There is a huge difference in the results attained by advertising online for your local business, and using the same methods offline. Here are the tested and proven best methods to advertise each way, and why.
Everyone has a buying process they go through. It may take as short a time as a few hours to go through it all. It may take a year or more to go through the buying process. But here is the process. This is the way most people buy;
1) They are aware of a need, or want.
2) They gather information about the product, service, or solution to their problem.
3) They ask friends, gathering social proof. This is another way of gathering more information to make a decision. Reading customer review, reading articles on the subject, watching videos, twittering friends, e-mailing friends, reading Consumer Report, or calling an expert on the subject are all simply ways to gather more information.
Eventually, enough information is gathered to make the buyer comfortable in making a decision.
Again, the time required can vary radically for the individual buyer.
About 95% of the "Buying Process", the buyer is gathering information. Only about 5% of the time is the buyer actually looking to buy right then.
With offline advertising, you will likely make the most profit by concentrating on the buyers that are at the end of the buying process. Why? Because offline advertising to provide information ignores the people ready to buy now. Almost never does a newspaper reader look for ads to buy from. They are looking for news or opinion. The radio listener is listening for music, news, or a talk show..they are not waiting to hear your ad.
In offline advertising, you are surprising the buyer by going to them. They are not looking for you. And the buyer hearing your radio ad, does not write down your phone number to call until they are ready to buy. The newspaper reader does not clip out your ad until they are ready to buy.
So advertising offline to people at the beginning of the buying process is a waste of money.
Every advertiser that has tested advertising results, will agree with that assessment.
Now, with local online advertising, it’s completely different. Why? Because people are going online to get information. After entertainment, the biggest reason people go online is to learn something. Buying something is a distant second place reason to go online.
And with information, I call it "Content Marketing", you can become the source of the information the local prospect is looking for.
With content marketing, you can attract prospects at every point of the buying process. You can become the preferred source for opinions, reviews, videos, articles, buying guides, product comparisons, and more. You can be the "Go To Guy" for that prospect.
How? By writing all of these things yourself or having someone do it for you. Online search engines are loaded with online directory listings, and websites. Do any local search, for any product category, and you’ll see what I mean. Every listing in a Google search will be online directory listings or website listings.
But do you know what search engines like Google love? Content. High quality, relevant, factual content. So they list articles, reviews, and especially video higher in the search results.
Those listings can almost all be yours.
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