The Web is only 20 years old, and it has revolutionized how businesses find new customers. Twenty years ago, people relied on personal referral or the Yellow Pages to find a repairman or a storage facility. Today, people want more information.
If you repair heating and cooling equipment, homeowners want to see your testimonials. Homeowners are cost conscious. They want to hire someone who is competent and reasonable. They want to hire the company their neighbors use. Aaero Heating’s name and brand have become familiar over 30 years, and Google advertising helps homeowners find them promptly.
It is important to have a great website, but customers need to find it. Every business wants to be on the first page of Google, and a well designed website will give you good page rank, but advertising will put you on the first page immediately.
Good advertising helps customers understand what makes your business special. American-Storage competes with self-storage companies. They offer PODS-like warehouse storage in Santa Rosa that is distinctly better than the national brand. Santa Rosa is just an outpost for the national brand which uses a single truck driver as office staff, dispatcher and warehouse crew. The more he answers the phone, the harder he has to work, so he lets the phone calls go to voicemail.
American-Storage has a full-time office staff and a full-time warehouse staff, so they are friendly, courteous, knowledgeable and they answer the phone! Because they are fully staffed, they can provide same business day access to the warehoused storage pods. This service is different from the national brand and different from self-storage places. The advertising must be targeted to people searching for the typical solution, then shift them to consider something that may be a better fit.
The best part about web advertising is that you ad appears only when people are searching for your product or service, and you pay ONLY when someone clicks through to your website. Compare this to television or newspaper advertising, where you ad appears regardless of whether the audience is in the market. Yellow Pages are still useful, especially if many of your new customers are over 40. The recommended strategy is to shift some dollars, not all, from Yellow Pages to Web advertising.
