Lead Generation in the Digital Eco System

I was reading through a business plan the other day. It was sent to us from a budding entrepreneur in the UK. He was looking for some tips and guidance on the market opportunity and “fund-ability” of his plan. In the business plan, he referred to the online marketplace as “The Digital Eco-System”.

"The online marketplace…an eco-system?" I asked myself.

I thought about that term a bit more…and then it dawned on me.

This cat is absolutely right.

The next generation of small business marketing is less about what I have to say about myself and my business and much more to do with what OTHERS have to say about me and my business. (Please let that soak in if that’s the first time you’ve been introduced to this concept).

Think about it…

It used to be that you could write long-copy sales letters, buy in-your-face yellow page ads, promise great service, make structure and function claims about a product and more.

It didn’t really matter if the product/service was effective or not. If you were a savvy marketer, you could get people to buy.

But today, the game has changed. I can’t think of the last thing I bought where I didn’t first check with google, yahoo, facebook and a bunch of customers (reviews).

How about you? 

That's the new Digital Eco-System in action.

WHAT IS THE DIGITAL ECO-SYSTEM?

The Digital Eco-System is the rapidly expanding online environment made up of search engines, social media, peer advocacy and customer reviews. It is a living, breathing entity in and of itself and it grows more sophisticated and detailed every day. It is an environment in which businesses will either thrive, stagnate or meet their ultimate demise.

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SMALL BUSINESS?

As recently as a couple of years ago, you could be a small business owner and do just fine without actively participating in this Digital Eco-System. You could simply say “We’re not playing that online game. That’s a game for techies and young people.”

All you had to do was pay a graphic designer to build a brochure-type website with the typical “who we are, what we do, how to reach us” model. Then you simply added your website URL to your business cards, yellow page ads, coupon mailers and other advertising. And Voila! Your contribution to online marketing was complete.

Interestingly enough, for a while that was enough to still keep the phone ringing.

But an alarming trend has begun over the past 18 months or so and it is yet to reach it’s full crescendo.

The advertising still costs just as much. You’re still attending all the same networking events. You’re executing your 2009-10 marketing plan to a “T”.

But the marketing plan is not working as well as it used to.

WELCOME TO THE NEW DIGITAL ECO-SYSTEM WHERE YOU MUST ENGAGE AND ACTIVELY WORK THE SYSTEM TO THRIVE IN IT.

As a small business owner you must understand that the rules of marketing have changed…forever.

SO HOW IS YOUR SMALL BUSINESS DOING WITH THE TRANSITION?

This is a wake up call to small business to do what needs to be done to thrive in this new digital eco-system.

Here are the 7 keys I have found that transform small businesses from the “old school” marketing ways to the Next Generation of small business marketing.

1. Dominate online search in your category. At a minimum, make sure your company can be found in local searches. Better yet, work to build authority for national search.

2. Maximize social media –  For around $500 per month, you can outsource to a firm that can manage your entire social media footprint for you. So if social media is a mystery of sorts for you, just have someone else do it. 

3. Leverage peer advocacy – Stop expecting those incestuous business card swap events to build your business. Those programs worked in the 90's and early 2000's. They don’t any more. A healthy eco-system is made up of organisms that live symbiotically together. That means more than just handing someone a stack of your business cards and expecting the phone to ring. It means “advocating” on others behalf and having your fans “advocating” for you. Build a team of 4-5 non-competing entrepreneurs and commit to truly advocate for each other.

4. Reposition your brand – If you are a financial planner who thinks their target audience is *anyone with 100k to invest*, you are going to lose (big time) in this new world. Define your target audience better than that and market to that niche group. Ask yourself this question “Who is the person AND situation for which my product/service is ALWAYS the BEST choice?” That is your target audience. Dump the rest. You’ll get a much better ROI and get rich in the process. Focus like a laser beam on your target audience.

5. Build a communication matrix – Identify all the groups of people you communicate with (prospects, customers, loyal clients, vendors etc) and design a communication strategy for each group individually. Ask yourself what the key message is that they need communicated to them - at what frequency - and through what medium. Stop sending the same “newsletter” to everyone in your database. That again, is 1980’s marketing. It doesn’t work anymore. It just makes the post office rich(er). Segment your marketplace, identify their needs and communicate to them the way they want to be communicated with. Some will just need a monthly email, others will want a phone call. Others yet, would prefer to just stay updated on twitter or facebook.  

6. Get tribal and accountable…company-wide – If you are not following at least 5 experts in different fields of interest, you stand to lose in the digital eco-system. If every one of your employees (yes, even those on the factory floor) are not following experts in their field, your company will fall behind in the digital eco-system. Gone are the days of attending a seminar or trade show here and there. Business is moving at such a rapid pace, that unless you are plugged into experts who keep you on the leading edge of what is going on, you’ll get left behind. Find some tribes to join and then get your entire staff to join tribes of their own. Create accountability around it. Let a different staff member present their latest learnings at each staff meeting. It’s mission critical to your long term success.

Each of the 6 strategies above are really an article all to themselves. I'd be glad to dig into any or all of these strategies as follow up posts if you would like. Just use the comment area below to ask questions that will allow me to dig further for you.

Also, if there are some other strategies you would like to contribute that you feel would add value to this topic, please add them as comments as well.