Everyone Knows Me (My Business) – Why do I need Internet Marketing?

Craig has had his roofing business for more than two decades. Everyone in the county knows him and his crew. They are trusted almost like members of the family. However, in recent months, while his standing customers are always there, new business has fallen off.

No One Uses the Yellow Pages

Craig’s administrative assistant, Darla, keeps telling her boss that no one looks in the yellow pages anymore. No one sees his newspaper ads. Few people even notice his expensive TV ads. “Everyone searches the Internet,” she tells him. But Craig is too busy to listen. Besides, all that Internet stuff is like a foreign language to him!

In the past, Craig knew he could always count on his Yellow Pages ads to bring in new customers. (Especially after a bad hail storm!) But not now. What’s up with that?

Caught in a Time Warp

Craig, and many other business owners like him, is caught in a time warp. He needs to stop and listen to his assistant.

While Craig and his counterparts are working hard to do the best job possible for their customers, the world of technology is passing them by. Not only are consumers researching and shopping via search engines, now they are conducting those searches more and more via their Smart Phones.

Some 1.3 million people conducted 6.9 million searches for iPhone-related terms in April [2011], an inordinate majority of them conducted via Google, according to a study on "iPhone"-related search terms based on data from the comScore Marketer service. (Source can be found here.)

In addition to search engines, billions are now interacting on the Internet by using such social media tools as FaceBook and Twitter. Stats show that FaceBook users are now spending 700 million minutes a month on the FB site. Twitter users send one billion tweets a week. (Source can be found here.)

These are startling, sobering statistics, and those who ignore such marketing trends will be left in the dust.

Check Out the Competition

While you may ignoring the Internet, you be can be assured that your competition probably isn't.

Craig’s strongest local competitor, Jason, also has a reliable and trustworthy roofing business. Jason, however, has a website that features photos of Jason and his crew. Additionally, there are several videos that show them at work roofing houses in the community. Jason also makes sure his site offers a number of informational articles that teach consumers about different roofing materials and which ones are best and which are the most economical.(He realizes that most of his customers may not be privy to this type of information.)

In addition, Jason created a business Fan Page on FaceBook and has one of his office workers update it two or three times a week, along with updating their Twitter account. The feedback Jason’s staff receives from the social media sites helps him ascertain both the strengths and weaknesses of their business-building strategies.

When locals in the community need a roofer, who will be found and who will remain hidden?

That’s it in a nutshell. It matters little what you were doing in the marketing arena in the last few years. Or even the last few weeks. Marketing trends and buying patterns and behavior of the masses are changing faster than the click of a mouse. Will your business be easy to find?

Let RevBuilders Help

Why try to figure it all out on your own? RevBuilders keeps a finger on the pulse of the Internet marketing world so you don’t have to. Let them design a custom-designed marketing program for your business that will establish your position on the Internet and keep you at the forefront of your industry.