The internet has made it possible for even the smallest business to wade into the deep water with competitors of much greater size. Your cottage industry can sell products all over the world without you ever leaving your city.
Ironically, the easier it is to get into the market, the harder it is to be found. The crowd is so huge that it’s nearly impossible to make connections with the people you need to find. Whether you’re selling something with broad appeal or a tiny market, you have to make those connections.
Hits, likes, and shares can be exciting signs of growth, but they can also turn quickly into clutter. So refinement has become the key. Establishing linkages between specific markets and specific providers is the only way that we can really grow a business through its internet presence, and achieving that step requires greater expertise than most entrepreneurs possess.
That doesn’t mean that you need to go back to school for a degree in web design or marketing. It means you need to find a partner who can help get make your vision a success. That’s what modern marketing companies like Red Crane Media do with customers, in several main areas.
Demographic Targeting
Going to Facebook with your company is a very random process. Yes, a lot of people will see it, but the right people may not. The same is true of a website.
Getting any online presence directed toward the right people is not an undertaking for inexperienced marketers. It takes a great deal of experience and a broad base of knowledge. With those tools, a marketing firm can get your ads on the right sites and in front of the ideal social media user.
For example, many consumers today are interested in recycling. They may like to learn more about the process of recycling plastics, but they need to know the consumer side of it. From a B2B perspective, advertising for firms that do the actual work of recycling needs to be targeted at the people who will use the service.
Design Considerations
There’s no question that different demographics prefer different things visually. From a distance, one can easily guess whether a music CD is country, classical, or heavy metal. There are just different elements that go together to define those genres.
The same is true of websites and social media accounts. Our recycling example would include a more industrial theme, while a product targeted to kids will be bright and energetic. But not every distinction is that obvious. It takes a skilled firm to really break down the specifics and make things that work for any given demographic.
Search Engine Techniques
Unless you have done an exceptional job of marketing your site, most people will find it with a search engine for their first interaction with you. Your success, then, hinges largely on what those engines do.
A high position is essential. The closer you are to being the #1 search result, the better your chances of being seen. Page 2 is rarely on the radar for most users, and subsequent results are almost worthless. Getting those high positions depends on how your site is designed, what kind of content you have, what keywords are used, and a lot of other factors that inexperienced web designers can’t properly incorporate.
The more specific your market, the harder it can be for customers to find you. Selling bottled water is a whole lot easier than selling lug nuts for imported SUVs built between 1993 and 1998. But either business can be successful if it utilizes a good marketing firm to help those customers find it, whether they be few or many.
