Don’t neglect face-to-face marketing!

A few months ago I explained that I had started working on a marketing campaign to promote my business that involved signing up to many of the well-known social networking websites. And recently, with the launch of my new business website I’ve been investigating ways to attract to attract more visitors to it (and, hopefully, more new clients) by developing a web marketing strategy. As a result, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of material, advice and tools there are to implement such an Internet-based marketing campaign.

However, according to a recent survey carried out by Vodafone UK, face-to-face meetings are still the most effective way to secure new business. Apparently, only 33% of those surveyed have won business solely via e-mail or Internet marketing, compared with 57% who used the traditional method of face-to-face contact. About 20% of managing directors wouldn’t do business with anyone they hadn’t physically met, and over a quarter of them would refuse to buy from someone they hadn’t at least spoken to on the phone.

About 47% of business people expected to be treated to lunch, 25% preferred to discuss deals over a round of drinks and 10% said they were happiest building a commercial relationship with a prospective client on the golf course.

It seems that online marketing is most popular with younger people – almost half of those in their twenties prefer to do business this way, whereas two-thirds of all business people prefer to network with others face-to-face.

Therefore, the results of this survey seems to indicate that it is important for you to mix old methods of networking with new ones, or else you could be missing out on obtaining that vital contract you were seeking. This also probably explains the popularity of business breakfast clubs such as Business Network International, 4Networking and The Business League, but so much could be said about that it could be the subject of an entirely new blog. So watch this space!