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The Drama Of Starting A Business Or Saving A Floundering Business
Copyright (c) 2007-2023 Bill Platt
There are three times in the life of a business where monetary decisions are difficult to make. Those three times are: during the early days of an enterprise; when a business cycle is beginning to slow; and when costs are rising more quickly than sales. All three financial cycles reflect the same business need: a need to increase sales, reduce costs, or both.
As a new business with limited resources, the only real choice is to increase sales. So, the average business owner will dig deep to invest more time and/or resources into the activity of increasing sales. For the new business, there is no other choice... The business owner must make an investment for the purpose of increasing sales. It is a sink or swim proposition, and most business owners will take whatever steps are necessary to help their business succeed.
The small business owner, who is in the startup phase of a business, knows instinctively that the only way they will be able to increase their sales is to do some real marketing and advertising for their business.
Every small business owner will tackle the development of his or her new business in a different way. Some will make significant investments into their business from their own personal savings. Many small business owners will take every single penny earned by their business and pump it back into the business. Others will take fifty cents on every dollar and pump it back into the business. And then there are those who scrimp and save at every opportunity, even to the detriment of their ability to grow their business.
Scrimpers and savers can succeed in business, although it typically takes them much longer to put their business on solid footing, than it takes for the person who invests real resources into marketing and advertising for their business.
When The Business Cycle Turns Down...
I am always surprised when I look out into the real world and see business owners who had invested lots of time and money into the development of their business, and then when they need to manage rough financial times, they go against the grain of what had made them successful in the beginning.
There is a business owner I know here locally who has experienced some very profitable times in the life of his business. He manufactures and sells a very unique and useful piece of automotive equipment that his customer base loves. His business also has just one major competitor in the marketplace who manufactures a similar product. For all intent purposes, his business resides in a very comfortable position.
However, his business has been suffering from dropping sales. His challenge has been to figure out how to keep the doors to his business open. In recent months, he began going to the bank to borrow money to pay his employees, and yet, when it comes to marketing his business, he is absolutely unwilling to venture any advertising dollars!
I fear for his future.
In his world, he has been successful selling his product by going to car shows. But, on his last couple car shows, he has not sold enough products at the car shows to cover his expenses getting to the show.
The Internet Is A Low-Cost Way To Supplement The Sales Of An Offline Company
I tried to suggest to him the idea of making better use of his website. His response was that when he had gone to the internet in the past, he wasted his $1,000. I inquired further.
He told me that he had spent $500 to build his website, and then he spent another $500 to optimize his website for the search engines. He told me that he gets a number one ranking in Google, but that has not helped him to earn any sales. Therefore, in his mind, Internet advertising was an foolish waste of his limited operating capital.
It Was Time For A Bit Of Research...
I took an hour to look at his website to see if I could see any obvious reasons for the failure of his internet marketing expenditures. Actually, it did not take very long to see the reasons for his failure.
I was actually quite surprised to see how the company, who he had hired for SEO (search engine optimization), had helped lighten his wallet of $500.
Yes, he did have a number one placement in Google... For the name of his business! Man, that was a tough one to pull off...
Unfortunately, the only word that his website had been optimized for was the name of his business!
If your potential customers do not know the name of your business, how can you honestly expect people to find you?
Your Website Is Not The Be-All-End-All Of Marketing And Advertising
A lot of business owners put up a website and figure that the people will just come rolling into their new website. Then, reality bites.
A well built website will take a new visitor and turn them into paying customers. A well-designed SEO campaign will leave the sales process unharmed, and it will create the foundation for getting better placement in the SERPS (search engine result pages).
These days, an integral part of a good SEO campaign is a measure of Inbound Links (IBL's) to your website. The three top search engines --- Google, Yahoo and MSN --- have all declared that the number of links pointing to a website could dramatically affect how well a website performs in their search results.
Well-placed and well-constructed IBL's to a website actually serve two purposes: they increase the likelihood of your website gaining better placement in the search results, and they appeal to the person who is looking at the website where your link is located.
