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Keeping the Lights on in Small Business America: Marketing as a Utility

What is marketing? We could start with the fundamentals—that at the heart of marketing is messaging, getting what you have to say about a person, place, thing, cause, brand or product to the right people in the right place at the right time, resulting in them—your audience—buying it, metaphorically or literally.
And it is simply that; but given the access a digitally captured audience has—screens in every eyeball, mandatory ads peppered into every form of media like the spice you never asked for or saw coming—execution of marketing that is efficient, effective, genuine and not intrusive (annoying) is anything but remedial in its implementation.
Long story short, there are a lot of parties interested in a limited amount of attention, and whoever gets it makes more bread.
Oh yeah … and you have to do it.
The age of being the only game in town went the way of the dinosaur when the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network had the bright idea to hook multiple computers together to form a net. From that action, in 1968, blossomed the World Wide Web, or the Internet, a series of autonomous networks working in tandem to funnel information, currency, cat videos and Dr. Squatch artisanal soaps around the aforementioned world. You can get almost anything anywhere now—including Google in the Amazonian Jungle.
Neat, right?
The point is, you are not the only one selling whatever it is you’re selling—nuts, bolts, hand-crafted toffee, singing telegrams, recruiting services; any product or service has a market that is no longer as defined by geography. If you are trying to secure a sale or send an invoice, the reality is, someone is after your business, and if you don’t have a presence in the minds and on the screens of the right Americans—and potentially beyond—there is a good chance they will get it.
Every current generation is online. While millennials tend to spend more time online, let’s turn to a generation that is a little less obvious on the digital side—cue the ominous horns—baby boomers. Baby boomers control 51 percent of the wealth in this country, use more than 70 percent of the disposable income in the U.S., and … survey says … they are 15 percent more likely to switch from brands they are loyal to than Gen X. Also, more than 82 percent use at least one social media platform, 96 percent use search engines, and 95 percent use email. That is around 71 million Americans with a lot of money ready to spend on something that provides better quality, better service and more beneficial outcomes—if they hear about it and can thus be sold on it.
Looking past boomers, at younger generations who will in time control the vast holdings of those that came before, they only integrate into the digital vastness of the interweb more intensely—and all those consumers make decisions based upon commercials, banners, clicks, and other actionable information provided to them in some form or fashion by digital marketing.
Without digital marketing, you are a ghost waiting in an old house for a family to haunt. Maybe one will drive by, take a closer look, see the place has potential—good bones as they say—take a chance, sign a lease, redo some floors, slap on some paint, install new countertops, install new lighting and really bump up the ambiance, and BY CHANCE you might have a nice place to knock things over in the middle of the night and scare some people … or you could get a realtor and find the right folks for you and avoid the otherworldly disappointment by hiring someone who is professionally visible.
Leaving things to chance is never a smart business decision. Sure, there are a lot of variables we can’t control in the markets we work within, but our brand placement isn’t one of them—and it’s one of the easiest to take measure of and make adjustments to. Throughout history, newsboys screaming “Extra, extra!,” carnival barkers barking “Step right up!,” close-out sign holders spinning, mascots cartoonishly waving, emails finding people however they find them—marketing has been the utility that keeps all the other essentials switched on because it gets people through the door, puts butts in seats, and presents clients, customers, users, partners—whatever you call the people you do business with—the opportunity to be impressed, wowed, for an impression to be made and a relationship to be started or strengthened just as surely as the electricity needed to illuminate a “We’re Open” sign.
It is the venue, the medium, through which every sale is made possible, every deal is struck, and it is inseparable from success in a world that no longer relies solely or at all on the physical storefront.
“No one does what we do how we do it.” Yes, they do. And even if you are right and I’m wrong, and no one really does what you do how you do it, how are they ever going to know about it? Referrals can be a powerful resource, but a referral doesn’t KNOW you… they’ve only heard about you.
Now, perception takes over, research is done, websites are explored, and, without a curated and developed brand that sells your ability to deliver, that potential business is even less of a sure thing. Well-managed and professionally created digital marketing is more than just ad spend and SEO, it’s a history of connecting with customers, showing a vested interest in meeting needs, exceeding expectations, and staying an active contributor to the communities you contribute to.
The days of (digital) marketing as a luxury are over. Marketing is now as utilitarian as paying the power bill, and as necessary when it comes to keeping the lights on.
If you are ready to work with a marketing partner who is in it for the long haul—or if you just want to refute this opinion—reach out. We’re ready to talk.
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