Online Visibility Is A Must
I am so frustrated. I need your help.
I have a great client who has been in business for over 10 years. It is a great business that is doing well. Up until this year, the business model has been a pretty traditional brick-and-mortar type business where products are delivered in a face-to-face manner. This year, the decision was made to offer products in an online mode as well.
You Need To Change Your Marketing Mindset
Advertising over the past 10 years has been through newsletters, industry papers, and industry websites. I have been making the case for several months on branching out to creating a web presence for this business beyond the website; specifically using LinkedIn and Facebook, and also a Website Blog.
Why?
Why have I suggested we branch out to adding a web presence for the business? Of course, it has to do with the demographics of my client’s customers. They are in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. And of course, I have talked until I am blue in the face, and even provided written documentation on statistics on how people now look for products online, want online social proof of the value of the products they are buying, even if the plan is to still go into a brick-and-mortar location to buy something. And I have also explained that having presence on social, media will help with the website SEO as well, keyword searches, etc.
The Reaction
And I get an okay, and then I get only a half-okay. My client is okay with having a Facebook Business page, but does not want anything personal on the profile page. That’s okay with me. Same thing for LinkedIn. So we have some pages up. But this is where it all stops.
When I discuss what we need to post on these pages, and that we need to be providing value to people beyond selling products and hyping products, this is where the difficulty kicks in. I cannot get any agreement on content to provide other than posts about products. I cannot get agreement on blog articles either.
“I just hate these online social sites.” “I don’t get it. I don’t like it.” I have tried saying, “that’s okay, you don’t have to like it. The point is your clients DO like it. And if you do not have mind share online for your clients, then your competitors will.”
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Lessons Learned
1. Don't lose your entrepreneurial spirit. When you started your business, you tried something new. You made some mistakes. You changed whatever needed to be changed. You were flexible. Where did that flexibility go? . How many times have you watched a good company be successful, grow, and lose it's flexibility and ability to change with the times? So, don't let that be you!!
2. It's not about you! Get out of ypour head, and into the heads of your customers. What do they do? If they are online looking for things, then you need to be online, and n their faces all the time.
3. He who gets there first wins.. most of the time. If you are not there when they are searching, then you definitely will lose. Don't procrastinate. Do it now. Or, your competitors will.