Many people dream about owning their own company and being their own boss. Sounds like a great gig, work when you want, and make lots of money. In reality, running your own business requires you either delegating, or handling multiple responsibilities yourself. We have worked with hundreds of small business owners over the past 20 years and while many have been successful, there has been quite a few that have not. One common misconception is that if you higher a good designer and build a website, people will find you online.
People Don’t Just “Find You” Online
In 1994 when we were programming our first websites, there were approximately 3,000 websites online. Kinda hard to believe there wasn’t more. 20 years later, by late 2014 there were more than 1 BILLION websites. So do people just “Find You” or your business online as soon as you build a website and turn it on? The short answer, No. Here is the reason why. You can liken your website to a new store you are opening up in your town. First you need to find a location, and you certainly want to be on the main road one that everyone is familiar with and easy to remember, not an out of the way side street. Lets call this main street Dot Com. This is important as extensions such as .gov, .net, .us, .biz etc are all usable, they may not be the best location for your business. (For a quick overview of extensions, see the article “.com, .net, .biz, does id really matter?“) You then decide to spend a large portion of your budget on making your store look fantastic. A few weeks later, Bam! a great looking store. You flip on the open sign and…the people start streaming in. Well not exactly. Sure there will be a few curious people that live or work nearby that stop in to check things out, but thats not going to pay your bills. Did you tell your community about your business? How are you getting the word out?
You Don’t Spend Money On Advertising…You Invest
Fundamental for any new business venture is a proper budget which includes money each week for advertising and marketing your business. Simply having a good store or having a good website, doesn’t mean you will get any customers. Please keep in mind that money spent on advertising and marketing is an investment. As an investment there is an ROI (Return On Investment) that you need to pay close attention to. You don’t want to pay for advertising because you want to, or you think it will work. Spend money on advertising because it works. The only way to do this correctly, is to spend the money and then pay attention to the results, then decide what brings in the results you want for your business. Of course you can hire us, and we can help you figure out what combination of advertising channels work for your business.
Red 3 Media
Red 3 Media is recognized as an industry leader in online advertising including mobile advertising, SEO, branding and Pay Per Click. With over 20 years of real world experience our comprehensive digital marketing solutions bring measurable results to our clients. So if you are frustrated with managing your advertising in house, or your current advertising company is not performing to your expectations, reach out to us. Contact us online or by phone at (877) 509-RED3.
