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  • June 9, 2023

Hit and Run Marketing

June 1, 2010 by Karen Swim

Dramatic Auto Collision - Don't Drink and Drive
Image by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton via Flickr

You know that you must promote your business to succeed. After all if no one knows you exist, you kind of don’t. You read in a forum post that Facebook has millions of users and that every business should have a presence. You create a fan page and write updates for a week. Five people like your site.

The next week you see an article that talks about the value of article marketing. The author shares her success with article marketing and how it drove traffic to her site. You write and upload ten articles to article directories.

You receive an email from a well known marketer that shares the value of press releases. You hire a freelancer to write a press release and upload it to press release distribution sites.

Later that day, you read a forum posting touting the value of twitter for small business marketing. Eager to succeed you immediately sign up for twitter and write your first update – “Trying out twitter.”

At the end of three months, your traffic is stagnant, and you have signed up for so many sites you have lost track of where you’ve been. Yet, the only business you have is the result of old fashioned networking and meeting. You go back to one of the online forums and declare that online marketing and social media do not work. You join the ranks of those who profess that this “social media thing” is nothing more than hype that will soon be exposed for a lack of results.

I tried Twitter but it did not work.

I sent a press release but they didn’t respond.

Social media is nothing more than a time suck.

If you have ever uttered any of the above phrases you may be among the hit and run drivers. None of the above tactics are bad but the only results you will get from a hit and run strategy is a pile of bodies in your wake so deep that you will not even remember the roads you traveled.

The best marketing tactic is the one that you do consistently. You do the work in advance to develop a strategy. Where is your target audience? What is the best distribution channel to reach them? What are you goals? What will you measure? How will you measure it?

You plan, implement, monitor, test, tweak  and repeat. You refine your approach but you do not give up.

Social media and digital marketing strategies are not a replacement for all other strategies but another tactic for your marketing toolbox. Decide how and where it fits into your business and then choose a tactic that you can sustain.

When you commit to a marketing tactic, give it your best. Do it well and do it consistently. A self promotional update on Twitter every 5 days is not a strategy. Think a self promotional piece of drivel labeled a press release uploaded to a free site is going to land you on the pages of the Wall Street Journal? Think again.

You can market your business successfully using the telephone. If that’s your thing and you commit time to do it consistently, it will work.

If you are looking for a magic bullet that will cost you neither time nor money, then you should pack up your marbles and go back to the ranks of the employed. There is always a cost to marketing even when it’s free. However, if you do the work, you will get the results and with more business you can enhance your marketing even more.

How about you? Have you tried and abandoned techniques believing that they did not work? What marketing do you do consistently?



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Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: business, Marketing, Marketing strategy, Small business, Social Media

Do I Need Social Media?

March 30, 2010 by Karen Swim

twittermarketing
Image by Elke.Fleing via Flickr

For new clients, I routinely do a quick brand report that includes an assessment of social media mentions. The report identifies strengths and weaknesses and helps me to prepare customized solutions. I shared this report with a new client this week who serves the senior market and his response was:

“This is interesting but 60% of our customers being 50+ baby boomers, why is “social marketing” relevant to us? Most baby boomers that I know may have a facebook page to find old girlfriends or college mates – but not much else.  What am I missing here??’

Since this is a common question, I’d like to share my answer here.

This particular client report showed that there are brand mentions. Conversations are happening about the brand with or without their participation.  In this new age of media, everyone has access to a publishing platform.  You may not start every conversation but it is worthwhile to show up and be part of it!

Word of mouth referrals and brand discussions are nothing new but now those conversations are taking place on and offline. Brands have an amazing opportunity with new media that did not exist previously – the opportunity to listen in and participate in those conversations.

Effective marketing is targeted, relevant and visible. Traditional advertising allowed us to reach a broad cross section of our market but it was (and is) largely one dimensional. Social media allows us to engage with our audience in the places that they gather.

Don’t ever make assumptions about your market but validate your thoughts with research. According to a January 2010 report by emarketer.com in 2007 30% of Boomers (46-62) and 10% of Matures (63-75) maintained a social networking profile. In 2009 those numbers increased to 46% for Boomers and 36% for Matures.

There are many roles in the buying process; your approvers may not be using social media but what about the evaluators and the influencers? In my client’s example, referrals may come from family members, physician offices, hospitals or even pharmacists. Consider all of the people in each of those categories – think any of them are online?

I am not banging the drum and telling everyone to rush out and sign up for Twitter, but I do advise understanding where and how your market is utilizing social media and incorporating it into your marketing strategy.

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Filed Under: Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: business, Marketing, Marketing strategy, Social Media

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