Want to generate more leads for your business? For decades, the wisdom that it’s about who you know, rather than what you know, has been true. With the Internet changing the way business is done, however, it’s no longer quite as true as it once was.

Today, the benefits offered by business networking using a group like Business Networking International (BNI) or LeTip can also be achieved using a basic web presence that’s optimized for sales.

Read on to discover the key shortcomings of business networking, the biggest benefits of a website, and how you can achieve the best of both worlds using a system that combines both in-person networking and online marketing.

Business Networking’s Person-to-Person Bottleneck

Business networking’s greatest strength is also, for larger companies, its biggest downside. Networking with other business owners takes a lot of time and, due to the importance of networking with senior executives and high-ranked employees, isn’t something that can easily be outsourced.

This makes it tough to achieve any real scale from your person-to-person business networking, particularly if your product or service has a relatively low price point.

A website, on the other hand, isn’t limited to dealing with one person at a time in its efforts to close sales. With the right infrastructure, a single website could effectively close the same amount of sales as hundreds of sales representatives, all in a fraction of the time that person-to-person networking would require.

The Incredible Synergy of Networking and Online Marketing

Just like any other form of marketing, online marketing depends almost entirely on reputation. A reputable brand – a big company, for example – has the clout to close sales that, for a smaller firm, might be difficult to capture.

Because of this, business owners can achieve incredibly synergy by combining the reputation management and branding that’s possible with in-person networking, and the massive scale that’s made possible through online marketing.

Why not try one of the following ideas next time you’re preparing to network with other business owners?

• Give a presentation at a local business networking group, and refer prospects and potential customers to your website for more information.
• Use the same persuasion techniques you’ve honed in years of networking to enhance your sales pages, landing pages, and online marketing systems.
• Network with influencers and industry leaders, generating valuable PR for your online marketing campaigns.

No marketing campaign operates in a funnel, and the synergy that can be achieved using online marketing and network marketing is immense. Ignore it at your own – or your business’s – peril.

How SEOpop Can Help You Maximize Your Online Marketing Potential

Just like a bad person-to-person sales pitch can be a hit to your credibility, a website that’s out-of-date or simply ineffective at communicating your company’s strengths can be a major blow to your company’s image.

SEOpop can help you create a website that’s optimized for conversions, built for a prominent search engine presence, and designed to use video and other rich media to close sales and convert prospects into loyal customers.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you get the absolute best of both worlds – a great traditional marketing system, and a website that gives your business the power to become an online leader.

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