By Derek AshauerEveryone knows the US economy is struggling – big time. As a result, many small businesses are finding it very hard to stay afloat. We’ve definitely felt the impact since most of our clients are those struggling small businesses – especially the start-ups. In these rough times, they are finding it harder and harder to keep a successful marketing strategy. However, one of the best places to invest your marketing efforts is online.
A prospective client (landscaping company) came to us and said they needed some help getting an online presence. Their competitors were all starting to go online and they had nothing. A prospective investor in their company had also told them that it was imperative they have a website instead of spending so much on traditional marketing. The owner of the business, when discussing the cost of getting a website for his business, told me they spend roughly $25,000 per year on yellow book ads. My first thought was “Holy crap!”. We talked about what kind of return he got from it, he said it was hard to say because he didn’t really have any way of tracking it compared to a few other ways he advertises and just slaps his phone number up. When we went over the costs for a website, how an effective search engine optimization strategy along with some Pay Per Click advertising could help, it became very obvious to him why he needed focus his marketing efforts online. He could spend less on a website with SEO and PPC and get trackable results.
By going online for marketing, you will be getting much more bang for your buck.