Small businesses spend money on marketing via yellow pages, coupons, direct mail, better signage, internet advertising, radio and TV spots, newspapers, flyers, bakesale and any other variety of marketing tools. But how much should you spend overall on marketing? And then how much should you allocate between each of these channels?
The ROI calculation is not that easy for small businesses, since some types of advertising are more measurable than others. The web should be the easiest, since you can track directly what customers see your ad, which of them clicked on it, how much you paid, and whether those folks took action– filled out a form, picked up the phone, or walked into your office.
But what about the yellow pages? You must ask the classic question– “How did you hear about us?” And of those folks who came in, how many turned into customers? Let’s say you’re a dentist. Of the people who walked in the door last month, 30 of them mentioned that they found you through the yellow pages. Assuming they all became customers and you’d be willing to pay $100 to get a new customer, then the yellow pages drove $3,000 in value. If you’re paying $2,500 per month, then you were clearly better off to advertise in the yellow pages.
But what if you only got 15 new customers? In that case, you’ve lost $1,000 per month. Worse, you’re locked into a 1 year contract, so you’re going to multiply that loss by 12 and there’s nothing you can do to adjust for it. It’s a leaky faucet that you’re only allowed to touch once per year– even if you know it’s dripping, you have to wait a year to fix it– the next time the book is published.
With internet marketing, you can see almost instantly what is working or not– and you can make immediate changes. Maybe as a dentist you find that folks who search on “root canal” are worth 5 times as much as those who search “teeth whitening”. In that case, you can pay more for the latter and less for the former. Or maybe the majority of your customers live within a 10 mile radius of the office. Then you can set up the campaign to show ads only to people who live and work in that radius. And you can turn the dial to adjust as often as you like with no additional cost.
There’s no risk to internet advertising so long as you are able to measure your results and are also able to react quickly. At BlitzLocal, our experts have already built successful campaigns for dentists, lawyers, mechanics, and small business owners of all types. Our system monitors your campaigns 24×7 to make sure they are producing for you. And when you have thousands of keywords spread across multiple search engines, it’s probably not the best use of your time to do that.
Contact us for a no obligation analysis. One of our analysts will help you figure out what’s right for your business.