"Behind The Curtain" (Part 2) - 5 Things Small Businesses MUST KNOW

In part 1 of "Behind The Curtain" we exposed the 2 biggest Internet marketing falsehoods that small business owners are told. Part 2 takes it a step further. If there were only 5 critical pieces of advice we could give to a small business owner regarding the marketing & advertising of their business today they would be:

1. Isolate your advertising programs and evaluate each one individually - Many small businesses do multiple advertising programs at once (yellow pages, direct mail, online advertising, etc.) with a single large media corporation, and do not know which programs are performing well and which programs are not. Representatives from these media corporations will often present "bundles" where multiple programs are packaged as one. The problem with this approach is the business owner does not see the cost and performance of each program individually. Ask your representative to review with you the cost & performance of each program individually so you can decrease or eliminate the programs that are not performing up to par, and devote more of your budget to the programs that are working well. Another recommendation is to seek the expertise of an independent consultant, who is not biased towards any particular advertising medium. They will give you an honest evaluation of each individual campaign and recommendations on how to better invest your budget.
2. Refuse to pay as much for print advertising as you did in the past - If the audience has declined (which it has) then so should your investment. People still use the phone book and read the newspaper but not nearly as many as before. There's still some value for your business in having visibility in these mediums so don't decrease your presence, just decrease your investment. Your yellow pages or newspaper rep will not like this, and will say you can't do it, but you can. If you need help executing this strategy contact us.
3. Refuse to do long contracts with Internet marketing programs - If a company tries to make you sign a 6 or 12 month contract for Internet marketing services just say no. Most reputable Internet marketing firms offer short term, or month to month programs because they know if you're happy with their services then you will continue on with them, without needing to be "locked" into a contract.
4. Own and have full control of your website domain name - There's been far too many nightmare situations where a business buys a website from a company without realizing they don't own the domain name. When they decide to sever ties with that company they lose the website and have to start over from scratch with a new domain. Make sure you are the owner of your domain name and have it registered under your own registrar.
5. Don't advertise on Yelp - We have nothing personal against Yelp and actually stress the importance of a business having a free listing with them but stick with just the free listing. The truth is Yelp has a very aggressive sales force and the most inflated pricing on the Internet. Until this changes don't sink your advertising funds into Yelp because the return on investment can't be justified. There's far better places on the Internet to invest your budget.

The goal of "Behind The Curtain" is to help make the Internet marketing industry more open and honest, and to help educate small business owners with the knowledge needed to make intelligent decisions, based on the truth.

"Behind The Curtain" (Part 1) - The 2 Biggest Internet Marketing Lies That Small Businesses Are Told

Unfortunately the Internet marketing industry contains some salespeople who either don't have the experience and knowledge to properly advise small business owners, or deliberately mislead business owners into doing business with their company by giving them false information.

In part 1 of "Behind The Curtain", we expose the 2 most widely told falsehoods in the Internet marketing industry and how business owners can protect themselves from being misled.

Here are the 2 most common Internet marketing lies that small business owners are told:

1. We run your search engine advertising for free! 100% of your monthly budget goes to the search engines and we get paid by Google! The truth is when you run your Google advertising through a large media corporation there are a lot of hands in the pot. In most cases you are paying a 50% margin or more to the media corporation. For example, if you invest a $1000/month budget into a Google advertising program through a media company, $500 of that is going directly to the media company and only $500 is going to the Google Advertising. No one is saying that the media corporation doesn't deserve to be paid to provide this service, but 50% is absurd. A fair percentage is 10-20% and most smaller firms are in that range. If you have the time and knowledge to run your own, you could do the self-serve option with Google, but we typically recommend working with a smaller firm that is transparent and honest about the cost of providing the service. Google advertising can be extremely beneficial to a business if done properly and with the right strategy, but proceed with caution! If a company won't disclose what the cost of their service is, or says there is no cost, steer clear!

2. We have a "special relationship" with Google that allows us to get your business better placement, results, lower cost per click, etc. The truth is no company has any advantage because of how big they are or how many clients they advertise on Google. Large corporations have been claiming for years that they are "tied in" with Google or can deliver better results because of their size or "secret partnership". This is, and has always been, a flat out lie. If a sales rep tries this approach with you steer clear! It's a major red flag that they either lack serious knowledge on the subject or are straight out lying to you. Either way that's not someone you want to do business with.

The goal of "Behind The Curtain" is to help make the Internet marketing industry more open and honest, and to help educate small business owners with the knowledge needed to make intelligent decisions, based on the truth. In part 2 we will disclose the 5 most critical things for a small business owner to know right now about marketing/advertising.