Offline marketing is the traditional mean of approaching your potential customers and usually small businesses contact marketing companies to buy prospect lists so they can reach to their target audience. However, there are many flaws associated with this approach besides cold calling strangers and trying to persuade them into something. PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act) in Singapore and APPs (Australian Privacy Principles) have made things difficult for small businesses because now not only they have to be in compliance with the law but the fines for breaking the laws are too high.
Direct marketing or offline marketing has become difficult because of these main reasons.
- Small businesses cannot possibly afford equipment and means for adequate date protection. This is not just about protecting the company’s data at whole from hackers and cyber criminals but it also includes the privacy of customers’ data being intact even during the day-to-day operations. The data should be encrypted all the time and unnecessary data should be deleted securely.
- Insufficient background information of the marketing company is also a big hurdle. While purchasing the prospect lists, small businesses need to do background check of the vendor and the process could be costly, time consuming and even ineffective in some cases. The buyers must know how the list was curated and how the data was collected.
- Privacy laws are continuously evolving and businesses need to keep themselves updated all the time. For small businesses, it could be a problem as they need to hire specialized staff for this purpose.
The alternative is online marketing strategies which have proven themselves not only cost efficient but also more effective than direct marketing strategies. Some of the marketing tactics are publishing great contents, interacting with customers and potential buyers via social media, creating videos to attract viewers, use infographics and developing an attractive website.
Your business website is your online identity and that’s the first thing your potential customers would see while searching for the products or services you offer. Make sure you have a catchy domain name and your website is responsive and performs well. Create a separate section for contents on your website and post great contents there regularly.
It could be once per day or even once per week but make sure it is periodic because search engines like Google love seeing regular activities on websites. Not only search engines but people would also like to see new contents on the website. You don’t have to adopt sale tone in your contents but the purpose of articles and blogs on your website is to provide value and valuable information.
Once in a while you can mention your products or services but that’s it. Social media can help you reach your target audience based on their age, sex, marital status, geographical location and other factors. You can target ads specifically to those people to increase your conversion rate.
For more information on finding a marketing agency to help your business to overcome the marketing obstacles and PDPA, visit http://www.mediaonemarketing.com.sg/
