Local Businesses- How to Gain High Quality Leads From Multi-Platform Advertising

May 5, 2010 - By admin on Local Search, Social Media. Tagged: directory, local business. 2

It can often be hard for local businesses to find the correct advertising channel to generate the best leads and you often hear the question: “Should I move my advertising budget elsewhere?” The answer is that it should not be moved but spread across multiple platforms to allow for greater market reach and high quality leads.

Australian Yellow Pages provider Sensis opened up a temporary pizza restaurant in an alleyway recently and spread their advertising across multiple platforms. They had listings within their own online directory, paper directory and also across search engines and social media sites.

The results showed that 70% of their custom came from their online and offline directory as well as their search marketing campaigns. The remaining 30% came from blogs, social media and word of mouth.

Sensis’s aim was to prove that local directories are still an effective advertising medium according to Geraldine Davys general manager of brand and marketing communications at Sensis

“The overall aim of the campaign was to prove the value of Yellow Pages to our advertisers,” Ms Davys said.
Although 70% came from directories and search engines, the use of social media and blogs were an important part of this campaign. With the location of the pizza restaurant being hidden, Sensis could create an intrigue via the blogs and social media efforts by creating an air of mystery around the restaurant and encourage conversation within Facebook and other social sites.

The campaign brought over 8000 consumers to the restaurant and shows that directory listings are still key and can be enhanced with the use of blogs and social media.

Another area that is growing at the moment is mobile search, especially within local search. Many companies are providing users with apps for the iPhone and other devices such as the iPad and Blackberry. These apps provide a means for users to search easily when they are on the move. A great example of this technology is Yellow Pages Augmented reality app.

A combination of all these platforms provides the perfect advertising opportunity for your business!

Online directories are a great way to generate initial leads and are also a sustained stream of business from a proven platform.

Offline directories and newspaper listings are still important.You may find the majority of your market still does not use the Internet and this can be a major opportunity to bring in those consumers.

With the increasing use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare you can utilise social media campaigns and online conversation to entice consumers to your business.

Another more recent platform is mobile advertising, especially within the iPhone and iPad. Yahoo! Sketch-a-Search could prove to be a useful tool for advertising along with Yellow Pages Augmented Reality and other mobile app directories.

The key thing to remember is that your customers have their own personal methods of searching and within local search there are many different types of advertising. By utilising all of them you will be able to find the best methods for your business and generate the highest quality leads.