This is the first article in my new series covering the top seven reasons to review and update your online marketing strategy in 2014.
I remember the last time I used a phone book. It was 2011 and I used two of them to prop up my computer screen so that it was at a comfortable reading height. I don’t recall ever looking to see what was inside. Do you still use the phone book as much as you did ten years ago?
People still need to find your business. How customers find you, and how they decide which businesses to buy from, has changed drastically over the last few years.
- They search for it on Google from their iPad while watching TV.
- They look up your address on their phone while walking to their car.
- They look at the stories their friends shared before deciding to call you or your competitor.
- Your customers are talking to each other about your business instead of just talking to you.
- If they love your work, they take a photo and share it with the world.
- If they hate your work or feel let down, they’ll take even more photos and share them twice as much.
In a small city like Darwin it’s often possible to appear on the first page of Google’s search results for your industry simply by creating a new website that meets all the latest web development standards, and contains well written and regularly updated content.
If you want a competitive advantage in being found over your competition, consider doing the following:
- Make sure you can be found in all the places that your customers are looking. Maybe that’s Facebook, Google Maps, YouTube, LinkedIn, Trip Advisor, UrbanSpoon, Foursquare, and Twitter.
- Find out where your competitors appear and place strategic advertisements in all the right places.
- Increase your digital footprint by regularly publishing industry updates, press releases, or blog posts and sharing them out to your entire network.
