Traditional Advertising Doesn’t Work for Local Business — Here’s Why
Local businesses could be in trouble if they adopt traditional advertising methods to grow their business. In the past ad agencies predicted that it would take 5 to 8 impressions before a potential customer would act based upon an advertisement. Today, with the World Wide Web, social media and mobile the relative impressions required are closer to 12 to 15 and that’s not even taking into account local competition and the effectiveness of their advertising. First of all, an advertisement isn’t the same as it was even just 10 years ago. It’s not a square box with a message in it—that’s just part of it. You have think of it as the first step in driving a potential customer down a path to begin investigating your business, products, services and even you. Marketers call it a sales funnel and if you’re buying an ad, even a Facebook or Google ad, you have to consider the “funnel” or you’re wasting your money. Another aspect of advertising, is the ease of research that your target customers can do to first determine if that want the product or service and second if they want to buy that product or service from you. Google makes this job very, very, easy. Differentiation of you, your business, your products or services is critical to any marketing campaign.
- What makes you and your business interesting and unique?
- Why would a customer buy from you?
- How are you Yelp and Google ratings?
- Are you “endorsed” by a third-party?
- Are you a recognized expert at what you do?
Answering these questions and working to differentiate you and your business are the first things you should do prior to investing in advertising. Localista can help. Through the Localista “Local Expert” program we work with a limited number of local experts and help them promote themselves to their local community. The Local Expert program serves to raise an individual’s visibility, credibility and expertise by creating presence and micro-platform at the Localista Magazine Local Edition web site, twitter feed and Facebook page. Since there are a limited number of spots available in each Local Edition, there is an application and vetting process, but once you’re approved we will work with you to create meaningful content that drive credibility