Full-time Help. Part-time Costs. Measurable Results.
The Internet can help you do more, with less
By Duane Coleman, Principal, DLC&A Internet Marketing
duane@dlcainternetmarketing.com
If you're like many business owners today, you may be in the process of steering your business through challenging times with limited resources.
During good times you might consider hiring an additional Inside Sales person to generate qualified sales leads, but this type of investment may be hard to justify in today's economy.
Given the above scenario:
- What if you could add a full-time Inside Sales Representative or other resource to generate new business and pay them $5,000 to $10,000 during the first year of employment?
- What if this sales person only interacted with individuals who expressed some sort of interest in your products or services?
- What if this person paid for themselves many times over and future costs were a fraction of the first year investment?
Sound too good to be true? Actually, this scenario is a reality for many small businesses. Except instead of spending money on an Inside Sales person, organizations are investing in Internet marketing strategies and website redesigns that are generating new sales leads and sales at minimal costs.
That's what a well-designed Internet lead generation strategy should do. And thousands of small and medium-sized businesses are reaping the benefits without adding additional headcount.
Maybe you've tried to leverage the Internet in the past, without much success. This isn't uncommon and there's usually a good reason for the not-so-good results.
When I hear similar reports, I ask the business owner to provide additional insight and I often find that a web developer or designer was hired to build the website and the primary focus was on the appearance, not the business objective.
I find that in the vast majority of these instances, the developer or designer did not engage a Search Engine Optimization (SEO)* professional or Internet marketing expert and web analytics was never mentioned. The developer or designer was operating in their area of strength, without regard for the big picture.
In other words, the business contracted with the wrong person and ended up with a website that very few people could find and a great opportunity was missed. This happens time and time again.
The beauty of the Internet is that it's based largely on mathematics, which means that nearly every aspect of website effectiveness is measureable and almost every aspect is researched, quantified and researched some more.
As a result, most respected Internet marketing firms are aware of what works and what hasn't been effective and they apply best practices on behalf of their clients. This eliminates the guesswork and the trial and error often associated with traditional marketing and advertising efforts.
This article is not meant to discourage you from hiring an additional Inside Sales Representative. This may be a wise choice, depending upon your circumstances. However, many businesses are being required to do more with less and are now investigating less expensive, more effective ways of accomplishing their goals.
Your website may be the answer. Thousands of small and medium-sized businesses are leveraging the Internet to generate a significant number of new sales leads and sales for a fraction of the cost of other methods. And they are measuring the effectiveness of their Internet strategy and website each step of the way.
*Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site.
DLC&A Internet Marketing is a Twin Cities-based Internet marketing firm. They develop and implement search engine friendly Internet marketing strategies that generate sales leads and revenue for small and medium-sized businesses.
For additional information, please contact 763-242-2454 or info@dlcainternetmarketing.com or visit DLC&A online at www.dlcainternetmarketing.com.