Small business owners are arguably the busiest people in any industry. They have to be. They are small businesses and everyone has to multitask simply because there isn’t enough business to warrant full time staff for a specific function. For example your “bookkeeper” is also the accounts payable, accounts receivable, collections person and probably helps out with customer service. These may be signs you need to outsource marketing.
With so many hats and responsibilities on everyone’s plate, who gets the responsibility of marketing and sales? Marketing functions used to be easy. It has morphed from putting an ad in the Yellow Pages once a year or running a print ad once a week into a daily activity thanks to the explosion in online marketing. Who’s going to handle that…the guy in shipping?
While most small business owners say they understand that online marketing is important, and nearly 80% have a website, most also claim that they don’t have the time to keep up with online marketing strategies. We think what they mean when they say they “don’t have time” they are really saying they don’t understand how it works and they don’t have time to learn how.
Does that sound familiar?
What’s At Stake?
If you are a small business, particularly if you are a small local business, you really can’t afford to ignore consumers online. You have to be in that game or you are not competing. Internet marketing is not just for e-commerce sites. In fact a study conducted by RevTax discovered that for every $1.00 of sales for e-commerce businesses generated by search there was $6.00 generated for “in store” or brick and mortar organizations. There’s too much at risk to not pay the attention to your online marketing.
Can You Do It Yourself?
There comes a time when you need help. If your computer system breaks down do you try and repair it yourself or do you get help from people who are in the computer repair business?
Here Is A Short List Of Signs That Should Trigger Getting Outside Help For Your Online Marketing:
- Someone asks you if your website is optimized for mobile devices and you don’t know the answer.
- Your WordPress site sends you a message to moderate comments and you discover you have close to 200 dating back 3 months.
- You still don’t know what half the reports on Google Analytics mean much less how to use them.
- You see LinkedIn and Facebook as a waste of time.
- You farm out writing blog posts to anyone who will volunteer. If nobody volunteers you ask your kids to help.
- The one time you tried PPC advertising you spent a lot of money but didn’t make a single sale.
- You just don’t understand how the whole thing works and you would rather spend your time doing other things.
If you found yourself saying “yes” to list outlined above, it might be time to consider what to do about the online marketing plan for your business. Pay attention to the signs your online marketing plan is lacking & needs to be adjusted. If you’re maxed out and your marketing is not being handled by anyone right now then it only makes sense to get help from online marketing professionals. You’re talking about seeking assistance to grow the company’s revenues and reputation. Those are areas that deserve your total attention.
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