No One Cares About Your Golf Business!

I recently picked up a great book (World Wide Rave) that stressed a great concept that sadly most business owners cannot come to terms with. "No One Cares About Your Business, except you." What a sad reality but it is the honest truth.

In this day and age your customers are simply fed up with advertising and marketing as you know it. It's time to recognize that your customer does not want to hear your pitch, does not need to hear your product dump, or even see your list of services.

Here is a target market analysis for everyone. Your target market is a SELFISH. They are looking for ways to 1) help themselves 2) acquire assistance without involving you...until they're ready.

As aggravating as this may be, it is the world we live in. So how then is Company XYZ supposed to reach customers?

With over 70% of buying decisions beginning online, your company really needs to look at the internet as the main method of connecting with your customer. Having a web site does not count as reaching your customers online, shoot -my grandma has a blog and my uncle Tim has a MySpace page. To really reach your customers you need to start talking online, you need to become part of the environment your customers are involved in. Where are they going for product reviews? Are they using Google to find the nearest Realtor, Dentist, Plumber? Are they telling their friends on Facebook that they are in need of (insert your product or service here)?

Here are some tips about marketing online and converting visitors to sales.

NO DUMPING. Once online and involved in communicating with the world like a real person, not a business owner, you need to give the world something. You can be engaged in internet marketing and still commit the same sins of traditional advertising that people hate. So, don't product dump. Try to help someone for a change without selling them a widget. Lend some advice, establish yourself as an expert in your field and perhaps then you will get customers wanting to do business with YOU not your business.

The problem with your website! You want to be certain that your website is doing two things 1) being found 2) converting visitors. Notice how "look really cool" was not listed. Cool looking websites are just that, your website should be focused on capturing traffic and converting those leads from your internet marketing to genuine sales leads. Find out if your website is doing a good job of converting traffic to potential clients by running some simple diagnostics, try out a website grader . A simple evaluation can also give you great insight into how you can optimize your site to get more traffic - some of these strategies are FREE and just require a little elbow grease.

DON'T STOP. Promoting what problems you can solve and why you are worth your customers attention requires an ongoing effort. This is not paying for a print ad and waiting by the phone. Go out and get involved weekly or daily. Do not stop because if you are not helping your customers with valuable information chances are they are going to find help elsewhere...It's a great big world out there...