Out of Hearing, Out of Mind

I was talking the other day with an owner of a health care retailer seeking new business. She told me how last year her company spent $10,000 on a local radio campaign that ran several ad spots a day.

She did get some return on investment - but, unfortunately, the payoff came with lots of limitations:

• The radio campaign lasted a few weeks, then was gone without a trace.
• The broadcast ran in only one of the four municipal markets the company serves.
• The $10,000 spend took every last dollar in their marketing budget, leaving nothing for complementary media spends.
• One year later, the company finds its new business drying up again, and it will take another big chunk of marketing money to fix that.

How to stay on the air with your prospective customers

Every time someone turns on the radio, they don’t learn about your company, right? Nor every time they turn on the TV, or pick up the newspaper.

Of course, you know that. It’s unreasonable to expect your prospects to find you regularly with one marketing channel…

Or is it?

How about every time your prospects go to their computers and Google a product/service and your name comes up - every time they look, no matter what time of day or night, no matter where they live.

I pointed out to the owner with the post-radio blues that investing in Search Engine Optimization of her website would generate new business - and continue to do so in the years ahead, without significant reinvestment needed.

SEO has ROI with a rocket launcher attached to it: expect a quick payoff and a long payoff - in all your markets.

(Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mainstream Media!)