If you could gain an enormous advantage over your competitors by simply following a more effective marketing strategy, would you?
Make no mistake, many small business owners are slowly waking up to the fact that you simply can't do "business as normal" and survive in this economically distressed business climate. Which is why integrating your marketing is so important.
But what is integrating your marketing? Well, let's start with the word integrate.
Integrate means - To make into a whole by bringing all parts together; unify
Now by definition, "Marketing is" - the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
So with the above two definitions we can now combine the words, integrate and marketing, to come up with a more effective method of marketing, for the small business owner.
Integrated Marketing Explained
Integrated Marketing is simply taking your most effective offline (or traditional) methods of marketing and combining them with the most effective online (or Internet) methods of marketing.
The results are synergistic, meaning that when you combine the most effective offline and online marketing methods and strategies, the sum of the effects is greater than the sum of using them individually. Put even more simply, you'll multiply your marketing efforts, which will lead to more leads, more customers, more clients, more traffic to your website, more traffic to your brick and mortar store, more product sales, more service sales, more transactions, more money, more profits.
And that my friend - is exactly what you, as a small business owner, want!
Now the logical question is... How can I integrate my marketing so that I achieve a more stable and profitable business in today's economy?
Here is a tip on how you can do just that.
Ask yourself which of the following your currently using to gain an advantage in your business marketing, in fact, why not copy and paste this checklist so that you'll have it as a guide.
I'm currently using the following sales channels:
_____ 1. Classified Advertising
_____ 2. Display Advertising
_____ 3. Radio Ads
_____ 4. TV Commercials
_____ 5. Direct Response Mail (Letters, Postcards)
_____ 6. Website
_____ 7. PPC (Pay Per Click) Ads
_____ 8. Blog
_____ 9. Articles (Internet)
_____ 10. Web Video
_____ 11. Social Websites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Squidoo, etc...)
_____ 12. Free Downloadable Reports
_____ 13. Free Informational DVD's or CD's (Customer Pays Shipping)
_____ 14. eBook or eReport in the PDF Format
_____ 15. Web 2.0 Sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, AOL Video, etc...
_____ 16. Organic Search Engine Traffic (From SEO Methods)
Well by now - you get the idea, and I'm sure you realize that there are many other sales channels . But do you realize that you should be using seven or more sales channels simultaneously? Plus, you should be tracking your results, and making adjustments so that you're using your sales channels effectively as possible.
Well with that being said, chew on this . Many small business owners do not use more than three sales channels. And to add insult to injury, their online advertising is practically non-existent, or missing altogether.
It should be obvious that integrating (combining) your marketing will lead to:
- More Leads
- More Clients
- More Customers ( A Customer Purchases)
- More Foot Traffic
- More Website or Blog Traffic
- More Word of Mouth
- More Referrals
- More Opportunity
- More Transactions
- More Profits
- And a WHOLE LOT FEWER WORRIES! After all, "Cash is King."
Now with all of the above said, can you see , "Why small businesses should integrate their traditional and Internet based Marketing in 2009?"
In the next article I'm going to expand on this topic and give examples of how to integrate your small business marketing.
Don't miss part two...
| Jake Toney is a full-time Copywriter and Marketing Consultant who specializes in leading small to medium-sized businesses to greater profits, in less time, through the integration of traditional and Internet Marketing. Optimize your business for a -| PROFIT SURGE |- by subscribing to the Profitable Business Strategies Ezine at: http://www.JakeToney.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jake_Toney |
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