GEEKNOTE: For a number of excellent reasons, old school printed yellow page advertising is our number one source of new clients, followed closely by referrals from satisfied clients. Everything else comes in way behind these two sources.
Just because online advertising has had limited results doesn't mean that we have given up on it. We simply watch our online marketing expenses and continue to adjust our online approach.
One of the keys to marketing of any kind is to try different things, keeping the things that work and dropping the things that don't work. The trick is being able to tell the difference.
For several years we had yellow page ads that did little to generate foot traffic. One year, almost by accident, we tripped on a formula for our yellow page ads that clicked and we have been extremely reluctant to do anything beyond fine tune it each year. We routinely bring in more than enough new business each month to justify our investment in yellow page ads.
I am optimistic that the same will occur with our online advertising. A major part of this process is knowing exactly where our new online leads are coming from.
We have been using Google Analytics for quite a while now, not just for our own sites, but also client sites we are tracking. Google Analytics let us know what web pages are getting attention and how long visitors stick around. Probably more importantly, GA lets us know what pages AREN'T getting any attention. In broad strokes, GA also lets us know where our visitors are coming FROM when they visit our site. We're working on tightening up how we track the sources of our website traffic, especially paid sources.
We've experimented with paid ads on facebook, Google, and several other places with varying results. By tracking our paid online advertising and watching the analytics to see what happens AFTER someone clicks on one of our ads, it isn't difficult to figure out what is cost effective.
As part of my continuing education, I've been a voracious reader of and listener to the information being posted by various self-described online marketing experts. I take all of what I read and hear with a grain of salt.
One of the most promising leads I've gotten all summer from our ads didn't fit into the model that one of the "experts" insisted is what we should expect (ie. business referral traffic occurs only during business hours). In the same free webinar where the expert told us this, they offered a three day marketing program for "just" $15,000. I think I'll pass and keep the $15k for other things, like refining my own online marketing program. For the record, I responded to the after hours inquiry within minutes and have had an ongoing dialogue with the potential client ever since.
I spend a fair amount of time on getting our name out through "free" online means as well. You can "like" Gulfcoast Networking on facebook. You can also follow me on twitter. I even hang out on a number of the linkedin groups and so, you can find me there too. Naturally, I check in here regularly as well. LinkedIn tends to attract professionals. facebook attracts individuals. The facination with Twitter still is hard for me to explain, but it is quite popular.
For what it is worth, I've found the New Port Richey Patch site to be one of the best sources of local news for our area. Of course, you already know that. The only reason we haven't tried advertising here is the contract term they want us to agree to. We adjust our marketing mix much faster than would be possible on this platform.
Do you hang out on one of the social media sites more than the others and do you EVER click on the ads? Let us know.
Rob Marlowe, Senior Geek
Gulfcoast Networking, Inc.
http://www.gulfcoastnetworking.com
