WHERE’S ALL THE FREE MONEY AND WHAT DOES IT COST?

Recently I’ve been giving a lot of FREE information away over the internet regarding how to market your business more effectively. At times I wonder how much of that information is actually falling on deaf ears, or blind eyes. If I equate the time spent preparing – researching, writing, and then the time marketing this FREE information, how much money is it actually costing me? More importantly if you’re not receiving that message how much is it costing YOU.

Well lets figure out how much time is being spent giving all this free information away. Let’s say a well thought out article with research and development is 4 hours. As a consultant, fees could range anywhere from seventy five dollars to three hundred dollars per hour, so three hundred to twelve hundred dollars of billable time is invested in developing this free information to help others. The information, which is not being utilized by anyone because it’s falling on deaf ears or blind eyes, is potentially costing that individual thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost sales.

So why is this happening?

Questions that I get from many businesses who call to discuss their marketing issues and who are looking for new ways to generate business are basically the same; why isn’t this working, why are my sales off, how come people are not spending money with me.
There are many obvious reasons; economic times, unemployment, fear of losing a job, the list could go on. But is it really that, or is it like the free information I give away? Your message could be falling on deaf ears or blind eyes too.

Take a look at ALL of your marketing, especially now when unemployment has hit an all time high since 1983 of 10.2 percent, and begin to figure out how you need to compete in this economy as it throttles down in 2010, and by all indications it will continue to do so. Every single thing you do to market your business will some how cost you money- your money that is freely spent to “educate” those customers who can take advantage of your offerings. Lastly, do not, I repeat, do not stop marketing and advertising your products or services. The fastest way to lose more business is to become non-existent in the public’s, more importantly, your customer’s eyes. You need to find the most effective ways to spend your marketing dollars in a down economy, but keep your focus and marketing message on point.

Oh, and for the record, sorry there is no free lunch, and no free money. Everything has its price.

INCREASE YOUR SALES USING VIDEO

Now more than ever, relationship marketing is a key factor for business success. Networking events are a great place to start building those relationships. But what happens when the event is over?

Most of us will follow-up with the contacts we’ve been able to make, but have you considered what those new contacts are doing with your information?

How many times have you met a new contact or prospect and almost immediately upon meeting another from XYZ company, you get into a conversation about what that previous contact you’ve met does in their business?

It happens to me frequently. So if you are a good marketer, you are compelled to pass the new contacts information to the “newer” contact. Connecting people is what relationship marketing is all about. If you’re the person who’s being referred, the first place they will look to find out more information about you and your business is your website. When they get there, what are they going to see and or hear?

If you don’t have a video describing your business, or a testimonial video from one of your most important clients you may never get that call. Content is king on a website, so what better way to indirectly meet a new client and instill a sense of confidence than with a video on your website.

Creating a company video testimonial is easy and inexpensive. Once created it can be easily added to your website and distributed over the internet. There are even techniques to “fully optimize” your video on search engines such as Google with positive search results seen as soon as 24 to 48 hours.

If your business relies on search results for sales and your website isn’t pulling high rankings, consider the use of a video for the internet. It could significantly move you up the results page ladder and help to convert more sales.

Video on the internet in 2009 now accounts for more than HALF of all internet traffic.

In just 2 years, video which was almost non-existent has grown to more than 50% of all content on the internet. According to YouTube, which has grown to 100 million viewers earlier this year, staggering numbers of new videos are being uploaded each day.

Video is the most powerful medium for sales…ever. Blasting GOOD video over the internet is the most economical form of marketing you can do today.

Here are some statistics:
• Text only websites show viewers stay an average of 42 seconds, but websites that have “relevant” video content show viewers staying more than 5 minutes.
• 70% of all individuals on the internet view at least one video per month (There are almost 1.7 billion internet users worldwide in 2009. Do the math.).
• Internet users have grown 362% since 2000, with more than 24% penetration. Internet viewers view more than 14 billion online videos monthly, 5 billion on YouTube alone.
• YouTube has grown into the fourth largest searched website portal on the internet taking in 12% or more of all web traffic worldwide.
• More people watch video on the internet than broadcast TV each week.
So what do all of these statistics mean for you? It’s a viral marketing world at its best ready to be taken and after any production costs, totally FREE. Video exposure when done correctly drives traffic to your website, and traffic equals sales. If you’re not leveraging the power of video on your website, you could be missing more than half- 50% of your potential market share.

If you’re not using video to help market your business on the internet maybe you need to. With numbers like these and a captive audience, you can be a market share winner too.