Is Local Online Advertising Replacing Radio, Direct Mail, TV, And Newspaper Advertising?


by Claude Whitacre

There are advantages with local direct mail marketing. Which means marketing and advertising with local direct mail firms that send out directories, envelopes full of coupons, and postcards.

Direct mail is nearly always checked out even if it is subsequently tossed away. Mass mailed postcards are almost always scanned before they are tossed away or kept.

Radio promotion might be effective, but the audience must be listening to its precise station at the precise time your ad plays, or the effort has been useless. Similarly with TV. Newspaper marketing and advertising might work, however the reader is required to find your advertising in the newspaper, if consumers open the paper at all. Really though nobody travels out to the mailbox, pulls out their bunch of mail, and tosses it away without looking at every piece of mail.

Possibly 35% of key firms utilize Twitter, Perhaps 60% utilize Facebook. Really though 100% utilize direct mail. Why is that? Because the profits from the advertising can be measured. Direct mail pieces will be kept, looked at over again, shown to friends, and brought into your small business to have as a shopping list.

Really though what is the single most profitable use for direct mail, notably postcards?

Each marketing idea used in local small business; local direct mail, tv, signage, radio, and more needs a link to your small business website. Furthermore there must be a motivation for the consumer to need to drop by your website. It could be a contest, coupon, special offer, free report, free helpful articles....anything that generates a desire to stop with your website.

Just saying "Find out more at our website" definitely is not a good reason to go to your website. "Visit our website and get a $20 Gift Certificate which can be used for any new purchase" is a reason to drop by your website.

Print Yellow Pages, direct mail, postcards, radio, and tv each still create profit when they are used judiciously, and the results tested. Considered one of the easiest methods to insure that your advertising and marketing pays off is to make each offline advertisement a link to your web site, where you can tell a far more thorough sales presentation as to why the buyer may want to visit your store or phone your local small business and buy from your business.

Why is it so important to possess an online existence? In 2011 fully 67% of all Yellow Page searches are made online rather than with the Yellow Page print directory. And where are people performing their searches? With Google & Youtube. Almost never on Facebook. Almost never on Twitter.

While people are searching for real information online in order to progress to a buying choice, consumers go to Google. Your subsequent place they turn to is Youtube. Everyplace else totaled together will be a distant third place.

Now, just how do you assure that you will have the biggest and most effective listings on Google and Youtube? Almost never by possessing one listing, and hoping you are found on the first page of a Google search. It is not by purchasing expensive Pay Per Click advertisements. In local online advertising PPC advertisements are not even advantageous..

Articles, videos, news items, publicity releases, and reviews about your small retail business are what stick out to your customer. You will either impliment this work yourself at no cost, or recruit someone to do everything on your behalf.

Really though, I am not just meaning one article, one video, or even one website. You will want to completely dominate the local online search results. To accomplish that, you really need your real information (articles, videos, etc) on various websites, each and every one having the capacity to get found highly in the Search Engines (Google is the largest search engine). Buying "Featured Listings" with online directories is one such waste of money.

Frankly, there are actually lots of Online Advertising Myths found on the internet which are distributed by folks that have never made a single dollar by promoting their main small business online. Now what you need to avoid is advertising online with one of these rip-off artists, then after you enjoy no profits from the advertising, convincing yourself that local online marketing and advertising doesn't work the least bit.

About the Author

Claude Whitacre is author of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. Claude helps groups of independent local business owners showing them methods to very dramatically intensify their online advertising and marketing results, at no charge to them. To find out more about Claude Whitacre and his online advertising talks, visit http://www.claudewhitacre.com

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