There’s a saying that when you outsource your marketing you outsource your reputation and ethics. This hasn’t changed with the dawn of the Internet, as some firms participate in either very poor or somewhat distasteful marketing strategies for their clients. Websites get spammed into comment threads or inserted onto things they’re not related to in a vain attempt to get attention. A site might be advertised with misleading banner ads and the like. The cause of a lot of this is because a lot of firms act on a transaction basis. What would serve many companies better is to have an interactive marketing firm with whom they can communicate back and forth with if they disagree with a tactic being used by the marketing company.
It’s a good idea to use Twitter in order to put out content and links, however you want to use Twitter in a way that doesn’t belittle your company. You want to use social media well in general, and you want to have a website along with advertisements that best represents your business. Having the wrong target market show up on your website isn’t going to help, where as getting the right people to you can be a new line of business.
You want a company that will listen to you and know exactly what you want your marketing messages to say about you. For example if you’re a law firm you have to be careful how you advertise, you don’t want people to think you’re going to get over on them on the bill. Instead you want to look experienced and educated. For some lawyers, there are certain images they want portrayed. For example if you do business in contract law, you want to look like the sort of firm where every desk is made of aged mahogany and people have initials and numbers after their names. Whereas if you do DUI defense you want to look fast paced, aggressive, and show that you’ll do anything for your client. The reason why people go to these firms is different, and their marketing must match.
It’s not just for law firms. If you own a folk art store, you don’t want people going to your store looking for art supplies while the people who want to buy premade art never find you. You also want to make sure you don’t make yourself look like a fine art company where all the prices are much more expensive. That could scare potential customers away. Having an interactive marketing firm makes ensures that you don’t ruin your reputation and they will better understand what you’re trying to do as a company.
