Is Local Online Advertising Better Than Local Internet Advertising?
You can find advantages with local direct mail marketing and advertising. By that I mean advertising and marketing with local direct mail firms that mail out directories, envelopes packed of coupons, or inexpensive postcards.
Unsolicited mail is virtually always checked out even if it is subsequently tossed away. Mass mailed postcards are just about always looked at before they are tossed away or used later.
Radio marketing can be rewarding, but the listener has to be listening to this exact station at the exact time your local advertising plays, or your effort was of no use. Exactly the same with TV. Newspaper advertising and marketing should work, however the reader has got to locate your ad in the newspaper, if consumers open the newspaper at all. However almost nobody goes out to their mailbox, pulls out their pile of mail, and throws it away without looking at pretty much every piece of mail.
Possibly 35% of main firms utilize Twitter, Perhaps 60% utilize Facebook. However 100% utilize direct mail. The reason? Because your results will then be measured. Direct mail pieces could be used later, read again, shown to friends, and brought into your business to use as a shopping list.
However what exactly is the single most profitable use for direct mail, especially postcards?
Nearly every local marketing concept utilized in local business; radio, signage, direct mail, tv, and more needs a link to your small business internet site. And there ought to be a motive for the customer to need to visit your internet site. It may be a coupon, free report, contest, helpful articles....anything that produces a yearning to stop with your internet site.
Just stating "Find out more at our website" definitely is not a good grounds to go to your internet site. "Visit our website and receive a $20 Gift Certificate which can be used for any new purchase" is a reason to visit your website.
Print Yellow Pages, direct mail, postcards, radio, and tv each will produce a profit when these are utilized judiciously, and your results tested. An example of the most productive methods to be certain that your advertising pays is to make every offline advertisement a link to your web site, where you may deliver a far more complete story as to why the consumer will then go to your small retail business or phone your small business and purchase from your business.
Why is it you need to have an online presence? In 2011 fully 67% of all Yellow Page searches are made online rather than with your Yellow Page print directory. And where are consumers performing these searches? On Google & Youtube. Not on Facebook. Not on Twitter.
While customers are in need of solutions online to progress to a purchasing choice, the shoppers go on Google. Their next place they try is Youtube. Everywhere else combined will be a distant third place.
So now, just how do you assure that you will have the biggest and most profitable exposure on Google and Youtube? Not by possessing one listing, and hoping that you're listed on the first page of their Google search. It isn't by paying for high-priced Pay Per Click ads. In local online advertising PPC ads aren't even advantageous..
Videos, articles, publicity releases, reviews, and news items regarding your small retail business are what stand out to a buyer. You will either create this effort by yourself at no expense, or simply employ someone to do it just for you.
However, I'm not just talking about only one article, only one video, or even only one website. You will want to absolutely dominate the local online search results. To do this, you really need your real expertise (articles, videos, etc) on scores of websites, every with the power to get listed highly in the Search Engines (Google is a search engine). Paying for "Featured Listings" with online directories is one such waste of profit.
Actually, you can find plenty of Online Advertising Myths found on the internet that are repeated by individuals that have in no way earned a single dollar by advertising their principal business online. The thing that you need to avoid is advertising and marketing online with one of these scam artists, then after you enjoy no results, persuading yourself that local online advertising and marketing doesn't ever work in any way.
About the Author
Claude Whitacre is writer of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. Claude speaks to associations and groups of independent local business owners showing them the best way to easily multiply their online advertising results, at no cost to them. To find out more about Claude Whitacre and his services, check out http://www.claudewhitacre.com
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