Use Competitors’ Advertising to Build Your Business

Small businesses have many hurdles to overcome on their way to success.  Without sales businesses close up shop.  Without increased sales businesses do not grow.  The one avenue to increase sales is to advertise.  Successful business competitors have a solid element of advertising in place that produce profitable business.  It has been the norm for many decades that advertising was the cornerstone for business success.

Big corporate operations offer everything that small businesses do and according to the business model, at a good and profitable rate.  This is true, at least in the services industry at the retail level.  I am using this model for an example mainly because it is my background, one of in-home sales.  This type of business is one of the most challenging because of the competitors that cut pricing in order to gain the sale.

Let’s take the big box store selling home improvements.  A big corporate name that is recognized and trusted by many is exploited to sell goods and services to homeowners by skilled sales persons.  The sales operation is not part of the big box company.  It is a completely separate company that pays a large percentage for the use of the big box name, usually around 15% of the gross sales.

This type of operation starts with the connection with the big box name.  Expensive advertising is employed to acquire the leads for the sales department.  The leads are set-up and the sales force descends upon the unsuspecting homeowners with their dog and pony shows, fear tactics of the competition, value building and the very hard close.  These types of sales only result in about a 10% close ratio that survives without cancellation.  Where do the other 90% of the people that do not buy from the sales operations go for information after they have just been pressured into a high priced deal?

They go to the internet and they do a search for the product or service in which they are interested.  The company that is positioned to answer their search with a compelling website that makes the consumer feel comfortable.  A little text concerning “no pressure” or “no hassle” works to entice the already frazzled consumer to contact you.  You would be surprised how many people contact small businesses on the internet that have been hassled by the big box machine.

Now the big box store is your competitor so you don’t have to worry about the low-baller.  If your offering is reasonable and less than the big box store, you get approximately 60% or better of these deals if you know what you are doing.  Remember that the big box model has at least a 15% kick back to the mother company, and about a 10% commission for the sales person and the expensive advertising is in the price also.  The price is always at the very high end and almost always by far the highest price in the marketplace.

Now you as a savvy business owner have engaged the services of a professional website SEO artisan that has you positioned in all major and minor search engines, on the first page for all relative searches.  Your business gets the high quality leads.  The folks that respond to big box stores have one thing in common.  They are not that trusting and they need someone they can trust.  They also are already predisposed to a fairly high number for your service.  Your sales people answer the same questions every time they call on a big box customer.

These big box leads are so valuable that the shredder is the first place everything goes before the dumpster.  The dumpster of the big box operator is gold to criminals that routinely dumpster dive behind offices in search of these leads.  You don’t have to pay for big advertising but you can get the same results.  You are a smart business owner.  Your company grows like a weed and you open new offices to cover an increasingly larger region.

The internet beats every other kind of advertising.  I know because I have done this successfully for years.  The above is just one way the internet can work for some companies.  There is a multitude of business models but they all have one thing in common.  The informed and educated consumer is becoming the norm for all of them.  Where do you think they get informed?  If you answered the internet, you are correct.

Get your site listed on the front page of the SERPS (search engine result pages) and watch your company grow.  Contact us for a free consultation to find out what we can do for you.

-Bob W.