The level of digital marketing expertise among SMBs can vary dramatically. During his workshop session, Will Scott of Search Influence shared some tips on creating a winning sales pitch for the more savvy ones:
- Don’t beat around the bush
- It’s about them, not you
- Needs analysis – shouldn’t be how you fit what you do into their budget
- Alleviate pain
- Show, don’t just tell
- Use real feedback
- Make it easy to share
Savvy SMB’s today already know they need to use digital advertising and have a decent understanding of it. 81% use social media and 94% of those are doing so trying to acquire new business. They already know their customers are finding them on smartphones. So make sure you talk to them on their level.
Use the knowledge they have to help your sale.
Since data supports the growth in mobile use and savvy SMB’s already are aware of the importance of it, nothing is more compelling than mobile solutions. Search Influence found from its own clients that almost 50% of leads for criminal defense lawyers and surgeons came from organic Google mobile users. One of their clients also experienced a 30% loss of traffic recently that Will attributes to Google’s testing of their new Mopocalypse algorithm.
Google’s change will really benefit the large players like Yelp. So help your clients optimize listings on those types of sites. Helping an SMB solve or improve mobile marketing issues is appealing – it’s something they need and improved performance should be measurable and apparent.
Content sells.
In a mobile, social world, content is the driver.
- Consumers prefer to engage with content than traditional advertising.
- Make content compelling, engaging.
- Help the client produce effective content. They don’t have the time and rarely have the skill to do it.
- Content is the new currency
