Brewer Marketing Group

Strategy...

As a business owner, you are in business to grow your sales and profits. Your business website and your marketing strategy should help you do both, otherwise you are wasting time and money.

Chances are you fall in one of 3 groups today:

You don’t have a business website or e-marketing strategy.
You have a website, but aren’t sure it’s helping your business as much as it could.
You have a website and perhaps a comprehensive e-marketing strategy and like what it’s doing for your business.

Let’s start with the 1st group. Every small business that relies on a customer actually walking into their place of business should, at a minimum, have a website. Many of your customers and prospects are web savvy, and they’ll use the internet to search for a business or find out more about one they already know. Chances are your competitors are already on the web, especially if they are part of a chain or franchise.

Sound marketing principles apply on the web too...

Maintaining an effective and professional looking presence on the web doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. Your business web site should reflect the unique style of your business, and most importantly, be informative. The web may have changed HOW you communicate information about your business, but it doesn't lessen the need to explain WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and WHY.

I advise business owners to develop and deploy their e-marketing strategy in phases, starting with a basic but professional web site that covers the five W’s. After measuring market response to the site, tweaks and expansions can take place in phases. The old adage that it’s important to choose the “right tool for the job”, is just as true today in the internet world as it was when we relied mainly on printed media. You wouldn't try to drive a nail with a sledge hammer, so why would you do more and spend more on your web site than is effective for your business?

Strive for cost efficiency and effectiveness...

It may sound overly simplistic, but it is very common for expensive, graphically sophisticated and visually beautiful web sites to omit one or more of these critical pieces of information. That’s because the sites were designed by graphic designers and not marketers.

Many providers in my business try to equate expensive with effective and conversely, cost efficient with unprofessional. In the internet world just like the real world, that’s not always the case. The real test is not how visually stunning your site is, it’s how good a job your site does at driving customers into your store.

To be effective from a marketing standpoint and efficient in terms of initial and ongoing costs, a web site should look professional AND be built on sound marketing principals.

If you have a web site already, is it working hard enough for you?

Lots of business owners are in the 2nd group– they’ve established a presence on the web, but aren’t sure what they’re getting for their investment.

Too many business sites are difficult to navigate, slow to load, or worst of all, inadequate in providing the basic information customers are looking for to begin with. These sites may win design awards for the developer or hosting company, but they often don't help increase sales. If you already have a website or e-marketing strategy, ask yourself these questions:

Is your current website working hard for you – pushing new customers into your door and helping you keep your existing customers interested?
Do you believe the investment you’ve made in your website has yielded positive returns - has it been a good use of your time and money?
Do you have a retention program, or a mechanism to offer specials or e-coupons?
Is your business identity consistent - in other words, is your name, logo, trademark or tagline and the overall look and feel of your business consistent across in all of your marketing and promotional materials?

If you can’t check off all these items, you could be driving more customers into your door, and BMG can help.

We're here to help you drive business...

If you have a website and comprehensive e-marketing strategy and confident it is working hard for you, congratulations, you fall in the 3rd group. You are in select company and are probably reaping the rewards in terms of sales and profits. If you are somewhere in between, or simply don’t know where to start, then lets talk.

BMG is in business to help you drive your business. We look for the most efficient ways to get your e-marketing program up and running.

We are not a web hosting company. We utilize several nationally known and recognized hosting companies to actually “host” your web site and e-mail services. Why is that important?

First of all, it’s less expensive for you. We don’t mark up the hosting services one cent. You see the actual invoices. Your domain and hosting accounts are in your name, we’re just your agent, and that agency can be revoked by you at any time.
Second, it’s more reliable for you. Small hosting companies can’t usually match the scale and redundancy of the national providers.

The BMG difference...

We are not a graphic design company that builds websites, we’re a marketing company that utilizes the web and internet technology as a part of your overall marketing strategy. The best e-marketing strategy in the world won’t help a business with poor fundamentals or lousy customer service. Driving more customers into your door who leave disappointed is a recipe for going out of business even faster.

One last point. Any website or code we create for you is your property. We use industry standard software applications, and make all source files available to you electronically. In fact, all your source files are backed up in a secure, password protected region of your website. If for any reason you should decide to take the maintenance of your site in-house or to another provider, everything we used to get you up and running is readily available, on-line.