Off Road Marketing
How the internet is changing Off Road Marketing, Off Road Media and how Off Road Businesses operate in general.
The most important aspect of online marketing for our industry is that it can be much more cost effective to establish, market and operate our businesses online. To our customers the products and services we represent in this industry is a hobby to them. We and our customers are feeling this financial roller coaster ride we're all on. Times are tough and finding ways to keep and stay profitable in this evolving industry is just part of the game.
Take into consideration the costs of the following
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Print media: Print media can be extremely useful and effective. You have to stay on top of it though and the costs incurred. As with any marketing strategy, left unchecked... it can break you and your business financially. We are wireless now, all of us.
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If you and your business is heavily advertising with print media, ads, flyers and so on, it's imperative to know if it's working.
- Everytime that phone rings, you get an e-mail, you get a new customer that visits your store, find out how they heard about you.
- Find out where your advertising dollars are going and if that money spent is returning a profit that is greater than the cost of the advertisment or marketing itself. That is the whole point, right
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- Event Advertising: Advertising placement costs for Off Road "Realestate". This can encompass costs such as booth placement at events (in addition to getting a booth just in itself at off road expos), placing your company logo on vehicles, and or marketing with banners at events...it adds up.
- Actual "Media" Advertising: TV, Radio, Plugs (trading products or services for a "mention" which costs you money). The question is "what are you getting back for what you've shelled out? I am fully aware that this kind of advertising though is a necessity in our industry but at the same time, it can be balanced other avenues.
- Off-Road and Online: With the ever-growing day to day advancements in technology, specifically the wireless factor, we face new marketing options and decisions. Everyday you see, you hear or you are experiencing it and using it...your blackberry, your I-phone, your Droid, your I-pad, your wireless laptop; your customers have the same thing... Customers that want to see the general cost of some rims for their rhino or their YZF 450 for example,... this is done now while they are in a waiting room at a doctors office. It's a convenience.
- Getting a good business plan together for your online site is no different then putting a business plan together. More than likely you already have a business or have a strategy so encompass that into your future site (Cost: $0.00 DOLLARS cause you got that part down!). If you are hung up on something, talk to friends and family that are into Off Road Sports.
- Don't go to cheap or go to big. When you find a Web Company or Marketing Company...RESEARCH AND REFERENCES!!! I have seen time and time again where people invest money into a kids family member that "just kicks ass at web design" and the s**t word of all bank account terms "SEO"...or a friend of a friend of some large ass JACK company that just strings you along.