One of the many excuses small business owners have for not getting enough push behind their online marketing efforts goes something like this: “I just don’t have the time to get into online marketing; that crap takes up too much energy and time.”
This is an excuse that has been widely accepted as a cold hard truth. But the fact of the matter is that it’s not as time-consuming as it seems. Actually, in the realm on the internet, the old adage of how online marketing takes too much time to do properly is becoming more of a myth day by day.
As a matter of fact, if you do your online marketing properly, it can actually save you time rather than suck it all away from you. By its very nature, online marketing allows you to reach more people with fewer resources than ever before. Tools like HootSuite are actually making it easier than ever for small business owners to do online marketing the right way and in less time.
Think about the nature of online marketing…it really comes down to three basic principles:
- Delivering quality content to those in your target audience
- Building your base and expanding your target audience
- Presenting your company to new people incrementally
Being able to do all of this within a couple of clicks is amazing. Yes, you need to generate the content. But even if the process of writing a post and then using social media and other quick and easy outlets to accomplish these three points takes an hour out of your day, the potential that hour has to bring you new revenue is well worth it.
So does online marketing take up a small business owner’s time? Yes. And if they outsource tasks like writing copy and taking care of social media matters, it can cost a bit of money.
But the power that online marketing provides is well worth these costs. That’s something to think about before you start complaining about how social media and online marketing are a waste of your time.
What are some ways your small business has found to implement online marketing without cutting into your time or cash flow?
