Where To Find HFP

The Importance of Being Relevant
by Vickie Carey, HFP CTO

If you have a company and you’re doing business in today’s world, a big part of your marketing is done online. But simply having a website isn’t enough. A company, any company no matter how small or how big must be innovative and keep the interest of its customers in marketing campaigns.

For companies that sell products, this is generally an easy task. New products are available and updates to the company’s website are constant. The social media advertising of those campaigns can grab a customer into their site which then needs to hook the sale.

Service companies are a little different. Most of their services don’t change a great deal from month to month. They may offer discount programs during the course of the year. Or promote certain services during winter months vs. summer months. But let’s face it, services can be a little harder to market than that new shiny sprinkler head.

One of the best ways to keep your internet marketing fluid and interesting is to offer expert advice each week or even once a month for some companies is enough. The idea behind this form of marketing is to keep your brand in front of your customers. You also want to keep them interested by showcasing your knowledge and experience to new customers. It also gives you something to share on social media sites besides the usual dry tweets or posts that say “Come see what we can do for you today!”

But again, that’s not enough if you don’t gain insight into how that social media marketing is working for you. No matter what the size of your company, at a minimum, you should be making a monthly review of your efforts. For larger companies this may need to be done weekly or even daily if you’re big enough. This is called Internet or Web Analytics.

To be honest, the governing bodies who define these things for the Information Technology (IT) industry can’t agree on a definition of what Web Analytics really is. I’ve been working in IT for over 30-years and there’s always someone who wants to define an IT process this way, while everyone else wants to define it that way. But Analytics has been around in one form or another since the late 1990s, so this is nothing new.

Basically, Web Analytics is a process of reviewing the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts. How many hits does your site achieve, how many of those are from unique visitors to your site, what posts or product campaigns are more popular than others and so on. Knowing this information and being able to review the data can give any company information for how to target their online marketing and take advantage of customer interests.

For instance, if you’re a services company like we are and you write an expert post that blows up the internet, you may want to offer more of that same type of information again to attract new customers. Even customers who don’t even know they’re customers may find their way to your business because they’re looking for something and your article came up in a search result.

A Fire Prevention Sprinkler company might write an article about How A Fire Sprinkler Works to put out a fire. That could have general interest to builders, architects, engineers and engineering students and so on. To get that information out to a wider audience, that same sprinkler company can write that article with a universal interest; Fire Protection Sprinkler Systems – Do Fire Sprinklers Really Work Like They Do In The Movies?

Send that line out on Twitter and you’ve opened the door to nearly everyone on the planet who’s seen someone in a movie hold a lighter up to a sprinkler that sets off every head on the office floor. Now you’re reaching people who may not need you today, but next week or next month when a movie goer is in the planning stages for opening their new carpet business across town, they’re going to remember reading your article and that might bring them to you for servicing their new business.

Thanks to the internet, the world has become a little smaller for doing business. We’re able to connect to more people in more areas than ever before. Even if you reach people out side your service area, those connections can help you build your brand, strengthen your reputation and show case your business for projects those people may become involved with where you do work.

Put in a little effort each month for your online presence, review your analytics and see how much it benefits your business. Consider all the free advertising you have at your fingertips and look into the many ways you can connect to business partners and customers through social media. Between these two efforts, you can target your business, market your services and grow your company.

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