Are You Wasting Your Advertising Dollars?
As a savvy business owner, no one needs to convince you of the importance of advertising. As you well know, advertising is the “life blood” of any thriving business.
But are your current advertising methods still working as well as they once did?
Let’s face it: the American consumer is pretty savvy too! And he/she is continuously bombarded with literally thousands of ads per day. TV, radio, billboard, newspapers, magazines, to name a few. For that reason the modern consumer has become mostly jaded to advertising.
Another reason why some of the traditional methods are largely ineffective is because they catch the consumer when he’s just not in the frame of mind to buy. For instance, when have you ever heard your spouse say “Dear, I’m going to turn on the TV and watch some advertisements.”
People don’t turn on the TV to watch advertisements. In fact, when they turn on the TV, advertisements are something most people would rather avoid. In today’s age, the TV remote allows the user to “channel surf” while commercials interrupt his favorite TV show.
And most viewers do just that! And yet, some businesses spend literally thousands of dollars to produce and air a 30 second TV ad.
How about billboards? When you’re on your way to a given destination, do you take the time to read billboards? Or do you keep your eyes on the road and you mind on your destination?
How about print media? While not completely ineffective, it’s rare for a reader to pick up a newspaper or magazine just to read the ads. Yes, the Sunday Classifieds do get read by some people. But they are NOT inexpensive, plus an ad in the classifieds is competing with dozens or even hundreds of other ads on the same page.
Businesses spend thousands of dollars using all these traditional methods to capture the attention of consumers, when the consumer’s attention is clearly focused on something completely unrelated to the message being promoted.
Money wasted! As a business owner, you want the most bang for your buck that’s spent on advertising, and traditional methods, although once effective, are becoming less and less so.
If you want your advertising to be effective… and your advertising dollars to be spent so as to render the maximum return… then forget about trying to capture the consumer’s attention when he’s in no frame of mind to have his attention captured!
No…. you’ve got to promote your message to the consumer when he is actively seeking someplace to spend his hard earned dollars. When he is actively looking for a business that sells the goods and/or services that YOU sell!
In other words, don’t waste your advertising budget trying to find him… spend you money to put forth your message during those times that he is trying to find YOU!
Which brings us to one of the most popular advertising method used by a lot of traditional businesses… the phone book Yellow Pages!
Used to be, if a consumer were searching for a local business… say, a car wash, a pet store, a particular type of restaurant… he would get out his local Yellow Pages. And if your business had a listing in the Yellow Pages, it might get found. But just like in the Sunday Classifieds, you would still be competing with dozens or even hundreds of similar businesses.
But that was then… this is now!
Let me ask you something… when is the last time you dug out the Yellow Pages? Can you even remember?
In the 21st century, if a consumer is looking for a local business, he typically goes to his computer, opens a browser window to his favorite search engine, and types in a search term.
The Internet is the NEW “Yellow Page.” Let’s face it: NOBODY uses the Yellow Pages anymore.
But that’s not to say the Yellow Pages phonebook is useless… it still makes a great doorstop!
But although everyone uses the Internet to find local businesses these days, here’s a sobering fact you need to keep in mind:
Only about 2% look beyond page 1 of their search results!
And for YOU the business owner, that’s either good news or bad news, depending:
GOOD NEWS: If you have a listing on page 1 of the search results, you only have 9 competitors to compete for your prospect’s attention (and fewer if you have more than 1 listing), unlike the Yellow Pages and Classified ads where there are dozens, even hundreds vying for his attention.
BAD NEWS: If your listing isn’t found on page 1, your prospect will never even see your promotional offer…
… But you can be sure he WILL see your competitor’s!
Bottom line: if you’re using the old methods of advertising your business, you are at best, not spending your advertising budget to maximum effect. And at worst, you’re just throwing your money away!
We can help!
Contact us for a free consultation.
Local: 513-828-6200
Toll Free: 888-832-0711
My pledge to you:
You won’t get some high pressure sales pitch. I believe those tactics are counter productive, just like the barrage of ads the consumer sees every day… it just turns people off.
You’ll only get straight talk from me. We’ll discuss your business and see what we can do to get you a flood of new clients… and the profits that come with them!
Local: 513-828-6200
Toll Free: 888-832-0711
Sincerely,
Ben Hanania