The Best Links Pointing To Your Website
The best links that point to your website from another website are those that actually peak the interest of your potential customer. A link that says, "MyWebsiteName," is not nearly as effective as a link that reads, "the solution to such-and-such problem."
The point is to appeal to what interests the reader of your link. If you can do that, then the people who visit your website will be focused on the problem that you have said that you can solve.
Article marketing or content marketing builds on this principle. Through article marketing, a business will seek to address an issue within the article that their target prospects might be researching.
Then at the end of the article, after the potential visitor has been educated about the topic they are researching, the reader will see a short, one- or two-sentence sales pitch, and a solution-oriented link to the writer's website. If the article is done well, the reader will feel a desire to click the link that will take them to the writer's website. The reader's motivation might be to see if the writer provides additional information, or the reader may be motivated to read up on the writer's products or services to see if the writer can help them solve their problem. Either way, the reader will be a strongly-targeted visitor to the article writer's website.
Developing Content For Linking Campaigns
It is not necessary for the person who owns the website to be the person who writes the article that will promote the website. I am sure you have seen articles that say they were written by one person, and then the "about the author" text kicks right into a pitch for a website. When the specified author of the article is not shown as the "owner of" or "an employee of" the website shown in the "about the author" information, then the author is often a freelance writer promoting the website in exchange for a service fee.
The truth is that you can literally find thousands of talented freelance writers on the internet who would be willing to write an article to help you to promote your website. And very literally, you can find several service providers to distribute your article on the world wide web for the purpose of developing Inbound Links to your website.
At The End Of The Day...
All businesses have one basic requirement: paying customers. Given that every business will experience some shrinkage in their customer list, it is important for a business to continue to develop new customers.
Marketing is a process, not an event. Many business owners get bogged down in the idea that they have more important things to spend their money on than marketing or promotion. But, without a steady flow of new customers, a business simply cannot survive.
As a small business owner, your goal should be to attract as many new sales to your business as you can for the least amount of cost. Don't be afraid to try new things to boost customer interest. And, if something you tried previously did not work for you, don't assume that future attempts will deliver the same outcome. Just ask yourself, do you want to be someone who has to take a loan in order to make payroll?
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You can become a better writer, with the right training. If you are looking to improve your writing skills or learn how to better market your writing projects, visit Bill Platt's website to see how he can help you: http://PlattPublishing.com/ If you are looking to buy or sell writing services, check out Bill's Freelance Writer Marketplace at: http://FreelanceWritersReview.com/
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Top-Level Category: Business Online Articles || Related Categories: Business Offline Articles
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In article marketing, there are many factors that will
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In article marketing, there are many factors that will
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Distributed: 2013-08-24 |
Word Count: 1149 |
Page Views: 8908
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online business. Unfortunately, many online marketers have
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campaigns...
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Distributed: 2013-07-30 |
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Page Views: 5996
| Votes: 10 |
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offer to the reader a means to see how the author can help
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| Votes: 48 |
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Word Count: 917 |
Page Views: 6690
| Votes: 26 |
Rating: 3.58
At a recent Internet marketing seminar, I was sitting around the
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contributed to our 'conviviality.'
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Employ these 15 tactics to improve your search engine rankings,
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| Votes: 15 |
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Last week I was attending a conference and mentioned to someone I
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Then the temperature in the room dropped about 10-degrees
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Word Count: 699 |
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| Votes: 25 |
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| Votes: 8 |
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Word Count: 1407 |
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| Votes: 40 |
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Written by: Diane Metz |
Distributed: 2007-07-10 |
Word Count: 882 |
Page Views: 2606
| Votes: 6 |
Rating: 3.33
Want to win the favor of Google? Then you've got to build a
long-term relationship with her. Many new SEO strategies are
simply recycled old-tricks. And Google is a smart gal who can see
right through them. Position your website for the future by
understanding what Google really likes â€" and what she
really loathes.
Treat Online 'Guests' With Respect
Written by: Rick Sloboda |
Distributed: 2007-07-27 |
Word Count: 472 |
Page Views: 30347
| Votes: 33 |
Rating: 3.33
Does your website show your customers lack of respect? Review the
following checklist to find out.
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