Don't Put All Your Leads in One Basket
Many business owners will tell you that they experience a lot of fluctuation throughout the year. Some months will have higher profits than other months, there will be an increase in demand for a particular type of product or service one month, and then the next month a different type of product will be in demand.
This business phenomenon holds true for a business’ source of customers as well. Some months, a business may receive a surge in word of mouth advertising, whereas other months it may receive orders from people who came across an ad that the business had placed.
Many marketing experts agree that it is important for a business to diversify its marketing methods. This will ensure that leads are coming in from many different sources and that if one source is having a particularly slow month, the other sources should still be delivering plenty of leads.
On the other hand, marketing experts caution against having a marketing message sprung out over too many places. It can be hard to keep track of ads and know which ads are hitting the right target market.
Testing ads and keeping track of the results can help a person decide which areas are the best places for them to advertise. Knowing this information can also help stretch an advertising budget.
There are many choices for where to spend advertising dollars. If a person wants to advertise online they could choose to invest in pay-per-click ads, ad space that they buy directly from another website, as well as free options - including social networking and article marketing.
There are many ways to find leads offline, including flyers, lead boxes, ads placed in local newspapers and magazines, as well as referrals from current customers. Depending on the type of business, a person may also opt to buy leads from lead companies.
The marketing mix that works for one person may be to have one or two ads running, both online and offline, while another person may find that participating for a few hours each week in social networking and hanging up flyers around their local area is what works best for them.
It may be somewhat tedious, but testing ads and tracking the results is the best way to find the right mix for your business. Using an ad tracker service as well as linking ads to different URLs can help determine which ads are outperforming other ads.
Some virtual assistants specialize in this type of work and can be a huge asset if you are short on time or simply need a bit of extra help in this area. If hiring a virtual assistant is not in your budget, you may be able to barter or trade your own product or service in lieu of payment.
Over time, it will become clear which methods work best for your advertising needs.