This is part 1 of a 3 part educational series. If you’re an expert running a business in Africa, the ideas offered in this 3-part series can help you. This installment (Part 1) is sub-titled “Why You May Need To Change The Way You Find Buyers for Your Products and Services”. Any 21st century African business that depends more on paid traditional TV, Radio and print media for business promotion, is wasting money. Indeed, if you’re not using the ideas on offer here to find new clients and customers, YOU ARE LOSING PROFITS. I elaborate below…
Invite Me To Speak: If you’re reading this after 31st March 2013, I would have begun travelling slowly across West Africa as a Location Independent Entrepreneur. If you’re in West Africa click here to invite me to speak to your members or group on this topic.
Traditional Media are Not Bad – They Just Cost Too Much For Too Little
Capital is not easy to come by, for business startup or expansion in Africa. Very few can access funds adequate to start large enterprises or multinationals. That’s why African economies depend heavily on micro to medium businesses. If these smaller players can find buyers faster, with less effort, and at less cost, they would become more profitable. And that benefit, would create positive multiplier effects across the African economy.
This article explains why intelligent use of Low Cost Web Marketing Systems can help them achieve that goal faster than paying for access to traditional media.
What I’m trying to do in the African market is to get as many business owners as are willing to listen, to understand that there are other ways they can get customers or clients interested in actally paying good money to get their products even if the market is down.
The Web Marketing I propose will complement and not replace whatever methods you already use. However, over time you may find it worthwhile to reduce your use of the latter, if/when it becomes obvious that they cost your more money, time and effort.
Two Questions You Need To Ask Yourself About Your Marketing
It’s time people began to think of the fact that obvert hew last 15 to 20 years, they’ve followed the same trafitional; methods of marketing and advetixing, spenting quaite a lot of money on a daily, weekly, monthly basis, to get customers to come and pay for their products and services.
Over trhe years, we’ve found thayt there has been a new market, or let me say a new method of markeing that allows you to get probably the same or even beytter results, without spending up to half of what yopu currently spent.
First question. You spend money on newspaper adverts, TV and radio jingles, and then you waith,. 9 times out of 10 people who do these kinds of things say “Oh, that’s what everyone else does.”
The question I ask is this; If every othewr person is doing it, can you afford to do what they’;re doing? Will you get the same results they get? And will the resuts you get, be satisfactory, for you, in terms of your bottom line, your profits, how much you get to keep in your pockets, after you take out all your expenses?
At the end of the day, if you find thayt you are not able to account, for a significant increase in your profit margins, then that method of marketing is not doing as well as it should, and you need to think of other ways.
What You Need To Do
I believe one of the smartest ways to do business is to find customers at little or no extra expense over what you are already spending.
So first of all, I say you have to do what is called a Mind Shift. Change the way you think about your marketing. Begin to consider that you can actually find peiopkle who will pay good money to get your products and services without seeing one expensive ad by you in any of the traditional media – be it radio, TV, newspapers or what have you.
Secondly: Consider a method of marketing that makes it possible for you to stay visible, to be noticed, and followed and contacted by potential customers, year in year out, without your having to spend one extra kobo, or naira, or dollar – depending on where you;’re living or where you’re based. That’s what I’m talking abvout.
A Web Marketing System helps you to leverage those kinds of marketing channels to your advantage, and make them work for you even when you’re asleep.
What you want is a situation where, every now and then – and with an increasing frequency over time – people who need your products and services pick up the phone at 8.00am in the morning and call you and say:
“Hello. I found out XYZ about you while I was doing ABC somewherw an dI’d like to know how much it would cost to get ABCD that you offer”.
And this guy would be talking with you obviously in a state of mind that shows that s/he is ready to pay good money to get what it is you offer, because your WMS would have done its job of getting him or her to that level of decision making readiness.
Final Words
What you have just read is part 1 of a 3 part series titled “Why You Need A Web Marketing System (WMS)”. Part 2 will be published next week.
Part 1 of 3: Why You Need To Change The Way You Find Buyers for Your Products/Services
Part 3 of 3: Why You Need a Web Marketing System (WMS) – Part 3 of 3
There is a lot more you need to know. This series is available as a keynote speech, a half-day or full-day workshop – or request for audio/video versions. E-mail tayo at tksola dot com with “Re: Why You Need A Web Marketing System” as the subject.