Don’t get me wrong, the Yellow Pages was king of the kids for advertisers in the ’80s. They had the advertising market sewn up.
If you ran any kind of business, you needed to be in the Yellow Pages.
The last few decades have seen exponential growth in the technology we have available to use. The way businesses interact with technology has completely changed across every industry.
In 2005, Yellow Pages was mooted to be worth $12 billion. In 2014, Telstra sold its share of Sensis, the local owners of Yellow Pages, for $454 million.
Now, the new Yellow Pages for the businesses in our entire complex have been sitting on the mailboxes for over a week, completely unused.
So, where does that leave advertisers?
Digital advertising has completely changed the advertising landscape, but that doesn’t mean there’s no value to be had from traditional methods. There are a few situations where traditional advertising can be very beneficial for businesses.
Television
- Works for brand awareness and launching new products.
- Be aware: the demographics of free to air viewers are changing as more traditional viewers are turning to online streaming for entertainment.
Radio
- In a similar boat to TV; smart phones deliver on-demand content with streaming services.
- Has a little over $2 billion in ad revenue and sluggish growth over the last five years.
- Competition from online media sources is delivering sobering performance to the radio industry.
Print Newspapers
- Not far from oblivion, newspapers are struggling to find a model that can deliver a sustained future.
- Ad revenues are down dramatically as advertisers move online.
If traditional methods are declining, what’s happening in the digital advertising space?
Online
- For the first time, ad value can be measured, return on cost calculated, and (most importantly) ad changes can be made fast.
- Online advertising is dominated by Google AdWords, the little ads at the top of your page of search results; they’ve all but monopolised the search area on your Internet browser and they control what you see advertised.
Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising on search engine result pages isn’t the only way to advertise your business online. Facebook also have their own advertising system, and it’s growing in popularity every day. In fact, as digital advertising becomes more prevalent, most social media platforms have a paid advertising system.
OK, tell me where to advertise?
Don’t we all wish it was that simple? It isn’t. We know Yellow Pages is done and dusted, so don’t waste your money. TV and radio are also on the decline, so the value is falling. And newspapers aren’t even used to wrap fish and chips anymore.
Based on our experience, there are four things that are a must when it comes to advertising:
- A high-quality, high-impact website;
- Offers that make sense and are good value;
- Adverts that point buyers to your offer; and
- Developing a ‘cost per sale’ model and determine how many sales you want.
No matter what platform you’re advertising on, if your ads don’t meet that criteria they’re not bringing maximum value to your business.
How much does online advertising cost?
A common question from nearly all customers is this:
‘How much do I need to spend on ads?’
There is no answer – you need to spend what it takes to get the business you want, not try to work in reverse.
Having a clear understanding of which advertising works for your business, what it costs to get a sale, and having clear offers for buyers deliver sales success.
And stop using the Yellow Pages. The bins are full.
This article was originally published on R6 Web Design, an official partner of Self Storage Startup. Click here to learn more about our partners.
