Tuesday 16 September 2014

What Your First Step In Digital Marketing Should Be (huffingtonpost.com)

Digital marketing and eCommerce are key tactics for growing business. However, tons of businesses contact us confused on where to start and where their money would get the most mileage. Do they invest in Google Ads? Content Marketing? Hire a social media guru or pay for search-engine optimization? Those are all viable options, but as an organization that takes a holistic view to a businesses' digital platforms, we focus on the low hanging fruit first which usually means...
...building or getting an app.
Apps help save money (streamline processes) or make money (sell new stuff). Most businesses have areas where an existing app can be inherited solve a problem or a new app can be built for cheaper than the cost of continuing to doing things the way they are. These usually center around serving existing customers better and saving time - which both result in more money. Managers of car dealerships have issues getting their sold cars delivered to customers on time. Carcal is a car delivery calendar app to streamline the process for them. Now cars get out ahead of schedule.
Smaller retail businesses can put their products online and start selling using Shopify,Volusion or another shopping cart app. They can also use Google's Product Listing Ads (an app itself) to expand their market overnight.
Some apps save and make money. A tennis club could use a web/mobile reservation system so people could reserve and pay for tennis courts online. This would effectively make them open 24/7/365 (sell new stuff), remove paperwork and cut-down on phone calls (streamline processes), build a customer database with email addresses and other contact details (streamline processes), encourage weekly club visits via reminders and coupon codes (sell new stuff) and understand court reservation patterns (streamline processes).
Think your business is 'too complicated' for an app or there isn't 'an app for that' yet? Go get a sobriety test. Pay a small amount to have someone build your app for you if it doesn't exist (they are cheaper to make then you think). Remember, you can book an airline ticket, buy a car and apply for a mortgage using web and mobile apps. Chances are you can use an app in your business.
It's definitely not the popular choice to start your digital marketing mission, but nothing will change your business faster. Use the momentum of an app to unlock the potential of the digital marketing world.

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