There are lots of ways to bring in new business over the Internet, but some work faster than others. We suspect this is a big reason why so many online marketers struggle with questions of whether to work with proactive advertising strategies versus other approaches that are more effective, but take a lot longer.
How are You Attracting New Customers?
For the most part, “push” strategies like e-mail campaigns, pay per click advertising, banner ads, and other paid tools tend to work a lot faster than anything else. In other words, you start them in the morning, and they can be bringing you profits by afternoon. Longer-term promotions like article marketing, social media integration, customer referral programs, and so on usually take weeks, months, or even years to put in motion… but once you do, they can help you create customer relationships that last for a long, long time.
So, what’s your best strategy for attracting customers? Generally speaking, you’ll want to start out by using the faster methods – few businesses, online or otherwise, can go very long without new sales – but never get so caught up in them that you forget to try some of these more cost-effective long-term tools. Eventually, what you want is a business that is steadily growing its revenue without being entirely dependent on a huge advertising budget to keep going.
There’s no “right” answer to the web marketing mix – different companies are going to have to find customers and clients in different ways. But by emphasizing short-term sales in the short term, and long-term growth over time, you put your company in a position to have an easier time answering these questions in the future.