Forget Marketing

Recently, a good friend of mine approached me with his idea for his new business.  Boys and girls, I highly recommend Abacus Consulting Group for whatever business solutions you need.  Not only have the CEO and I worked together in the past, but he is also a great friend.  Here’s a little about them:

Using innovative approaches, advanced methodologies and a small, talented staff, supplemented by specialists from our strategic partners, Abacus Consutling Group provides scalable business solutions to help companies achieve success.

ACG has been providing internet consulting, strategic marketing, branding, web development, web design, system integration and many other business consulting solutions for B2B, B2C and B2E since 2000.

Our approach stems from the three most important business growth aspects: helping companies reach prospects, assist in converting prospects to customers, and assist in retaining those customers. This is accomplished through our interactive solutions and expertise in providing a memorable and positive user experience.

Our proven expertise in strategy, design and technology allows us to create business solutions that excite and inspire, are easy to navigate, and enable businesses to strengthen their competitive advantage.

We pride ourselves on our ability to quickly adapt, master and leverage emerging technologies to meet and exceed business goals. For example, we’re currently working on several groupware sites using the social networking capabilities of Elgg.

ACG’s founder and president, Paul Stewart, has over twelve years of experience in the software industry and has worn a multitude of hats including developer, systems administrator, project manager and strategic consultant. Most recently, Paul served as senior developer for the Volpe Center, the research and technology innovation arm of the United States Department of Transportation. Prior to that, Paul served as Webmaster for Perot Systems, supporting their contract at Tufts/New England Medical Center in Boston.

As the owner of a web development company (Synergy75.com), I am constantly coming across new clients who are excited about their ideas, hopes, and dreams for their new web development project. I’ve built dozens of websites from complex ecommerce websites (IonLife) to extremely simple and low-key projects (RedFish). Time and time, again, clients of all shapes and sizes always ask me questions about how the server they are going to use will handle an obscene amount of traffic - will it shut down? Will the server run slowly? Will the server fail entirely wreaking havoc on their long-awaited (and costly) hopes and dreams? Most people who are developing a website believe the old Field of Dreams phrase, “If You Build It, They Will Come” applies to web developement and Internet marketing. But it doesn’t.

While it’s clearly not my job to bash my potential client’s hopes from the get-go, it is my job to be real with them on what to expect before, during, and after a project has been completed. In very rare cases (IE MySpace & Facebook), a new web platform is launched spurring an amazing onslaught of word-of-mouth marketing that doesn’t cost a dime. Before MySpace or Facebook knew what was happening, they had literally thousands of members! They truly broke the mold of traditional marketing - MySpace did not spend a dime on advertising their own website. This is not the norm.

[ad#ad111]

I have explained to my customers again and again that after my company (or another) is finished with their website, that’s when the real hard work comes into play. It’s simply not enough to build the website - you then need a way to show people that you exist, that your costly project is important enough to take a look at, and that your somehow relevant to their busy lives.

Getting people to come to your website is simple - but tedious. I usually explain Internet marketing to my clients this way - it’s exactly like pushing a car! When you first try to push a car, you give it all your possible strength - you literally give it all you’ve got. But it doesn’t budge! Still, you keep giving it every ounce of strength in your body and it eventually moved an inch. Encouraged by this slight movement, you give it another burst of strength, and it starts to slowly move. After a few more tense moments, your energy has succeeded and the car starts to roll! Now, you’re simply jogging beside it giving it a tap every now and again.

Unfortunately, Internet marketing is very much like pushing a car. At first, the marketing campaign needs to be jump started - and it will take a lot of time and energy to do so. This is where most of your marketing dollars, your time, and your energy will be spent - and at first, it will seem like nothing is happening. Finally, after nearly exhausting all of your resources, your marketing campaign will start to pay off. From there, all you need to do is jog along side and give it a nudge every once in a while.

This blog was created to help any person who has created any type of website to get over the initial “push” process of their Internet marketing campaign and to hit the ground running. We will be talking about all of the relevant Internet marketing tricks, tips, and techniques, and also talking about technical issues such as Wordpress, Joomla, and other popular web development solutions.

Please feel free to get in touch with us (Synergy75.com) and ask any questions - from tips on Internet marketing to advice on how much to pay for your next web project, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!