A good question and one we've been asked a few times recently.
We use CreateSend and it can cost $20 to send an email, and then from $0.02 to $0.05 per email sent. Send it via Outlook with all your target emails in the BCC line, and it's free. So why spend the money?
Well, there's a number of reasons, and these are some of them:
1. It looks professional. Chances if you're sending from Outlook, you've got a bigpond.com business email. That looks shambolic. Don't do it.
Simon Sinek makes a great point about those of us 'stuck' in Gen X - how inconsequential the 'X' is for our generation. A non-descript place-marker. Sure, it might mark the treasure trove on our fantasy pirate map but just as frequently its a warning. Don't trust these people. Danger.
This question 'do I need a website' is one that has challenged small business and top marketing firms since the advent of the digital age but there's really two parts to this question now: 'do I need a website?' and then 'can I just use a Facebook page?'
We're going to assume that the answer to the first part is 'yes'. In 2012, no top marketing firms would suggest you can survive without a digital presence. If you actually want some sales, then you need a www and anyone who says otherwise is bonkers.
So, you think people are looking at your business on a humble old desktop? Or even a laptop? Nope. Not anymore. This was an American survey done recently by Prosper Mobile Insights and shows the HUGE numbers of people using their smartphones to look for stuff.
Just take in some of the numbers below - 50% made a purchase, 57% read 3rd party reviews about businesses, 20% wrote a review. Take a look at your business and see if any of these numbers surprise you, and then think about how easy you are to find, and learn about, on a smartphone.
After waiting for 90 minutes, with multiple Safari and Firefox windows either frozen or refreshing and the Moshtix number engaged, I managed to score myself two tickets to the long-awaited and much-anticipated Splendour In The Grass. Buying the tickets was hard. Accessing the Moshtix website was like finding Bin Laden.
