Cloud Warrior Shares Revealing Story About High Cost of Old School Thinking for Small Business Marketing Results
Last week I coined a new phrase for people like me who work online every day and leverage the sheer power of cloud computing. There are millions of small business owners, professionals and others who leverage cloud computing every day. Some of us take it for granted. True Cloud Warriors do not. Especially when it comes to small business marketing.
Here’s a story that reveals how costly it is for a small business owner to “get stuck” in old school thinking when it comes to small business marketing success and results.
The short version is that a father and son are deliberating the value of online marketing for the future success of their business. They work together. The father is the founder. The son drives the marketing and most of their marketing takes place in the cloud.
The data the son brings in to the father reveals that the single biggest driver of new business is their online marketing. The stuff they do in the cl0ud such as pay per click advertising, blogging, and marketing automation with Infusionsoft.
The son is building a case for investing more in their online marketing. The father is arguing against it.
Why? My interpretation of what happened here is this. The father is somewhat old school in his thinking. Despite the data the son delivers to him, the father “feels” it makes more sense to invest in other areas to grow the business. Yet the son has built a convincing case to the contrary. The father ignores the facts.
To be honest, I am oversimplify here. I wasn’t privy to their conversation. I heard the son’s side of the story. Yet in listening carefully to the son, I share the following “lessons learned” with you.
1. You need data to make informed decisions on small business marketing and sales investments. Too many people shoot from the hip based on their paradigm of thinking.
2. A true Cloud Warrior will focus on investing in the small business marketing that gets the best results. It’s not about the technology. It’s about the marketing, sales and financial results tied to data.
3. Being married to old school thinking and ignoring compelling data is expensive for a small business. Really expensive. In fact, this shortsighted kind of thinking leads to disaster often. And it happens all the time due to resistance to learning how to work as a Cloud Warrior.
4. If you own a business and choose not to learn about the power of cloud computing, Websites, traffic, lead gen, conversions and marketing automation, you are simply doing your business and your employees a huge disservice. Get on the bus!
I don’t think I will be able to help this particular business through their dilemma, for a number of reasons. My only hope here is that the father chooses to get out of his own way and let the son drive the future investment in marketing and sales with compelling data.
We always welcome your comments and questions here on the blog.
To your success.
