There's good marketing advice and bad marketing advice, but this specific "almost good" advice has been irking my nerves as of late so I want to address it once and for all.
During a consult my buddy Tyler from A1 Sewer and Drains told me that he'd tried out Facebook ads to no avail. He was clearly peeved at the waste of money with no ROI.
Why did Tyler do it? Because the widespread advice is to go where your customers are, and all of our customers are certainly on Facebook. But it's not that simple. In fact, by that logic car salesmen should then travel to their local grocery stores to make commission when there's a slow day on the lot, and I should certainly seek out web design clients at my local library. Wait, that doesn't sound right, does it?
It doesn't sound right at all, because it's not. Going where your customers are located is only one part of the puzzle. You also have to be where your customers are looking for you, and had Tyler contacted me sooner I would have been happy to remind him that no one looks for Plumbers on Facebook--and how important that tidbit of information is in his endeavors. They're checking Google, Angie's List, and asking their friends, so those platforms are where his biggest ROI is located.
Simply put, locating where your customers are looking for you is the same thing as locating your ROI. Then all you have to do is go in and grab it.
Marketing on the web will help every business, but not every location on the web is built for your business. Be mindful of where your target audience is most likely to want what you're selling them.
This post is cross-posted from Bootstrap Millennial where you can find more marketing advice from Tori Reid.