We speak to a lot of small and mid-sized businesses about upgrading their websites and as part of our discovery process we try to uncover the primary reason for their interest in the project. In most cases, it comes down to wanting more qualified leads.
Many of our clients are getting the vast bulk of their business through word-of-mouth referrals and they are hoping to expand beyond that base. This can definitely be easier said than done.
Since every business is different in terms of their budget, the services they offer, and the types of visitors they are hoping to drive to the site, there is no one size fits all solution for this.
How to Expand Your Marketing Efforts the Right Way:
- Don’t depend on the Internet and web leads to become a significant source of new leads, especially in the short term. Internet leads can be a good supplement to the leads that you already get, but it can be difficult and/or expensive to expect them to either replace or provide the majority of your leads.
- If you are expanding into new areas for marketing, get help whenever possible. There are many hidden nuances to figuring out how to create a new successful marketing channel and if you can avoid the learning curve by getting professional help, that can actually save you a lot of time and even money in the end.
- When testing a new marketing process, start by testing the waters whenever possible with a minimum and limited budget campaign to conserve time and money. If you do get help, hopefully they will suggest ways in which to test the marketing process.
- Don’t expect instant results. Most new marketing channels take time to mature even if you do have help. It is highly recommended to build-in projected results that start small and grow so that you can monitor success over time.
- Don’t be too surprised if a particular marketing channel doesn’t provide results. Our team consistently tests out different web and traditional forms of marketing, and over time we have seen about a 20-30% success rate. When a few different marketing channels succeed and are given time to mature, then it can make a huge impact on your business.
And in some cases the ones that do succeed are not the ones that you expected!
