Established business with no online strategy....Help needed!

Hey Andy,

I will be the first to offer you my advice..beware though it's worth exactly as much as you paid for it..

If I were you, I would do the following...

Buy a domain name with GoDaddy, NameCheap ect.. and start a website with Weebly or another easy to use web design platform. Build a simple webpage with your product details, location, history, ect.. I would add a blogging platform to one of the sub pages so you can add content and keep your customers up-to-date on new products, ect..

I would then start a Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Use your iPhone or better yet buy yourself a digital camera and take pictures of your operation, employees, customers, ect.

Post the pictures to your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Your next step would be to get a Autoresponder such as Aweber or GetReponse and create an email opt in form for you webpage. Now that you have began collecting emails you should start a monthly newsletter!

You could also have an email opt in form in your brick-and-mortar business location for people to subscribe to your "monthly newsletter." You could include a monthly "sausage giveaway" or "lunch giveaway" as "bait" to incentivize people to give you their email.

Next I would submit my information to all the business directories like Yellow Pages, Dex, ect..

Encourage customers to leave you positive rating on Yelp, Google, ect..

Eventually you could begin automating your online activities using programs like Tweet Adder to send out Tweets 24/7..

That's a good start to begin developing your online presence. I hope that helps! Best of luck!!

Andy,

Quick answer is to position your brand across the online places where your target prospects (butchers, wholesalers, owners and product acquisition managers of market stalls and restaurants) go so as to view relevant content and to browse or learn about related news, innovative products and unique services, and to establish the reputation of your brand as a go-to brand for the things that you're offering. This involves softsell and hardsell marketing, mainly in your case for B2B markets as I understand...

Now, I'm sure you already know these fundamentals, but I'd like to discuss this for the possible benefit of others...

First is concept development. The concept that you mentioned, as I understand, is a growth and expansion plan. You mainly want to use ICT resources for efficiently expanding your market reach across significant local and global locations, and for effectively positioning your brand among butchers, wholesalers, owners and product acquisition managers of market stalls, restaurants and other relevant business prospects in these locations...

Well, second is backend development. Establishing required backend labor resources, work flow systems, processes and technologies to accommodate projected surges of production, order processing and support demands is the first thing I do before executing growth and expansion plans for my brick and mortar company...

Third is frontend development. A brandable, professionally designed ecommerce website that appeals to your target audience, along with a LinkedIn business page, a Facebook business page and a Youtube channel, plus online and offline advertising and marketing materials would be something to start with. I do this before executing advertising and marketing campaigns -- I complete extensive market research during concept growth and expansion plan development...

Fourth is execution. This also involves monitoring all relevant things that affect your overall plan...

Specific strategies, techniques and tactics are in the details. I'd most likely lose the rest of the day if I discuss those here...

There are some good tips above but the gist of it is that you may need a website to start with. The easiest way to drive traffic and get customers is to use paid advertising. You can either hire an advertising agency or learn it yourself.

Hi Andy,

A lot of Good suggestions already provided by Honorable members. The summary is, Make a brand .. Build an website.. Rank it on Search engines based on best suited keywords. Run PPC ads on FB,Adwords,7search,Bing etc. Besides make your own Business page On social media sites.Generate visits. Get potential buyers and Tell them your product quality and why they should buy this from you. Slowly you gonna on the Top of your Business. Good luck.

Hi man

From what you're saying, I really do believe that you need strategic marketing consulting - not some quick advice on WF.

Your baby's daddy (not you hehe...i'm talking about your father-in-law) hasn't given much focus to marketing in his business, you say - actually he has, else he wouldn't be in profit.

Only, he hasnt put in together in a coherent system that absolutely anyone can pick up and use. As you mentioned, having an online marketing system in place would possibly increase the sales value of the company - YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.

If I go to buy a company right now, I will definitely be looking for marketing competencies (otherwise, marketing incompetencies that I could easily solve), so from a future buyer's perspective you're definitely on the right track.

Here's what you need to do:

a. Codify your offline marketing:

You really need to create a system here. Here's how I would go about it (but don't let this preclude any advice you would get from your marketing consultant in the future):

Positioning:
Discover what your Uncle is doing right now that works OR doesn't work. Discover how he could add value. Discover how he could leverage his current processes & internal system for greater competitive power over competitors. Hire a copywriter to help you translate all this into words - this is called a USP i.e. Unique Selling Proposition

Integration
Ensure that all your market communications have this USP integrated. Ensure that all staff know, understand, believe in & effectively communicate your USP in interaction with clients.

Check Out Your Current Customer List
Engage them. What are their needs? How can you meet them? Do they have any feedback from the transactions they've done with your company thus far? Based all your engagement with them, do you have any special offers that you can market to them directly? Do you have any free product/tip/advice which will be beneficial to them - building your goodwill although you don't get cash up front, is one of the best sales strategies ever.

Partnerships
What level of partnership can you create with them? Are they in similar but non-competing markets where you could benefit from a mutually beneficial arrangement?

Others:
Media, local (community brand awareness projects/charitable events) & Direct response advertising.

Finally, look at b.

b. Translate your offline marketing system into an online marketing strategy

The online part is easiest man.

[Note: While you can simultaneous develop both offline & online marketing systems, I strongly suggest you do your offline homework first in this case.]

Online is all about [steps "i" through "v" are not linear processes]

i. Setup, branding & improving reach
This mainly involves the pre-setup considerations, where you'll think of how to best translate your offline into your online prescence. Domain name, graphics, content marketing (content structure, content delivery), reach improvement (seo, ppc, social media etc) and database marketing (email, mobile & text marketing) are what you'll be working through.

ii. Pre-eminence
Mainly to do with the synergy of your content strategy with your offline marketing. Blogging, video and other market communications that have the USP well integrated.

iii. Gathering leads
This is too much to get into on here. Easy to implement though (just a lot to type, sorry). Basics of it is your Offer/Bribe & a well designed optin page.

iv. Selling
Email marketing can help with this. E-commerce orders may also be valuable if you have a lot of customers who don't come in directly to buy (for this kind of business, i'd want have phone contact during transaction - it adds a more personal touch)

v. Improving conversion
This I definitely can teach you on here - it would take forever. Outline: quick market research/data, powerful sales copy, design, offer testing, quality product. Copy may not even be needed in this case when it comes to actual orders of your products - but design has to be neat & the process should be hassle-free.

What I have given you is a simple framework for building your offline marketing systems & then how to translate that into an effective online strategy.

Like I say, the online stuff is always the easiest - you just need the right stratety & persistence. Find a local marketing consultant who is familiar with Abraham's material and you'll be making more money offline before you even start implementing your online strategy.

If you still need help beyond this (either offline or online), let me know & i'll arrange a free 30-minute strategy session for you. Just send a PM.

Wish you the very best in business.

Regards,
George.