Important advice from Brian Basilico, Director of Direction and founder of B2b Interactive Marketing. Brian is our partner in all things on-line. He's currently revamping our website -- and we can't wait to see it!
Being a child of the 60′s… I loved Godzilla movies. He (she) was the coolest monster ever. He was not all “Barney”… I Love You, You Love Me – he was angry, and took bullets and missiles like they were Nurf toys. He belched fire and his tail wiped out anything in it’s path. He usually came out of the ocean… wiped out Tokyo… and in the end never died and returned back to the ocean, always promising to come back and fight another day! There was rarely a purpose to his destruction and mayhem, but in the end, even when he lost… he won!
That’s how some bigger companies treat small
businesses. They have more power through
money and staff to swipe their tail and come back to fight another day. But your small business has the ability to
win the fight. You need to act more like
Hedorah (also known as a GHIDORAH and pronounced Hydra). It’s a 3-headed monster known throughout
history and mythology.
As an on-line marketing dewd, I constantly talk about this
3-headed monster. Unfortunately, people in business may do one or two of the
three well, but often don’t have the time or budget to complete the cycle. Even
when I get the opportunity to set up all three for a client, they often don’t
have the patience or the bandwidth to really make the most of it. Those who do, are successful more often than
not.
In business there is a saying… Cheaper, Better, Faster – Pick Two. In the
case of this 3-headed monster, that just does not cut it!
What you need is a solid plan and a commitment to see this through
and you can beat Godzilla at his own game.
These three heads are: 1) A website that actually speaks to your
potential clients in a way they want to navigate and be spoken to! 2) Utilize tools to drive people to it when
and where they want to hear your message!
3) Measurement tools that give you feedback on everything you are doing!
The Website – I had a client come to me this week and thank
me for his website and he said with patience, “It’s working and I am seeing
results!” He has a 1 page website. It’s all his clients need… and that’s what
counts. More often than not, companies
design websites to their strengths or the business owner’s desires, not to what
the end user wants or needs. There are
times and places for 1000 page websites, but it’s what your potential customers
need and want that is ultimately more important!
Drive Traffic to Your Website – There are a bunch of tools
that can drive traffic to your website (which I subscribe to all of them)…
Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter), SEO (search engine optimization –
keywords, meta tags, content management), SEM (search engine marketing – Google
or Facebook adwords, maps, places, or Yelp. Foursquare, Living Social &
Groupon), and more (Email marketing, event marketing, text message marketing,
etc.). The bottom line is you can spend
all the time, energy and money you have, but if your website does not meet
users expectations, it will be seen and left in a hurry! Also… just dabbling and not having a plan for
a long term commitment will certainly not give you measurable results!
Measurement – If traffic is getting to your website and you
don’t know where it’s from, it’s like shooting a shot gun into a field and
hoping it yields a dinner. When you pick
up your trophy, you have no idea if you got it, or if it’s been sitting there
for a while? Using tools like Google Analytics, Omiture, HubSpot, Clicky,
WebTrends, and others give you real, measurable data… using server logs gives
you false hope. Not only do you have to get them installed, but you have to
check them almost daily. Every time you
use a “Drive Traffic to Your Website” method, you need to know what worked and
what didn’t, then adjust for the next rendition!
Having a website that speaks to your customers in the way
they want to be spoken to is the cornerstone.
Using tools to drive people to it in the ways that they WANT to find
you, and measuring the results is key to creating effective business tools that
help you grow your business and your brand!
Without doing all three in concert, is like being in a band
and your drummer not showing up for the gig…. the music may be good, but not
complete! You need to have the 3-headed
monster to assure that your online marketing will be effective for your
business! Otherwise… Godzilla may go
back to the ocean… but he will come back to fight another day! Isn’t Baby Godzilla Cute?
COPYRIGHT BRIAN BASILICO . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
