Earlier this month I hosted a breakfast seminar where I discussed the importance of Facebook ads, Google Ad Words and YouTube. I showed the 60 attendees how the programs work and why and then gave them some affordable options for getting it done, as low as a few hundred dollars per month. When I was finished I thanked the members and we went through the networking task of introducing ourselves in a 90 second elevator speech. One member joked and was humored with muffled laughter as he proclaimed that he doesn’t ‘Twitter or Facebook.’ What’s so incredible to me even today is the sheer number of people in business who still choose direct mail, radio, and television to hopefully connect with their audience. This reluctance to believe in the power of social media networks and search engines will eventually cost many people their companies. Small business is getting crushed because they’re not learning how this stuff works and they’re not learning because they don’t think it’s important. According to this article from Business Insider Facebook and Google/YouTube are overtaking all of TV in Audience. That’s where the small business owner’s target audience lives. Virtually every small business customer and prospect uses Facebook and Google every day. So why do businesses continue to exclusively market through direct mail, print, and broadcast media? Because they don’t understand it, people they hired in the past sold them a bill of goods, or the campaigns they ran weren’t well targeted or fueled by enough budget. Small businesses with decent marketing budgets that are willing to put that budget to work online often see better results faster than traditional methods. When you have a valued product or service, competitively priced, with a strong call to action and a short but effective workflow your chances of success are higher. It’s time to get your feet wet before there’s no more room in the pool.
