I am a business owner that did it BACKWARDS!
Everyone is talking about social media. Even President Obama has done interviews televised from Facebook. I have always thought that I am hip and savvy but I have quickly learned that I needed some help. I have done radio and TV ads for the last 6 months and BOY can I tell you…. IT WAS PAINFULLY EXPENSIVE! Even though most of our advertising dollars came through advertising lines of credit which allowed us up to 90 days to use the advertising and pay later… the thing is YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY LATER! As an ex banker, business loan officer and lender, you really learn the tricks of the trade so getting funding is the easy part. Our advertising bills piled up to $30,000.00 in just a few months with just one type of media.
Yes, I have to say that TV and radio have their place in some marketing plans, including mines so I will never let that type of advertising go. However, I have learned a key lesson when advertising… make sure that the promotions you do promote YOU and YOUR business instead of sponsoring another show that has nothing to do with your business and mention very little about what YOUR company does in the sponsored ad promo. Also, there is no need to sign a long-term contract. BIG THING… make sure you truly, truly, truly understand your target market so that the people calling in for services actually fit your criteria or you will have a bunch of people calling in wasting valuable hours of your employees time that YOU are paying for (hourly) with very little return on investment.
I am now just getting acclimated with various social media advertising and finding that it considerably less expensive. I had always thought that if you spend more money, you will make more money and to a certain extent, that is true. On the flip side though, if you spend more money, you also spend more money (which I think all of us are trying to avoid).
I’m not really a blogger so you may not see too many posts from me to start, however, I’m sure once I get the hang of this I will have a lot to tell on this journey and I will let you know in a few months how the internet marketing thing is going for me then.
Tina Williams of QT Enterprises Inc
QT Enterprises Inc 
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