Cold Calls Offering Social Media and Online Advertising
Like you I guess, the office gets a lot of cold calls offering anything from Franking Machines to Stationary some of which we of course need but are often just a waste of my time.
Now, I know that other business owners need to eat, and if cold calling is their thing, that’s great.
A couple of disturbing things have happened over the past 2 days have forced me to post this.
Social Media Advertising – Facebook Ad’s – I have had 3 calls in one day from 3 firms offering to sell me Facebook Advertising. All have claimed to be Facebook Partners (not sure why Facebook would partner with a firm without a website or indeed Cold Calls).
They found us on the Web, and of course we rank on the front page for all of our sites, and one firm cheekily called us based on a Google Ad!
In summary they offer of an ad campaign for a fixed amount, with at least 7000 ad impressions in a limited area was appalling even for seasoned Facebook advertiser. Never ever buy advertising based on the number of impressions.
The Second relates to a firm offering to set up ‘front page of google’ ads for us, again with a fixed monthly fee and a set up fee.
Now, in the past couple of months we have finished some technical consultancy for a one of the largest Search Engine Optimisation and Business Listing firms in the UK so I guess we kinda know how to do it.
So before you buy anything my suggestion is you do this. (We can do all of this for you free of charge, if you would like, no commitment, with my compliments).
Make sure you know what your online Keywords are for your business (what your Geeks, Freaks and Weirdo’s are looking for), just because you sell ‘Accountancy Services’ does not mean that your potential customers are will search online for that term.
Make sure you have your own Google Places listing and use it.
Make sure your Website, copy and pages are optimised for the key phrases your customers are looking for.
Make sure your contact forms are working on your website.
Make sure your Website is using WordPress (all of those that attended the Blogging for Business gig will know all about this). The link to my presentation is here https://www.therichardsmith.com/sussex-enterprise/
Once you have a carried out the basic steps, then consider buying in some advertising, however I would suggest there is a lot else you can and should do beforehand.
You will be foolish to buy into any service that is offered over the phone without doing some further digging into the options.
I have not named the firms for a number of reasons, however they are all based in and around Manchester and do have a particularly bad name when searched for.
Richard Smith