New Website Advertising Fail
Filed under: Low Cost Marketing, Online Advertising, Small Business Advertising, Small Business Marketing, Small Business Web Development, Small Business Websites, rural advertising
One of the themes that seems to come up fairly frequently when we talk to customers about their current website or plans for their new one is the lack of a plan for promoting it.
So many times we have spoke to customers and they indicate that they have never really thought about promoting their website, they buy it with no idea of what they are really going to do with it or how they can promote it to bring people into to see their message. This really came to mind today when we passed a billboard for a customer of ours who we had done a re-branding effort with and created a great looking new logo, a really nice e-commerce site and some other items that would help them move from their old image to new.
The customer had asked us to do this work for them so they could move forward on some other promotion initiatives they were working on that involved some offline marketing (billboards and also signs around their office complex). We did not have our hands in that part but I wish we had now.
My wife saw the billboard today, now keep in mind my wife is not a tech person, at all... But the first thing she said was "Why do they have their phone number but not their website on that new billboard?".
Good question.
We actually send out promotion tips to customers and give tips and advice but at times there is work done that we are not involved in, as mentioned above this is a case of that. As I mentioned in previous posts, more and more I hear people tell me that they do not even look for phone numbers on billboards or signs but they look for websites (DOMAIN NAMES).
Why?
Well, it is because they can go get the info they need from the site. Sure you need the phone number on there, but you also need your website on the billboard, driving people to the website allows a small business to promote more of their companies products. I would venture to guess most people can not remember 7 or 10 digits but most will remember a few words (I wish I could remember the book I read this in, but it was tested and proven).
Anyway, we will be reaching out to this customer just to let them know that they should also include their new website in any new marketing push that they do.
If you are looking for ways to promote a website offline check out my post called 10 Offline Ways To Promote Your New Website.
“Why do they have their phone number but not their website on that new billboard?”.
Great question! You put all of that money into a billboard ad and don’t include a website. Doesn’t make sense to me!
I think it’s bad enough when I see a TV commercial and they finally flash the URL in a micro-font at the end… Hey, why not show it so I can read it and for most if not all of the commercial? I only have one client that has ever done TV and it was just for his showroom and on local cable, but he had the URL on the screen the whole time. Why not do that?
But to put up a billboard and not even include the URL… yea, major fail for sure!