Word of mouth marketing is still the #1 way a small business can generate more business. Referrals from current customers and warm leads from your strategic partners will still be the way most relationships start. Now put yourself in your prospects shoes for a minute. Someone just told you about a company and how they can help you. What will you do next? You will check them and their company out online if you’re like 9 out of 10 people! 

THERE ARE 4 BASIC PHASES TO A SALE

  1. Discovery
  2. Exploration
  3. Closing
  4. Follow-up

YOU NEED AN INTERNET PRESENCE TO GET PAST THE EXPLORATION PHASE

After someone refers a prospect to your business or they discover your business online or in some other fashion, your prospects are going to want to know more about you and your business. This is their exploration phase. They don’t want to meet with you right way. That takes too much commitment and too much of their time.

In the exploration phase, prospects want to…

  1. Explore your website
  2. Spend some time with your blog articles
  3. Check you out on social media, especially Facebook and LinkedIn (sometimes Instagram and Twitter)
  4. Subscribe to your enewsletter
  5. Ask their personal and social media networks about you
  6. See what you’ve done for others just like them via featured work posts on your website
  7. See 3rd party testimonials from your past clients on Google and Facebook

The exploration phase is really the way you start your relationship with your prospects these days. They want to know at least 80% about you and the solutions you offer before they will contact you on the phone or ask for a meeting. This is the step that “old school” businesses are tripping on. Most times “old school” businesses are good at getting discovered, bad at building online relationships, decent at closing a deal when someone is interested, and OK at following up. It’s their lack of online relationship building that prevents them from getting to the closing stage.

SMALL BUSINESSES WHO DON’T EVOLVE TO NEW MARKETING TACTICS WILL NOT GET A SEAT AT THE CLOSING TABLE

At the exploratory phase, you need to make sure you give your prospects what they want or they’ll never pass you on to the closing phase. In the closing phase they will meet you and give you a chance at their business. A lot times prospects move 2-3 companies into the closing phase. Companies who aren’t giving prospects the info they want in the exploration phase are simply being left out of contention without ever hearing a peep. This is where old school companies with antiquated marketing models die a slow silent death these days. The phone stops ringing and the inbox stops filling.

NO EXCUSES! ALL SMALL BUSINESSES HAVE THE BUDGET FOR INTERNET MARKETING

Small Business are all spending their money on some sort of marketing or advertising. It’s time to reevaluate how you’re spending your budget. Maybe you have hired someone to handle your marketing. Maybe it’s just a part of their role. Your employees should all be doing what they do best and you need to outsource the rest. Outsource it to a company who can do it better and for less and let your employees add to the bottom-line. Are you still advertising in the yellow pages? PLEASE Stop! Are you advertising at all before you have an Internet Presence? PLEASE stop! You need business cards, you need word of mouth marketing, then you need internet marketing, then everything else. Don’t advertise until you have the rest taken care of first. Advertising, print, radio, cable, etc. all have their roles and are great marketing vehicles but you have to have a firm foundation for them to work. Remember the Discovery Phase and the Exploration phase? If you have advertisements that lead people to CALL YOU but they really just want to EXPLORE YOU, then you are wasting your money. Build your word of mouth, then your internet presence, and then everything else.

Our Internet Presence Package is a Combination of Marketing Strategies that will help your company to teach and communicate better with its prospects and customers.

Contact us (859-904-8035) today to get started!

ABOUT MAIN STREET MARKETING

Since 2006, Main Street Marketing has been creating Internet Presence Solutions for small businesses mainly in the Cincinnati – Northern Kentucky area. Main Street Marketing uses internet marketing, search engine optimization, social media, lead generation, and video to create a true Internet Presence for its clients. When integrated correctly, this core group of services provide results together that none of the services could provide on their own or in phases.
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