How Long Island Businesses Miss The Mark(eting)

by | Oct 8, 2013 | Articles, Traditional Marketing

Long Island Map. By Dhaluza at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], from Wikimedia CommonsOctober 8, 2013: Many business owners on Long Island seem to believe that they’re doing enough to market themselves online as long as they maintain a decent website, pay for some banner advertising, and have “a marketing assistant doing some social media.”

This strategy may have worked in 1999, or even in 2005, but it’s a recipe for failure in today’s digital world in which savvy, connected, demanding customers seek up-to-date, relevant information about products, prices, and services.Nationally, it’s not unusual to find firms whose online budgets constitute 50% of their total marketing spend. On Long Island, the opposite is true — we often find clients in a state of confusion about how to profitably market in the online space. Fortunately, it’s not that hard for small and medium-sized Long Island businesses to get up to speed in today’s digital marketplace.Here are some ways to tackle the online to help your bottom line.

Mobile-Friendly Website: Nowadays, a smart phone is like a wristwatch – we take it everywhere. Every Long Island business site must have the capability to be accessed from a smart phone.If people cannot easily read or find your website from a smart phone, you are losing customers.

Search Engine Behavior: Why not try putting a hold on your print advertising for three months and test a Search Engine Marketing plan? Within that time period, you can find out so much information about current and potential customers’ online searching behaviors related to your business and industry. Search Marketing experts can test search terms, which will provide specific key words that will drive your business profitability. You can then spend or optimize more heavily on those key terms, as well as sprinkle them in a natural way in your website text and other content, boosting your company’s online search rankings.

Successful Social Media Strategy: A common mistake that Long Island businesses make is posting anything just to say they posted. An effective social media campaign needs to be conducted like a public relations campaign. It is very important to identify the objectives, target audiences, tactics, and the most appropriate social media platforms for your customers, as well as construct 3-week editorial calendars which outline posts. While posts do need to be generated in real-time, it is important to prepare pre-written posts as well. Also critical – write posts less about your brand and more about your industry.

Content is King: Long Island Businesses should do all they can to re-purpose content through as many channels as possible. For example, if a company creates a promotional video, in addition to posting it on its website, it should be shared on YouTube and Twitter.This article has been published in the Marketing section of LIBN (Long Island Business News) October 4-10, 2013 Issue

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