I often feel like I am blogging about the painfully obvious. There are things that I type and eventually post which appear to fit in the “Well, no kidding…. Everyone already knows that” category but I now realize what’s really going on. I am right on one thing …. everyone does know these things at least to some degree. Here’s the real trouble though: knowing them and acting on them are two diametrically opposed concepts. People (and business people in particular) are scared to admit that they are not doing some of the basic “blocking and tackling” items of business well. We (notice I include myself here) will act as if we are doing all the expected things because we are afraid to be exposed for not doing them. I recently joined a peer group of small to medium business owners and was shocked at some of the things I was not doing. The more I listened the more I felt like I was behind the times in how I worked.

So how does this apply to search marketing? Well, I’ll give you my two cents right now. I talk to business owners and their marketing stakeholders all the time and they LOVE to talk about search marketing. They think it makes perfect sense (which we all know it does) and they SHOULD be doing it. When it comes time to talk about a contract, however, they can get pretty evasive. It’s like they all turn into Barry Sanders and juke everything that comes at them.

I have asked why this happens on many occasions and now I realize the cause in most cases. Fear. Because the vast majority of small to medium businesses still have not invested in their websites I think there may be some embarrassment around that. They don’t want to be exposed as being behind the marketing curve. So what do they do? They continue to flush marketing dollars down the advertising toilet of “this is what we have always done”. Yellow pages, newspaper ads, radio spots, direct mail, you name it, dollars are wasted all the time in these areas. They seem to grasp that search marketing is measurable and can prove its worth but they can’t seem to get out of their own way to success.

Look, I make some monumental gaffes as a business owner myself so I am not claiming perfection here. I have, however, realized that for the foreseeable future (which should include the rest of my working life) that the variety of marketing options the internet represents will outpace all other advertising mediums by far. Playing “catch up” in this area could be the death knell for many small to medium businesses.

On the plus side is the simple fact that anyone who is embracing these marketing opportunities will appear to be giant killers as they replace old stale businesses at the top of their industry. Remember how David took out Goliath with a single stone? There are a lot of business Goliaths out there right now (both locally and nationally) that have a bulls eye on their business’s forehead waiting to be made obsolete by the little internet marketer that could. I want to talk to the guys that are loading their slingshots.

SMB Takeaway: Small and medium businesses have to “pull the trigger” and get involved in internet marketing, regardless of what they are familiar with. On a local and national level the most aggressive internet / search marketers will literally steal market share from the traditional industry giants, regardless of the vertical. It’s your choice as to whether your business is a conquering David or a dead Goliath.

Thanks and have a great day!