Do It Yourself Marketing or Not?

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manatcomputerAs a small business owner, one of the most neglected areas of your business is likely having a good marketing plan. For any number of reasons, you may have neglected to set up an advertising or marketing program for your business. Perhaps you’ve been too busy on other details of your business, or maybe you just don’t know where to start. Many businesses will place advertising on hold, as there’s not enough cash left in the monthly budget. But you could be doing your business a disservice by ignoring the marketing needs of your business.

Should you be trying do it yourself marketing or not? Here’s a few reasons why you should step back and hire an advertising and marketing professional instead.

Marketing professionals have access to market research that you do not. Several business firms focus only on online market research, and publish their findings each month. Marketing firms pay a subscription fee to have access to this information, and can pass on the information at a fraction of the cost to you.

It’s more than a matter of having access to online market research. It’s also a matter of analyzing the data, to see how it fits with your particular industry. Sure, you can receive a report full of numbers, figures, and graphs, but do you know how to read it, and do you even have the time?

Time is a big factor in how a business owner divvies up their daily schedule. There’s many demands on their time, from ordering supplies, to accounting, and handling staff. By the end of the day, there likely isn’t time to figure out where you should be advertising, or what marketing methods you should be trying.

What works for one particular type of industry may not work for another one. A billboard may be perfect for a hospitality type of business, but not do so well for a dog grooming business. Websites generally are the perfect fit for all types of businesses, and mobile sites work well for many businesses as well. There are also new marketing methods, such as social media advertising, and Google advertising that may be effective for your business. Traditional businesses may benefit from a Yellow Pages listing, whereas a progressive sort of business may bomb in the Pages.

There’s nothing wrong with your initial efforts when starting out marketing your business, but the more you want your business to succeed, the more you need to hire a marketing expert to attend to the special needs of your business.

Do it yourself marketing may be fine for when you’re just starting out, but after a few months of operation it’s time to call in the pros. Why sit around in an office waiting for the calls to come in, when you can hire a marketing expert who can take your business to the next level? Please contact Direct West Media Group Inc. about how you can make your business succeed in your particular market.

How to Extend Your Reach

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Business owners may be under the delusion that they should only advertise or market their business with one form of media. Perhaps you advertise your company in your local newspaper. You have a basic website and Twitter account set up. But the more avenues you use, the wider the reach to your audience.

What are some different methods to advertise or market your business? Wading through the options can take some time. Most businesses have a website but you’d be surprised at how many don’t. With today’s tech savvy shoppers, if you’re not online, you’re likely not going to get a visit.

Today, a savvy shopper will do their research before deciding if your business is worth a visit. They’ll check Yelp and Google Reviews to see your rating. They’ll visit your business’s website to see the range of services and products you provide. Can they order products online? How about ordering services? Can they order a meal online for takeout? If you run a restaurant, the menu should be posted online.

Customer testimonials posted to your website are a great way to advertise. Reading favorable reviews can draw someone to your business. You can place comment cards on your counter and offer a prize draw at the end of the month, to people who filled out the comments form.

Many small business owners refuse to use social media, claiming it’s a waste of time. But if you’re a business owner, and you ignore the value of social media, you’re missing out on a whole different consumer market. There’s thousands of social media sites, but Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google +, and Tumblr are holding steady for being the most popular.

Each social media site draws their own niche crowd. Social media can be used to promote your business. Once you’re set up, accounts should be updated daily. If you have coupons or specials, they can be posted online. If you have a shopping club card, you could talk about it. You may want to post photos of merchandise. Social media accounts don’t need to constantly promote your business. You can provide some fun articles and photos here too. For example, if you run a catering company, you could have a blog with party ideas. That way you’re not tiring your audience with constant chatter about coming in for a visit.

Video killed the radio star may be true, but podcasting is in, particularly with the younger crowd. Listening to radio and audio over the net has been steadily growing. There are many popular podcasts to listen to. And, advertising on a podcast is one of the options to advertise your business. It can be a whole lot cheaper than advertising on your local radio station too. So, give this a consideration.

Large format visual display billboards are often overlooked by small business owners. They are a highly effective way to reach that part of your audience who doesn’t have time to be online. They’ll effectively advertise your business on billboards near popular transit flows.

Television ads don’t have to be expensive. Most cities have a local cable channel where they run local programming. You can have an affordable 30 second spot and your message will directly reach your target market.

You can see that there are several different advertising and marketing models for you to choose from. Please contact Direct West Media Group Inc. and they’ll help you organize the best marketing plan for your business.

6 Reasons Why You Should Hire Direct West Media NOW!

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Direct West Media Group has the expertise and knowledge to effectively market your online business presence. Our specialists are available to handle all your advertising and marketing business needs. Why should you hire Direct West Media Group over one of our competitors? There’s so many advertising and marketing firms to choose from.

Here’s six reasons why you should hire Direct West Media Group to help your business on its way to becoming the most popular and successful business in your market.

  1. As a small business owner, when you’re first setting up your business it can be time-consuming handling all aspects of a startup. From project management to hiring, ordering, and accounting, you have many demands on your time. But marketing and advertising of your business is the single most effective way to draw more customers to your company. The more customers you have, the faster your business will grow, providing you with the financial support that you need to run it. When you hire an advertising and marketing firm, you are hiring their expertise and knowledge. Why spread yourself thin when you can hire Direct West Media Group to handle all your marketing and advertising needs? Now you’ll have the time to handle the running of your business, and someone else can handle the social media updates.
  2. Most small business owners don’t come from an advertising or marketing background. Likely you either have a business degree or a speciality in your type of business. You could be in restaurant or retail management, run an online business or provide business solutions. Likely you’ve had very little training in the advertising world and think that advertising means an ad placed in the newspaper. There are so many different advertising avenues, each with their advantages and disadvantages.
  3. Their advertising specialists are knowledgeable in all avenues of advertising media. From television to billboards, direct mail and radio, they’re familiar with what type of advertising works best with each type of business. Some methods work better than others. That’s why you’re hiring Direct West Media Group. Our services help your business reach your target market.
  4. Direct West Media Group has the most important contacts in the advertising industry. They can negotiate an affordable package deal, which works out to a lower cost for your business than if you had booked your advertising yourself. This gives your company more bang for your buck than if you contacted each of these companies on your own.
  5. Your advertising budget needs revision. You haven’t had time to spend on marketing and you’re out of touch with how much advertising costs today. Your newspaper ad budget could be from the 80s. It’s time to hire an expert specialist from Direct West Media Group to draw up a proper marketing plan.
  6. What is the number one reason why you should hire Direct West Media Group? Because you’re reading our blog right now and have just made the first step in fulfilling your business dreams!

Why should you hire Direct West Media Group? It all comes down to our knowledgeable specialists who possess the expertise to provide effective advertising and marketing solutions to help your business grow! Contact us now to get started on your way to success!