Be careful who you listen to in 2019
Happy New Year everyone.
Welcome to a new year of unlimited possibilities, new ways of reaching customers, innovations in technology to make our lives easier, oh and to a new breed of spruikers peddling their quick fixes for long term challenges.
When times get tough economically, it’s amazing how many marketers will appear from the shadows with a handy e-book promising the earth for just the price of a latte. Undoubtedly there are both good and bad companies out there, so here are some tips to ensure you don’t throw good money after bad in your efforts to grow your business this year, particularly online!
Is the information up to date?
For a marketer of information products, the holy grail is to be able to create something that is called “evergreen”. This means produce it once and it can be used forever. In reality, things change at varying rates and any materials should be updated regularly. Take Facebook marketing for example. The way Facebook allows businesses to reach customers is changing on almost a daily basis. Therefore it is extremely likely that any materials made even 6 months ago will have at least 50% of the information that is now out of date. Make sure you are asking the question about when the data was produced before buying.
After the training
In a recent test we found out that less than 30% of companies selling online marketing reports and “how to” documents replied to any question within 72 business hours. These were questions about how the program worked, in other words, it was a sales enquiry. If they don’t reply to sales opportunities, what are the chances they’ll be responsive to post-sale questions? Very slim.
One size fits all
Beware of companies or “gurus” advocating “My way or the high way.” Before even knowing anything about your company, they proclaim that you should be using Facebook or Instagram or Billboards or TV… you get the picture. There are literally 1000’s of ways to increase your business, so beware of people who tell you there is only one! A great sign of an ethical marketer is one that acknowledges their limitations. For example, if you need to rank highly on Google, reach people on Facebook or run advertising, our company Digital Jumpsuit is great. However, when it comes to Twitter or Instagram, we are at an intermediate level at best. Snapchat? Forget about us…we don’t have a clue, well not yet anyway.
Master the basics
We live in a society that values new, shiny and the latest and greatest. Whether it’s the iPhone X, the latest car or piece of gadgetry. It is very tempting for a business to want to be a pioneer and be the first to dominate a media platform. We see people online like Gary Vaynerchuk as a living breathing example of how this works. However, Gary along with many of the people with huge followings took time to make sure their message was clear, that they didn’t neglect the existing media channels and understood the different nuances of each platform, and more importantly, audience.
All that said, move fast, just don’t be reckless!
Lee Kenny
Managing Director at The Snowflake Media Group, a sales and marketing consultancy for business, based in Halifax but serving clients regionally, nationally and internationally.