In the old days mass advertising was only available to cashed up companies and large firms. But with the fragmentation of audiences, and the internet’s low barriers of entry, the ‘market power theory of advertising’ is now turned upside down.
The low cost of technology that’s needed to enter the online world (blogs, social network, tagging, etc.) created and continues to create a flat market (see chart). We often speak about ‘empowered consumers’. Yes, consumers are empowered, but so are small businesses.
For companies, one way to take advantage of this internet created flat market is to shift focus from outbound or push marketing, to inbound or pull marketing and make it easy for potential customers to find businesses online. To achieve this, small businesses need a company website first and foremost. Furthermore, valuable additions are a blog, social network presence (Facebook, Orkut, MySpace), and a regularly updated Twitter feed.
Some of the key advantages of online presence and ‘inbound marketing’ are that it:
- brings more leads for less money
- builds audience engagement and a following
- generates trust (if a company is not online these days, people’s attitude is: ‘what have they got to hide?’)
- increases SEO ranking (company appears higher on search engine results).
If a company is easier to be found, that will ultimately mean more leads. In fact, both Twittering and blogging were shown to double leads, and more leads mean more customers.
Small Biz Lead Gen Surges with Social - eMarketer
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