Web Technology in Marketing: Friend or Foe?
By: C.J Hayden | Posted: 19th August 2005
Web Technology in Marketing: Friend or Foe?
C.J. Hayden, MCC
Every independent professional should have a web site, an
ezine, and an email marketing strategy, right? If you're not
taking maximum advantage of web technology to market your
professional services, you are behind the times, and missing
out on huge opportunities. At least that's what most
marketing experts would have you believe. But how valid is
this advice? And is it for everyone?
Before email was widely available, marketing newsletters
were printed on paper and sent by mail. There's no question
that e-mail is a more economical solution for sending a
newsletter. Instead of being able to afford only a few
hundred newsletters at a cost of $1 or more each, you can
send tens of thousands for only pennies. With an ezine,
technology can save you money and allow you to extend your
marketing reach. This is one of the many ways that web
technology can be your friend. Here are some others:
- A web site can attract new customers to your business
from across the street or far outside your local area. If
your site has high rankings in the search engines under
appropriate categories, or many links from keywords
prospective clients might search for, you may get dozens of
inquiries from people who otherwise would never hear of
you.
- Using email autoresponders can help you automate your
follow-up with likely prospects. Just subscribe a prospect
to an autoresponder list once, then send periodic broadcasts
to the whole list, encouraging prospects to hire you or
attend your learning programs.
- Participating in online discussion lists and message
boards can allow you to network with a large group of people
in your target market without leaving your home or office.
Appearing on live chats or webinars permits you to be a
public speaker without the time and expense of travel, and
speak to national or global audiences.
For these reasons and more, it appears that using web
technology is an affordable way to reach prospective clients
easily. You can potentially attract larger numbers of
prospects for fewer dollars than with many more traditional
methods of outreach. But there are pitfalls.
Broadcast email can be an efficient solution for following
up with prospects who already know about you. But it's a
terrible way to introduce yourself to a prospect for the
first time. Far too many coaches, consultants, trainers, and
other professionals add subscribers to their ezine or
autoresponder lists without their permission. Not only is
this ineffective as a marketing strategy since most readers
simply delete e-mail from people they don't recognize, but
it can seriously backfire when someone is offended by your
unsolicited mail.
Here are some other ways that using technology in marketing
can become your foe:
- Technology makes it easy to hide. When you have a web
presence, an ezine, and use e-mail autoresponders to contact
your customers, you may think there's no reason to contact
them in person. You may feel justified in not picking up the
phone, attending a business event, or suggesting a lunch
date if you think your technology is doing the job for you.
But a web site or e-mail isn't an equal substitute for a
prospect hearing your voice or seeing your face. It's pretty
rare for someone to hire a professional without talking to
him or her first, so if you put off the talking, you may
also be putting off the hiring.
- Launching and maintaining an attractive and useful
website, and achieving high search engine rankings for it,
can be an expensive and time-consuming project. Unless you
pay close attention to your budget, you can easily find
yourself spending much more to land each client than you
would ever pay using offline marketing methods. A
high-traffic web site is a valuable resource for a business
that can take advantage of a global presence or a large
volume of new clients. But if your business is primarily
local or you only need a few new clients each year, you may
end up paying for a level of visibility you don't really
need.
- Too many inquiries from the web can waste your time.
Anonymous visitors to your site will often email to ask
about prices and other details. These inquiries are
completely unqualified -- you don't know anything about the
people who are writing. If you take the time for a thorough
reply to each one, they can consume a significant amount of
energy. On the web as well as off, prospects who are
referred to you by people who know your work are much more
likely to hire you than those who find you by accident. If
that's so, perhaps it makes sense to put more effort into
building referrals than into building a broader web
presence.
Web technology is really no different than any other method
of marketing your services in that you must judge the
appropriateness of each strategy for your unique
circumstances. If you find writing to be a chore, perhaps a
regular ezine is not the best choice for you. If you only
need a few large, local clients each year, you may want a
web site for prospects to explore after you contact them,
but not spend your money on web directory listings or search
engine optimization. Autoresponder reminders may be
effective to increase enrollment in public workshops, but
not such a good idea to sell in-house training to
corporations.
Just because a strategy is the latest and greatest doesn't
mean it's the best. Publishing a blog may be terrific if
your target market spends a lot of time online, but not so
good to reach those who rarely open their browser. Webinars
can be an effective tool for attracting high-tech or
corporate clients, but not for home business owners or
consumers who operate older, slower computers with dial-up
Internet access.
Relying completely on technology to bring in clients can
also give you a false sense of productivity. When you are
writing copy for your web site or setting up autoresponders,
you feel like you are taking action about marketing. And
these activities can be important behind the scenes steps,
but you shouldn't confuse them with direct outreach to
prospective clients. Web copy won't make any sales until
people see it, and autoresponders will have no effect until
people are subscribed to them.
Web technology provides just another set of marketing tools,
not a complete solution. Using every marketing tool the web
has to offer is not a requirement of doing business. The
purpose of your marketing should be to bring you enough
clients to earn the level of profit you desire. When
marketing technology adds to your bottom line, it's worth
employing. When it doesn't, there's no reason to use it.
C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of
business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales
and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a
free copy of "Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You'll
Ever Need" at http://www.getclientsnow.com
About the Author
Occupation: web designer
C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of "Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You'll Ever Need" at http://www.getclientsnow.com
Contact him at
http://www.getclientsnow.com
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Tags: search engines, e mail, marketing strategy, ezine, email marketing, autoresponders, web technology, target market, discussion lists, prospective clients, pennies, large group, public speaker, maximum advantage, economical solution