There’s a brave new digital world out there, one that has continued to explode since the first internet tech boom at the turn of the century. And yet, your boss is still using traditional marketing techniques instead of embracing the digital age. So how do you convince him or her that it’s time to modernize the marketing? Here are some tips that can help:
Ask them to analyze the cost and ROI
Marketing is all about bringing customers in to your business or building up leads. Is your marketing accomplishing that? And at what cost? For example, if your business is still spending money on yellow pages marketing, you could very easily be dumping tens of thousands of dollars on it every year. And what are you getting for all that money? Print ads in an antiquated book, which has a circulation that’s dropping precipitously. Plus, the yellow pages are now used mostly by the elderly and those in rural areas; that’s an awfully small base to be marketing to.
Ask them how they might find a local business
Your boss is a normal person like anyone else – surely they need to find a business or a new restaurant from time to time. If they were interested in finding a good Chinese restaurant in their town, what would they do? I’d be willing to wager your boss won’t say “look in the yellow pages.” (But if by some chance they do, I would then double down and bet they still have a flip phone.)
Chances are, your boss would do the same things you probably do: conduct a Google search, or look on Yelp. So why would your potential customer do anything different?
Bring out the big gun: the numbers
People have different managerial and analytical styles. Some go on their gut or on reasoned arguments; others just want to see the numbers. Well, you’re in luck, because we’ve got some for you (and they’re pretty good).
- 74: The percentage of people who now use the Internet to perform local business searches.
- 100+ million: The number of people who use Google maps on their smartphone to find local business information – every month.
- 61: the percentage of local online searches that result in purchases.
So what do all these numbers mean? They mean that it’s time to embrace digital marketing as the new frontier. You need to be using the internet to your advantage, focusing on inbound marketing strategies to take advantage of all that local search traffic.
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