Finding Clients

Search, Mobile, Social, Email, or Offline Marketing?

You can call it Multichannel or Integrated Marketing or just How to Find New Customers, but most small local businesses use a mix of marketing methods, both online and offline, to bring potential customers to their business.  There are certainly trends as new technology and customer preferences change as comScore has shown.

Traditional offline marketing methods continue to decline in use. In the latest surveys, use of print advertising dropped to 27 percent; use of print Yellow Pages declined to 28 percent; and use of direct mail decreased to 28 percent.

Print yellow pages usage may be down, but Internet yellow pages usage is up, possibly from loyal yellow page users migrating online.  The rise of online media as a local business resource is expected. Also expected is the survival of offline media where there is still significant usage.

This illustrates the need for a diversified or multichannel approach toward media investment in order to nurture maximum lead flow. This is especially true if you’re targeting mature adults (45 years and older). The top 3 marketing methods today cited as being the most effective for local businesses are local search, email and social networking.  Search is used by 40 percent of local businesses, 36 percent chose email and 36 percent chose social networking. 

Concerning businesses using Social Networking, 70 percent of local businesses use Facebook to market their business.  Twitter was used by nearly 40 percent to build awareness.

To help identify growth opportunities, it’s helpful to look at the frequency with which media is used. For example, look at social media and mobile as primary sources of local business information. Consider that consumers use them every day or typically a several times a day and you begin to see some serious potential. Frequency indicates growing activity and a good reason to have these marketing opportunities in social and mobile channels in your tool kit.

Replacing email marketing is Mobile marketing.   However 74 percent of merchants state that they don’t have a good idea of how to reach consumers via mobile marketing. 

As mobile phones overtake landline service in many homes, permission-based mobile communications becomes even more critical for retailers. Since most consumers have their mobile phone within reach and keep the device always on, they can respond to retailers’ discount offers, new product announcements and other calls-to-action anytime and anywhere, simply by interacting with a text message.

Email Marketing

Email marketing helps provide customer retention by building stronger relationships with customers who already know you. Many of your customers today want to know that your business is still available when needed, what’s new and any helpful tips you may want to provide. An study by Forrester Research in 2008 reported that 57% of respondents stated that their “impression of companies from which I purchase products/services is positively improved when I receive email from them” and that 84% of respondents stated that they like receiving email from companies when they have requested the email. 

Email Marketing is not as effective as it was a few years ago but still very inexpensive and should be one of your marketing channels. Your business list of customers can be divided into groups for different email correspondence. There are several ways to build your email list; contact us for more information.

Email Marketing is a form of direct marketing using email to communicate your message to clients that have requested the message. Email Marketing is especially beneficial for small businesses that rely on local customers. Email Newsletters are extremely cost effective, provides a great return on investment when generating new business and can increase the conversion rate when combined with regular direct mail marketing.

• Helps keep your customers coming back
• Great for monthly newsletters and discount offers
• Low cost, Fast delivery
• Personalized
• Anti spam protection