Many small business owners these days are realizing that there is more to life (and their bottom line) than their brick-and-mortar operation. Furthermore, these business owners are starting to realize the value of spending some of their marketing dollars on ehnancing their online service offering through internet marketing and social media efforts.
We, as internet marketers, tend to run into some resistance when trying to educate and guide our small business clients on the proper techniques that can lead to a successfull online business.
Our job as your strategic internet partner is to guide your efforts and lead you down the right path to grow your online product and service offerings, along with helping you to build relevent content for not only your users, but for the search engines as well. In doing this, we tend to get a lot of push-back. By this I mean clients not wanting to do the work because they don’t see the value.
“I know my business better than you.”
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that line, and yes, that is true. I am not an expert on Nitrogen Oxide Air Scrubbers, nor do I pretend to be a subject matter expert on Multi-Deck Pizza Ovens or Pneumatic Tapping Machines. However, my response to the above statement is this:
“You most certainly know your products and your business, and I know internet marketing. Imagine what we can do with that powerful combination!”
This is not a statement of arrogance, but simply the truth. As we work together to develop a strategy for your site, and as we begin to gather real data from tools like Google Analytics – we can begin to learn from your web site’s traffic patterns, common search terms, AdWords campaign trends, best selling products and so on.
By listening to what your site is telling us – we find areas for improvement, and know specifically where to focus your efforts and what types of content will need to be built.
In the case of a new site that hasn’t gathered much data – I may suggest various things in the way of social marketing campaigns, content development, product enhancement and such. You may not agree. How I overcome this resistance is to show you where it has worked for other customers and how it has worked. The proof is in the results – and if you can back up your suggestions with facts, your customers tend to be more than willing to work with you.
The coolest part of all of this – once you overcome that first hurdle, or overcome their resistance the first time, and your client sees the fruits of their labor… they tend to come looking for more stuff to do to make it even better – and it just snowballs from there.
I’ve had client’s websites sit idle for months and when they finally come around and do some of things I’ve asked them to do, they begin to see their site come alive with activity. It is through this effort they realize the potential, and begin to really value you as a strategic partner who is passionate about growing your business. (see analytical graph below showing real site traffic growth for a client who listens!)
So I leave you with this… Don’t be afraid to push your clients into unchartered territory by suggesting things they may not necessarily agree with – However, be prepared to substantiate your suggestion with facts and data. Help them understand who you are making the change for and how it could impact their site overall.
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Great posting Wendy. It’s amazing to see when a company actually does what you’ve asked them to do and then they see results. Great photo of the GA data.
Keep it up! DM