I've seen it happen time and again. Beautiful, well designed web pages, with flash and media, that cost the equivalent of a Ferrari are delivered, deployed, the companies and executives are excited. It rolls out, like a brand new red Ferrari slowly backing out of the garage. Then - nothing! It sits there.
Where are all the visitors? The neighbors come by and ohh and ahh. The proud owners stand by the car, jump inside, show off the bells and whistles - this video does this, and look at our virtual tour. Cool huh? But, very soon, the customers leave, the neighbors (clients) are bored. The proud owners don't really ever start the engine. Then something gets them going about their regular day, and way of doing things. They shut the car door and walk away - expecting it to drive itself. There it sits.
The difficulty of marketing today, and using the web is that it is a business within a business - it requires expertise (a lot of expertise), discipline and an entirely new level of thinking. Marketing has never been easy. But with all of the Conversation Marketing [you can view my video here #2 in the series - for a more in-depth understanding of Conversation Marketing]- actively engaging your prospects and turning them into customers - keeping them as loyal clients, is more difficult than ever. We deliver a ton of tools to clients.
Unless the web enabled tools available are used diligently, and over time, the metaphorical "Ferrari" just sits there, with all of the power under the hood and it never gets seen by more than a few. It never gets to rev up the engine and drive sales, drive leads and deliver profits.
There is a lot of work here in this new media and marketing territory. There are a lot more people active on keyboards and screens every day, doing a lot more than just typing in search terms. The Conversation Market is alive and well. And more active than you can imagine. We also call this Word of Mouth on the Web TM. Those companies that are figuring out how to use this powerful word of mouth online are thriving - gaining more market share than ever across every business sector.
Here is a hint - it doesn't take a "Ferrari" - just an active and well managed, well thought out and consistent conversation will do.
It takes knowledge and determination to do the real work behind the technology to make the marketing successful. It is more complex, and getting more so every day. Go it alone? You'll soon find out how expensive and difficult a proposition that direction might be. Today Free and Cheap and Fast can be very expensive (to be discussed in my next post).
Odds are, you don't have the team in-house to do this on their own (unless you run an online marketing and software development company). Even if you do have a team, you'll need to support them with the proper tools - or they will struggle. We understand this challenge for companies and for marketers. Which is why we created the Connected Market Enterprise tools - and built our team of experts to help you drive your market.
It's time to get your business out of the garage and onto the right track. Within a few months, you'll have the market engaged and have harnessed the power of your market to drivers to deliver your ROI on your marketing budget. The fuel behind the "Ferrari" on the net is content and conversation - The Connected Market Space is the secret to driving your sales skyward.
Impressive web sites are fine. But just a Google Pay Per Click and a great home page can do more damage to the marketing budget than good for your bottom line. Check out the difference with the right tools and approach at CMAEON with The Connected Market Space.