Business Marketing Strategies in 2011
When I was planning the information for my business-building bootcamp, which launched in April, I decided to focus on how service business marketing strategy looks in 2011. And I was amazed to see how much has changed since I started building my practice in 2001. In ten short years, technology has revolutionised business-building for service professionals the world over.
When I started out, the Internet wasn’t the norm it is today. I had an email address (a Hotmail account, remember them?) but I didn’t use it for my business. I had a landline phone number and a mobile phone number, and that was it in the way of technology. My bookings were made with pen and paper, and my accounts were put together using Excel (my one bow to technology).
Flash forward to 2011
I teach people how to use Facebook and Twitter to build their businesses. I work with people to use video, record audio interviews, and build blogs. Clients use sophisticated client management software. Some are even using tablet computers to allow them to write up client notes with a pen, but still have a hard copy of these notes for later referral. Client databases are almost always kept on a PC or Mac rather than in a filing cabinet. And, more and more people are realising the power of using email to communicate instead of regular mail.
But the question that kept coming back to me as I worked on this information was, “Has all this technology really changed the core strategies for building businesses?”
Well, yes and no.
In some ways the strategies remain the same as they have throughout the history of business. Connect with other people, build referral networks, and just get seen by your target audience are still great ways to grow your business quickly. However, when you add technology to all of the above, you will start to see dynamic growth in your business.
Here are just a few ways to use technology in your business marketing strategy:
- Use social media to connect with your audience, and then follow up with some face-to-face meetings.
- Use video and audio to show online visitors who you are and what you do, and then follow up by doing an open clinic or some public speaking.
- Gather clients’ email addresses but a couple of times a year send them greetings card through the post.
Having all your marketing efforts either online or offline just won’t work. You must use a combination of both; after all, balance is the key to most everything in life and business. Think of using strategies in a converged way: where your online and your offline strategies blend together in as seamless a way as possible. Do this and you’re guaranteed to build the health business you’ve always dreamed of.
Do you see a difference between the marketing strategy used when you first started and the one you use today? If so, in what ways? I’d love to hear from you – click below to share!
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