Propel Internet Marketing

MARKETING 101

Why Advertise

 Advertising in its purest state, is a form of promotion to a target audience delivered through various platforms.  You and your competitors compete for potential customers therefore investing in a strategic advertising campaign can be a profitable way to increase your customer base, ultimately increasing your top line sales and profitability.

The specific platforms you choose to communicate your message to will depend on the needs of your business and your budget.  Some of the platforms / mediums that will be available to both large and small businesses include:  newspapers, television, billboards, flyers, direct mail, magazines, point of sale and most importantly in today’s market the internet.  If you are experiencing difficulty Stats Canada can always provide good information on your target audience.

Before choosing the right mediums it is important to do your due diligence and research the reach and usage of each platform in your target geographical area and for your specific demographic.  Most great advertising companies (Propel Internet Marketing) will be able to guide you through the best platforms, if they are reputable they will even help you and suggest areas that they do not provide solutions in.

 

Most Popular Marketing Mediums for SMB’s

 Internet Marketing

We are not being bias, however being marketers for many years, providing solutions in a multitude of platforms we have never seen customers receive such a high return on investment (26:1) and have never experienced a platform that has the reach and usage the internet delivers.

Having the ability to reach your current and potential customers 24 hours a day, target an extremely qualified demographic / geographical area and the ability to set your budget on a monthly and even daily basis has made internet marketing extremely cost effective and attractive.  Internet marketing in not just search engines like Google, Social Media is the new word of mouth and it is imperative that your brand is being represented appropriately on the platforms that are applicable to your business.  Email marketing can also be a great tool to reach a database of current and potential customers when done correctly.

Of course there is a downfall to Internet Marketing.  It is extremely technical and time consuming thus taking up a lot of valuable time of a business owner who desires to try it themselves.  To be successful we would never suggest trying this yourself as the damage you can create to your website and search engine authority could be irreversible and could potentially lead to a brand new website needing to be built.  For any internet marketing needs always consult a reputable and ethical internet marketing company.

 

Newspaper Advertising

One of the oldest advertising tools around and at one time used to be one of the most effective.  The main positive to newspaper ads can be cost (depending on your area) and the reach.  Being able to change your message on a weekly or even sometimes daily basis can be a nice benefit to this form of advertising.  The downfall is no secret, as with all print advertising the usage is quickly declining, don’t take our word for it, you can google any distribution (Toronto Star) and just look at the declining revenues.  Myself, I am obviously a big internet searcher however, I still bring in the flyers and go through them every Thursday!

Radio – Radio involves placing an ad at specific times to try to capture your audience’s attention.  The main positive of radio is that you are able to creatively communicate your message to an audience that may be listening to the commercials.  I personally listen to satellite radio with no commercials.  There is many downfalls to radio advertising, your add needs to be heard several times to try to embed your message into your audiences thoughts and this can become extremely expensive.  Have you ever tried to write a business phone number down while you are trying to drive?  We can tell you we have and it is next to impossible to do and drive safe!  Therefore if you are going to do radio ensure that you are representing yourself in the most used area to find phone numbers, THE INTERNET!

 

Yellow Pages Group / Yellow Media

At Propel Internet Marketing we have direct experience with providing these solutions for both their print products and their online strategies.  Over the past several years there has been lots of talk about the Yellow Pages decline, it is no secret and the truth of yellow pages become obsolete is inevitable! This has been more apparent in 2013 than ever before and we will continue to see yellow pages decline further in 2014.  There is many reasons for this but the one that jumps out at everyone is simple “When was the last time you picked up a phone book”. 

As simple as that may sound there is nothing more accurate than the statement yellow page decline is now below 10% reach.  Stats continue to decline, in 2013 the released stats for Yellow Pages Media were as low as 25% in some areas of Ontario.  Even with the stats being that low we still question the accuracy behind those numbers, an outside usage report will put these numbers closer to the 5% in any urban area.  With the price of a decent ad in the phone book, and stats that low, it is next to impossible for any business to see a decent return on their money or in most cases even break even.  Yellow Pages Media will try to tell you to that the print is still not dead, or try to save your advertising dollar and put it into one of the other programs.  Here is some great insider tips on their yp.ca platform, Search programs and Website offerings.

 

yellowpages.ca

Although yellowpages.ca may show up well on search engine organic rankings and have some users of their own, the need to spend money on the platform is not needed.  Most of the searches done on the network are done for a business name and not a category or service. When a business name search is done, your contact information will automatically show up at the top with your free listing.  They will try to tell you differently but just ask to see your online report and you will see for yourself that the searches being done are for your business name.

 

Yellow Pages Search Products

Yes yellow pages does sell search engine solutions products but they are extremely bad!!  Inside their Pay Per Click programs is a management fee that they do not disclose, the set ups are done by a software program (extremely untargeted) and very little of your spend will actually go to Google.  Most of your spend after management fees goes to their search network, try to get a straight answer on where those places are.  In terms of their SEO, please stay far away!  Old link building tactics are used, their is no Authorship programs set up and no social integration is being done.  These tactics can damage your site forever and you may be looking at a total rebuild of your site.

 

Yellow Pages Websites

This is a simple one.  Although they do develop some nice looking sites, the whole principal of selling you a site is to control your online spend.  The price may sound attractive when they put it into a monthly spend, but keep in mind you will be paying that monthly fee for the rest of that sites existence.  By year two you have paid double what you should have.  Yellow Pages does offer a mobile site with any purchase of a website however just like the rest of their programs this is very outdated technology.  Google is penalizing businesses with separate mobile sites, your main site needs to be what is called mobile responsive.  Please visit our web design page for more info on mobile responsive siteshttps://www.propelinternetmarketing.com/website-design/  Further more try to outsource any SEO or propel internet marketing to your site and it is next to impossible to get their cooperation to work with another company.

 

Of course there is several other viable platforms for you to choose from, the above are just a few of the most popular ones that can either have a positive or negative impact on your business if not managed properly.  Developing your advertising program takes time but will be well worth it, to assist in your plan feel free to propel internet marketing, we help guide you through making the right decisions in all of the mediums you decide on.

 propel internet marketing