What is the reality right now in Offline Marketing??
Recently I am studying about how to use my IM skills to help small business owners. And I discovered two very different perspectives:
1. Offline businesses have no, or only little clue on what online marketing is and they need help on this right now. If you jump in, and "give some value" (I really don't like these words, NOT because I think it is not correct, but I think these words are "overused"...), they will be extremely happy and pay tons of money to you to help them do so.
2. Offline businesses has no, or little knowledge on what online marketing is. However, they receive thousands of email which said that they can provide "high value" online marketing service to you every single day. They don't like it and become very skeptical on it. Therefore they don't trust marketers, and even if they need those services, they will lower the price as much as possible, and tease you with questions like:
- Have you done it for other business before?
- Can you GUARANTEE that you can bring me money?
- If you cannot GUARANTEE, why should I pay my hard-earn cash to you?
And they go to post an ad on local newspaper and pay 25,000 for full-color, sexy woman, many while space ads for one day.
My questions are:
- Based on your experience, what are those "offline business owner/SME" are thinking right now?
- What they really need right now?
- Do we need to proof to them that we can do it? What if they don't like what you do?
- If they believe that local newspaper/magazine ads, yellow page, cold-calling and classified ads are the best marketing tools, how do you persuade them to accept your SEO, PPC, mobile QR code, Facebook page and PressRelease stuff, even if you proof that they are far better than what they have right now?
BTW, just explain a little bit: I wholeheartly believe that creating value for business owner is the "ONLY" way to get/keep client. However, I feel sick when people are JUST saying "Creating value for your prospects" all the time without telling us "how"! Almost all marketers in WF know that creating value is the number one and the only job they have to do. (Just similar to telling a child: Never do bad things, but child doesn't know what the bad things are...)
Sorry if my question is too long. I am still struggling to get my first client.
Thank you.
Estate Sales San Antonio
"I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."
from Invictus by William Ernest Henley