OK, let’s talk about the internet.
There is a lot of talk about the web and how cheap and effective it is because results can be easily measured.
Let’s drill a little deeper: an investment of, say $1000 (which is roughly the average cost of participating in a Sampsons Direct produced Trade Directory), which will secure you a distribution channel of 15,000 units. Comparably, Adwords (Google) at a click through of $0.20 CPC will secure you 5,000 visitors to your site - but will they be qualified?
Alternatively, a $5 CPM (cost per thousand page impressions) on banners and buttons will get you 200,000 page impressions. Yet, how many actual transactions, bookings, phone calls, etc does it deliver? How do you know? Can you be sure? Measurement is important, but conversion has to be the end game.
Trade Directories stimulate enquiry that creates the opportunity for the selling process; rapport building, needs analysis, presentation and proposal, contracting – all of which build a stronger foundation for long term business health.
Never make the mistake of assuming the internet will do you selling for you.
According to global netserver monitor Netcraft, there are over 182,000,000 active websites on the planet. This begs the question; online might be low cost and easily measurable (if rudimentary), but how do you get cut through? How will your potential customers find you?
Whilst the cost of advertising may be lower, there is the added expense of functions such as web development and Search Engine Optimisation, making the overall cost of marketing not so inexpensive after all.
Why do you think that media agencies who are looking to place ad spends on behalf of their clients use either large sites (yahoo, hotmail, ninemsn) or ad networks (high volume page impressions)?
- Because they have to go where the traffic is for the greatest exposure opportunity – and pay a premium for it
- Because sorting through the internet on a site by site basis is extremely difficult and expensive. And don’t forget, you pay a premium for advertising on sites like ninemsn – your $1,000 won’t go very far.
That brings us to Adwords by Google. Adwords is a fantastic user controlled platform, for driving traffic to your website – but at this stage it is primarily focused on B to C. Just try searching the term “travel directory” and see the results; you’ll find they are all consumer focused. Great for you to market to consumers, but not so good if you want to market to trade customers.
I don’t dismiss online for B2B advertising, but I do prescribe to it as part of advertising approach that includes online and offline publishing.
So we come back to the question: with all those websites, all those pages, all that travel content, when developing trade business, how do you get the cut through?
I propose that you go back to basics; a quality publication, aligned to a market leading brand with a strong and loyal target distribution.
Sampsons Direct trade directories tick all of these boxes.
