In these economic times the last thing business owners should do is cut advertising and marketing. Lead generation creates new customers and new customers create the life blood of any business – cash flow.

This following cartoon says it best…

Business Without Advertising

No matter how wonderful your product or service is, no matter how well you take care of your customers, the fact is if your potential prospect doesn’t know how to find you, your business will diminish rapidly.

Every form of marketing works – unfortunately, not for everyone. It’s important that the message is delivered through the appropriate medium and in the correct way i.e. correct message to market.

Word of mouth advertising is without a doubt one of the most successful forms of marketing. Some businesses rely significantly on it, but any business should use a number of mediums to safe guard themselves against ups and downs.

It still amazes me how few businesses have an online presence, given that every year more people are using the web to find businesses and do research.

There was a time when one had to go to every shop to do one’s research. Now you can get online and do it all in the comfort of your home, review other people’s experiences and reduce the risk of making a poor decision.

Of course you’d say I’m biased. That’s fair. But the fact is looking at statistics, the behaviour of your customer is changing.

Change with your customer, or your customer will change who they do business with.