Small Businesses, Stop Listening To the Insanity!

Okay..that’s it! I’m mad! Damn mad! I’m listening to prospective and existing clients alike vent about the garbage fed to them daily by marketing vendors who don’t know what the hell they’re talking about! In this economy (or any for that matter), you cannot waste a dime on ineffective and inefficient marketing! On or offline, more vendors than not will take your money and waste it! The key to any marketing campaign is conversions! Conversions! Conversions! Meaning, actual leads that turn into sales. Clicks don’t matter. Page ranks don’t matter. What matters is the effort spent results into sales.

I have a client who called me the other day concerned that their traffic to their website was less than they expected. Ironically, of the traffic they were getting (they’re a highly specific medical practice), they were seeing a 46% conversion rate! Meaning 46% of those who did come to the site as a result of our online marketing campaign turned into a legitimate lead! I had them go back and cross analyze those leads to sales (patients in this case). 20% turned into new patients!

The reason they called me? Another vendor was in to see them and sold them a load of crap with regards to page rank and traffic to their site! Once I showed them the actual - IMPORTANT - numbers, they were floored. I asked them to contact that vendor and challenge them with questions regarding their conversion tracking methodology. As suspected….they lied and said those numbers are not important.

I guess this entry is more for the lame vendors out there who got into this business because they saw their share of marketing budgets go toward online marketing but who have NO CLUE about marketing….learn marketing 101, and this space will be a nice place to compete! It will also be much more pleasant for small businesses in the Greater Philadelphia area. The less garbage they hear, the less insanity in the market place!

Small businesses, tell me about your marketing vendor experiences. Let’s hear the good, the bad, the ugly! You are in power now. It’s a nice position to be in! Use it…let’s hear from you! Comment on this posting!

Until next time, this is Meg Ferguson from Vision House Marketing, LLC saying have an effective and efficient day!