vital – more than 80% of business to business sales begin with a web search.
- The first result in a search gets more than 30% of the total clicks for a search term.
- Potential buyers are more persuaded by what the find in search and social media than from advertising directed at them.
(Sources: Digital Marketing Journal, NewsCred, Earnest Agency)
Social Media and Local SEO Marketing Matters To Your Business
Armed with this intelligence, it’s easy to show that your business needs a social media presence as well as a local SEO marketing component. It ought to be a very large portion of your overall advertising and marketing budget as this is going to be where your dollars are most effective. While many older and established local businesses continue to rely on old fashioned marketing (sure many have websites but have little other online presence and are on Page 2 of Google), but those businesses need to consider the demographic changes that are happening.
If you want to consistently get new leads, you need to know and act on this information. You may be in a small or large market area, but if your business relies on new leads (if it doesn’t now, it will someday), but you’re not being found – you are going to lose out on potential leads.
What is a new lead or a new customer worth to you? If you gained just ten new customers or leads a month, because your website presence was improved, what could that mean for you? Consider that if you’re not taking advantage of services that can help you improve – your competition is taking advantage and you are losing out on that.
And the longer you wait, the stronger your competition’s presence will be over yours, when you finally get started. You’ll have an even bigger mountain to climb in order to try to “catch up.”
We can help you. Give us a call today and let’s discuss how we can help you generate more leads for your business. If you’re not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.