How To Market in West Texas

Posted by Charles Caddell on Mar 31, 2014 in Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Web Marketing

There Are Different Ways to Market in West Texas

Marketing in West Texas can be a little different than traditional marketing. The truth is, what may work in more populated areas may not strike the right chord when it comes to relationship-based business in West Texas. Dream Spectrum Marketing currently has offices in Abilene and Lubbock, Texas with a view to expanding into Midland, Texas in late 2014. Because of our experience with marketing in Abilene, we have learned first-hand that what we may have learned in school and on other marketing websites may not hold water for the business community here. A shotgun marketing approach or numbers game may not be as effective in the Market in West Texas. More times than not, walking into a business and asking to speak with the manager will just get you shown the door.

What you need to successfully market in West Texas is a way to reach the masses on a personal level. You need to be able to get involved in conversations that apply to the product or service you sell and provide a knowledgeable voice. Give your customers a way for them to easily refer and share your business with their friends and colleagues.

Relationships Drive Business

West Texas marketing has always had a solid foundation in referrals and face-to-face marketing. The ability to look someone in the eye and shake his or her hand is paramount in our culture. Word of mouth can go far in Abilene amp; Lubbock, Texas. You’ll find that providing a solid product or service is some of the best marketing you will ever do here. Is it enough? Not really. Someone’s referral will get your foot in the door, but you have to get belly-to-belly in order to make that personal connection and get the sale.

Traditional Marketing VS Web Marketing in West Texas

Some of the business philosophies and practices in Abilene, Lubbock and Midland can be a little old fashioned. That does not mean that marketing here is not a modern necessity. Many different surveys show that consumers are using the web first– Greater than 80% – when they are searching for business information or a product/service. Consumers use outdated methods, like the Yellow Pages, only as a backup resource – only 25% of the time. Still the costs for marketing in these traditional methods are getting higher and higher with less of a return on investment. Web based marketing uses a bit more effort than paying for an ad in the Yellow Pages but can yield much higher returns and provides for unique opportunities to engage in conversations and bbuild relationships. That is what marketing in West Texas is all about.

How to Market Online in West Texas

Get a professional web site. Something truly outdated or half attempted will not help you much. Invest some time or money to get something that represents the brand and message you want to convey to your potential clients.
Optimize your website to rank well in search engines. If you are trying to compete with ranking on search engines for keywords, such as “Attorney” in Lubbock, you are going to have a hard time. A true SEO professional will be able to structure your website in a way that will show more local service centric searches like “DWI help in Lubbock Texas“. It’s all about understanding the behavior of your target market and how to reach them.
Engage your market online. Social networks provide you the ability to reach your market in West Texas. Marketing on Facebook allows you to focus ads and have them viewed by just those users in Abilene, Lubbock, amp; Midland. If you want your ad to be seen by only those people living in Sweetwater, Texas, that work for ABC Oil Co., you can do it on Facebook. Not only do you have the ability to laser focus your marketing efforts but also you are using a tool that allows you to join in conversation and build on relationships. Social Networks gives your existing customers ways to share and promote your business to their friends online. That is word-of-mouth with a megaphone.
Contribute to the conversation. You have the ability to join in conversations and introduce yourself as an expert in a field or a resource for answers. What problem does your product or service solve? Find where they are discussing these needs and respond. Be vocal. There is no better avenue to marketing anywhere than the avenues where they are discussing a problem where YOU provide a solution.
Make yourself physically available. Online marketing in West Texas gives the ability to exponentially multiply your marketing efforts. This saves you time and money. However, there is no replacement for face to face meeting. There are those however that can use Skype, FaceTime, or Gotomeeting to make virtual face to face contact. Familiarize yourself with this technology and see if you can use it with your clients. If it is not an option, you have to make yourself physically available. New business requires a meeting where they can see you and truly gage what you are offering in person. For instance, because we currently do not have an office in Midland we meet with our clients there using Gotomeeting or Skype. This has been helpful in bridging a need for physical meeting and has worked well for us.
Increase the quality of your product or service. Provide a solution that markets itself. People in West Texas reward good business and businessmen. A testimonial will out perform 100 mailers here any day. Quality is making sure you are constantly improving and providing a better product. Once relationships are established you need to continue to nurture that relationship by providing consistently good services or products.
Get feedback amp; ask for a Referral. Follow up with your existing customers to make sure they are satisfied and make them feel special. Sometimes your next client is only a question away. Ask you clients for referrals and let them provide you with your next sale. West Texas is a friendly, warm community and if you treat someone right they are happy to help you grow your business.

What NOT to do to Market Your Company in West Texas

Do not SPAM. Sending unsolicited emails is bad form. Email has its place but there is a very fine line to what is going to work in this market. Also, when back-linking or link building make sure that the comment you are leaving is relevant. Just leaving a link back to your site or constantly selling will go NOWHERE.
Do not Friend Cycle. Liking someone on Facebook and asking to like back is awful.
Don’t bad mouth your competition. It may be tempting, maybe even a good idea, to try and get the upper hand on your competition by trying to knock them down a few pegs or reveal some unflattering, possibly conflated statistic. At the end of the day, this will only make you seem petty. Make friends, not enemies, as you work to make your business grow. After all, competition can and should be viewed as a healthy part of business development. Treat them like your allies.
Do not offer your services for FREE or at ultra-discounted prices. The last message you want to send out to prospective customers is that you’re desperate or in some way your service can be devalued. Sure it’s a good idea to run a promotion or a slight discount to woo potential clients, but by giving it away completely you’re sending the message that what you have to offer is cheap, and not in the good way. Some friends of mine run an Estate Sale business. When they have a piece of art for sell and it has been marked down to next to nothing, it gets ignored because it appears to be worthless or a knock off. When a good painting is priced at what it’s worth, it gets snapped up in a heartbeat. It’s the psychology of quality being represented by a price tag, and it shouldn’t be devalued.
Don’t keep changing your strategy. Sure it’s helpful to experiment and see what shoe fits best, but don’t come across as unfocused. You want your identity to be clear and recognizable. The way you achieve this is establishing credibility and reliability. If you find something that works and speaks to your customers, stick with it.

Whether you’re marketing in West Texas or the West Coast, you need to remember that customers want to be referred and trust those that want to have a relationship before they start doing business. Online marketing gives you the ability to magnify your efforts and reach clients in new ways. At Dream Spectrum we know how you need to do business and we want to help.