Article written by Graham Fitzpatrick, Business Advisor, Western Sydney Business Centre.
I would like you to imagine you are starting a new business back in the pre-digital age. In a time where local newspapers and the yellow pages were business essentials. Imagine after months of planning, renovating, decorating and training, you have finally thrown open the doors of your new store, office or workshop. You are now open for business.
But where are the customers?
In this time before social media businesses had no choice but to spend money on advertising. They advertised in directories, local papers and other advertising platforms to attract customers to their business. Those that did not advertise either went nowhere or went out of business. So why do we not do it in todays’ marketplace?
In this digital age businesses spend large amounts of money on creating awesome looking websites. They also spend lots of time creating compelling content on social media pages. But again, where are the customers? Where is their advertising?
The principles of good marketing and advertising has been around for a long time and have not really changed. Marketing and Advertising experts still talk about consistence, paid advertising being important.
So let me ask you these questions. Do your customers know you have a website? Do they know you are actively on social media? Are you advertising?
If you answered “maybe”, “I think so” or “no” to these questions you need to get active and start paid advertising now. Ad words, paid content, paid ads, boosted posts, sponsorship and all other types of online advertising should be part of your business plan and marketing strategy. You need to shout it from the roof tops and let people know who you are. What you do. And how they can contact to you.
