Google Places Is Important for SMB. Yelp, Facebook, Too! But . . .

Google Places Is Important for Small Business (SMB)! Yelp, Facebook, YouTube and Blogging too!  But….  

it is important to remember that even today more than half of all your new business and referrals are probably coming from traditional, other-than-online, marketing methods.  Print advertising, catalogs, tradeshows, in-store promotions, cross promotions, promotional products, outdoor signage, and many more traditional methods are still creating huge ROI for almost every kind of small business.

Add to that list:

1.  Hiring, training, and motivating of salespeople in the shop, in the field, and over the phone is a major part of most small businesses today. Getting this right can commonly be significantly more important than your ranking on Google places or how well your Facebook page is doing.  Getting it wrong can be a major disaster.
2.  Customer service is reigning supreme.  Why even spend time and money getting new clients if your employees are driving them away with bad attitudes or rude behavior.
3.  Brand and product selection, packaging, display, and in store signage is yet another part of the basics of marketing that may be getting overlooked. Are you offering high button shoes in a Nike world?
4.  Cost of goods or services, on time delivery, inventory control, turns are all a part of marketing.  While you are having fun figuring out how to get more Likes and G+, and followers, you can be losing money because your retail, wholesale or manufacturing warehouse has become a museum.
5.  Community involvement can be your number one source of new customers.  For local product and service providers, active participation in the chamber, rotary, LeTip, Boy Scouts, Little League, etc., can result in so much community good will that you never have to advertise at all.

This post is not designed to dissuade you from the importance of the online world, but rather to refocus your attention on things not internet.  By the way, my company can help with all of the above.  Call anytime at 310-910-1848.