Small businesses, and for that part, some medium sized businesses are ‘stuck’ in an advertising dilemma that appears like a fog to them. They stick to the ‘regular advertising and marketing avenue’ because it’s what they know best. It’s worked for years, so why mend something that’s not broken, EH?
Well it might not be broken, but it is getting tired and worn down. It doesn’t act in the same way it did in it’s prime. The ‘regular advertising and marketing avenue’ has become an overgrown, pit-holed route that most new businesses simply don’t travel down any more. They’ve found the branding super-highway that is the ‘social networking phenomenon’ that every teenager has already got permanently ‘wired’ into their brain.
OK. Which is supposedly the most valuable market on the planet? The market that most of the world’s wealth is ploughed through? Could it be the teenage/young adult market? Don’t they have the most influence over what the advertising agencies insist on us viewing? They do, and that is why the ‘social networking phenomenon’ is already dramatically affecting the advertising habits of all of the high-flying companies around the world right now.
The upside to this trend is that literally ‘every’ business, large or small, can generate ‘equality’ in that marketplace. Admittedly there are some new tricks and rules to play by, but all the free help and assistance is out there at the moment for anyone to draw on and ‘brand’ themselves or their business in any way they see fit.
The ‘regular advertising and marketing avenue’ still has it’s place though, and providing that it’s priced accordingly will always bring a certain ‘value’ to those traveling down that route. Though it has to be said, that businesses who do still want to travel the ‘regular’ advertising route, should look to invest their advertising revenue with an internet based model that’s also regularly utilizing the ‘social networking phenomenon’ to drive potential customers in their direction.
FRED67 has the look of an old school business referral website, but the methods used to drive visitors heavily depends on social networking, blogging, and visual exposure to it’s catchy logo. Regular SEO tactics also ensure that it’s listings in Google are kept on the relevant first pages of it’s chosen keywords. Therefore, advertisers who are given their own bio-pages within the website can expect to glean the traffic heading towards their category. The bio-pages also show up as ‘individual listings’ in Google and all other major search engines as well.
Any business person who is a techno-phobe, or who simply doesn’t want to master the ins & outs of internet marketing, can simply piggy-back on a website like FRED67 and have the benefits of a web presence without ‘any’ of the hassle. In fact there is a new genre` of marketers out there who ‘solely’ target those business people and offer their services to take all of the worry and inconvenience of web administration, and make it ‘their’ responsibility. They do charge very well for their services as well. So for the small to medium business working with a tight budget, the ‘piggy-back’ option would probably be the most attractive.
There is a growing market for those willing to take a ‘much smaller’ portion of the massive advertising market out there, to utilize the ‘social media phenomenon’ and ‘brand’ a website similar to FRED67. It can be done with just the outlay for a reliable web-hosting account, and the cost of a good .com domain.