For companies that sell product through channel partners, dealers or whatever name is applied to the ‘feet on the street’ or store front owner, 2010 promises to be interesting. Unfortunately, it’s interesting in the ‘wait and see’ kind of way. We are all coming off a tough year where a lot of hard lessons were learned especially for the SMB (small and medium business) market. Not the least of which is that many of the traditional marketing and advertising approaches that have sustained these businesses for their entire lifetimes are now failing to produce. As a result there is a bit of concern as to where to spend valuable marketing dollars.

Of course everyone can say that there is the need to go online with these marketing efforts. For most dealers who are SMB’s, there is little margin for error with regard to how marketing budget is allocated and eventually spent. The days of year long newspaper placements are gone because its not even known if the newspapers will be around in a year. Flexibility is now the key driver for marketing efforts. Until recently, however, flexibility has not been available to the SMB.

Now through online offerings it is. No longer do dealers have to wait for collateral to be sent via the mail then mailed etc. No longer is it really necessary to even have to generate printed materials in the bulk of the past to get the discount printers offer. Why bother? Not when the same data can be updated on a website almost instantaneously which now makes the SMB both flexible and agile.

Whether you are a manufacturer or a retail operation trying to move product it is essential to be digitally adept. If you don’t you will be left behind. How are you currently running your online marketing efforts? Are you up to date on promotions that are being run that could lead to more sales? Are you doing search marketing and making sure that co-op dollars are generating top line revenue?

Whichever side of the ledger you are on, dealer or manufacturer; there is no more time for excuses. There are ways to become more digitally savvy. Do you have what it takes to move to the next generation of successful businesses?

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