If you are selling or want to sell products or services in your local community then you probably already know this; to be successful you need customers. this local marketing report for 2015 and beyond can help you.
In our society today new customers just don’t magically appear. As a result you must market your business in a way that enables you to effectively communicate with potential customers so that they know who you are, where you are and what you sell.
Unfortunately, successfully marketing your products and services in the local community is not always easy. The marketing landscape is constantly changing. If you don’t have a clear understanding of what the latest consumers trends are, what marketing strategies work for different types of businesses or what consumers are likely to respond to in the future, you will likely miss opportunities to make more sales and increase profitability.
Read the report below.
Local Marketing Report 2015
If you are selling or want to sell products or services in your local community then you probably already know this; to be successful you need customers.
You also probably know that new customers just don’t magically appear. As a result you must market your business in a way that enables you to effectively communicate with potential customers so that they know who you are, where you are and what you sell.
Unfortunately, successfully marketing your products and services in the local community is not always easy. The marketing landscape is constantly changing. If you don’t have a clear understanding of what the latest consumers trends are, what marketing strategies work for different types of businesses or what consumers are likely to respond to in the future, you will likely miss opportunities to make more sales and increase profitability.
This local marketing report is intended to help you plan your marketing for 2015 and beyond. It will help you gain insight how much marketing costs, what marketing works, what consumers are responding to and what marketing strategies are likely to work in 2015 and beyond. Read on to find out more.
Why Marketing is so Important
First, effective marketing is the only long term solution to the number one concern for the majority of small business owners and people selling products and services in their local communities; the ability to continuously attract new customers.
Source: Constant Contact
Second, according to the New York Times, Inc.com, the SBA and others, eight out of ten small businesses fail because they don’t effectively communicate with potential customers. Having a marketing plan that effectively helps you communicates with potential new customers is the only way to increase sales.
The Cost of Marketing
Marketing by definition is a process that facilitates valuable communication between providers and consumers. Generally the cost of using specific communication platforms is measured by CPM (cost per thousand). A CPM represents the specific cost for your message to potentially reach 1000 people using a specific platform. The key word here is potentially. Spending money to reach a specific number of people does not guarantee that any number of people actually receive your communication. It only guarantees that a specific number of people have the opportunity to receive your communication.
While online advertising clearly offers the lowest CPM (cost to reach an audience of 1000 people), the more traditional advertising platforms like newspapers and television are far from dead. There isn’t a shortage of ads in the local newspaper or on television during primetime.
The Effectiveness of Marketing Platforms Today
There is a reason people pay the much higher costs of using television and print as marketing platforms. They still have relevance for consumers. As a recent survey by Twist Image indicates, these advertising platforms are still effective in positively influencing the purchasing decisions of the people they reach.
How Much Should You Spend on Marketing?
Most marketing professionals recommend spending between 5 to 7 percent of gross annual sales on marketing. However, there isn’t any one specific formula that works best and different organizations have different opinions on marketing spending.
For example; “Entrepreneur” recommends spending between 10 and 12 percent of total gross sales on marketing alone. Iowa State University suggests start-up businesses spend 20 – 30 percent of their total annual budget on marketing in each of the first 2 years of operation and then 7 to 10 percent of their annual budget.
Marketing Platform Effectiveness Per $1 Spent
The reality is that marketing effectiveness is very difficult to measure in our society today. As mentioned previously, the cost of marketing is generally based on the potential it has to reach consumers, not the actual influence it has. By combining the cost data with the potential effectiveness data we can estimate the number of people that may be positively influenced using a particular marketing platform. The result is an estimate of the number of people actually influenced per dollar spent.
What Marketing Platforms Work Best for Small Local Businesses?
Using any one or all marketing platforms could over time produce very positive results. However, for many local sales people and small business owners the reality is this: running a successful outbound marketing campaign (buying attention) using cold-calling, direct paper mail, radio, television, sales flyers, telemarketing and other traditional marketing platforms is simply not affordable.
The most cost effective way for a small local business to market themselves and their products and services is to attract new customers online.
Why does Online Marketing Work Best for Small Local Businesses?
The short answer is cost. Most small businesses simply can’t afford the cost of running a successful outbound marketing campaign that will effectively influence the buying decisions of local consumers. The longer answer as to why online marketing is a more cost effective marketing platform for most local businesses today is that consumers don’t pay very much attention to outbound local advertising.
Why Don’t Consumers Pay Attention to Local Advertising?
They don’t have to. Consumers can quickly find information, compare prices and download coupons independently using the Internet from anywhere at any time.
How Should Small Local Businesses be Marketing Themselves in 2015?
Small local business and people selling products and services should be focusing their marketing efforts on providing valuable information to consumers, not selling their products and services. Consumers are becoming savvier. They have access to enough local information that they can not only find local products and services online, they can compare prices, find special offers and read online reviews. This allows potential new customers to make purchasing decisions without ever talking to a vendor.
If you are selling products and services locally your marketing efforts should focus on providing real information that offers value and promotes credibility.
What Local Marketing Strategies are Likely to Work in 2015?
Local online marketing is currently the simplest, most powerful and cost-effective way to market in your local community today. The following local online marketing techniques enable people selling products and services in their local community the best opportunity to provide information, offer value, promote credibility and directly communicate with customers and potential new customers in 2015.
- Online Content Marketing. Content marketing is becoming more and more important for any online marketing campaign. Despite the fact that technology is developing at the speed of light, marketing is becoming more human. Search engines are ignoring sites that are designed for search engines in favor of sites that provide real content designed to inform and entertain humans. Real content provides information that consumers want.
- Online Social Networks. Online social networks are booming and expanding. Despite some predictions of Facebook’s demise as a passing fad, the opposite is true. Sites like Facebook and Google+ are evolving, expanding and becoming more important than ever for small local businesses as a way to interact and communicate with local consumers.
- Video. Online video is expanding not only as an entertainment platform, but also as a content delivery platform. More and more mobile applications, social networks and search engines readily display and play videos making them a favorite of users of all ages. The popularity of online video has propelled YouTube to become the second largest search engine in the world behind Google.
- Location Based Marketing. Location based marketing will dominate in 2015 and beyond. Smartphone applications, business directories and wearable technology are all focusing on helping consumers search, find, compare, interact, purchase and share information about places, events, experiences, products and services all within their local communities.
- Human to Human Marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing is more powerful than ever. As the “Welcome to the Human Era Report” by the marketing firms Hill Holiday reminds us, we are all still human. Being human matters; humans are conversational, empathetic, inspirational, problem solvers, humorous and make mistakes. The Internet makes word-of-mouth marketing even more powerful today than ever because the tools available online provide a simple, instantaneous and powerful way for people to communicate.
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