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Are Your Eggs in One Basket?

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In an age where local brick and mortar businesses find themselves competing in a global marketplace brought to the fingertips of every man, woman and child through the internet, you can’t blame small business for taking the leap into the world of online marketing.  We hear it everywhere, if you don’t have an online presence; website, social media, a blog, your own YouTube channel, you are almost certainly missing out on a way to connect and engage current and potential customers.  Being online is simply a part of the new reality for any business.

And why shouldn’t it be? Having an online presence is yet another opportunity for you to connect with a broad base of customers, build brand loyalty and create your company culture, potentially for less than the cost of other marketing venues.  Here’s the rub though, like all marketing strategies, if your online plan isn’t executed well you could be hurting your business more than helping it. More than that, if you put all your eggs in one basket with an online-only marketing strategy, you are missing the opportunity to target specific demographics of your local population through the power of print, TV or radio media.  Believe it or not, there are potential customers out there that you won’t reach with your website or your Facebook page or that Twitter account.

For example, in the 50+ age bracket you are just as likely to find those who are online and connected as those who have no interest in ever being so available to the global online community. This is a generation that didn’t grow up with computers and smart phones and tablets. They don’t necessarily have a need for this type of online connection and they remember a time when, if you weren’t at home, no one, save those closest to you, could reach you or had any idea where you were or what you were doing. They are potential customers, and if you have chosen to focus your marketing efforts online only, you may have missed them entirely.

I’m another great example of a demographic you may be missing without even realizing it. I’m 31 and, if your reading this, you know that I have a blog and a website. I also have a Facebook page (personal and business), a Twitter account, a LinkedIn profile, and four different email accounts.  You could say that I’m connected and yet, I don’t find myself on these sites more than twice a day, the internet is not my primary source for local news and events and my email accounts are so inundated with mass emails that your e-newsletter is likely to be deleted without being read. As a full-time working mom, I don’t choose to spend my free time on the computer because I’m on it all day for work.  My evenings and weekends are spent with my family. I still enjoy reading the print newspaper over a cup of coffee in the morning and I prefer to physically flip through the pages of my magazines when I get them in the mail.

But let’s just say that neither the 50+ population or 30-something moms are your target (though I find that hard to believe in a small, local economy such as ours), maybe you feel that being online is keeping you present “enough” for the local community.  Which begs the question, what are you doing to keep yourself in the public eye of visitors? They may not know your website or follow you on Facebook and when they search online for information on the area your business may not be top on the list or even on the list. But the one thing you can be certain of, when travelers hit a new town or destination they pick up local publications they find along the way. They pick these up to get a feel for the area and the community, to find out what is going on during their stay and what they want to be sure not to miss while here.  If you aren’t representing yourself locally, you’re missing an opportunity to market yourself to residents AND visitors.  Translation: Your missed opportunity likely means visitors will miss you entirely

My point is that you can’t make the assumption, especially as a small local business, that your target audience is ALWAYS online or that this is ALWAYS the best way to reach them.  I’ll say it again, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

If you choose to focus only online and you turn away from newspaper and magazines and local TV and radio you are choosing to ignore a part of your customer base. You are saying to those not targeted by online marketing that they aren’t valuable, that you don’t care whether they know about you or your business because they aren’t worth your time, your effort or your money to help them to get to know you. Having an online presence is certainly a must this day in age.  It’s inexpensive, it helps you get your products and services out to a larger regional, national and even global audience and it is certainly a trend that is not going away, but don’t miss out on potential customers and branding opportunities just because they aren’t online.

Instead, create a marketing strategy with a presence in a variety of media venues including online. Support your local economy, customers and fellow local businesses including local media outlets because they can provide you with a local target of new customers who may not know about you and, therefore, may not be checking out your website, blog or tweets…yet.  And whatever you do, always remember to put your eggs in more than one basket.



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