anyone understand on line advertising?

[Houndoc]

As a business owner, I know that most clients now search on line instead of old yellow pages phone books.

The thing is, besides sales people who seem to have only been told the term 'tracking number' in training classes, the world of online advertising is fuzzy.

We draw most of our clients from within a 5 mile radius.

We mostly hear from sales people from places such as yellowpages.com or dexknows.com. But I don't think many people actually use them.

What thoughts does anyone have on the smart use of our ad budget?

What are the best ways to get ourselves found via search engines?

 

[sixstringsteve]

I'd recommend using google analytics. It's free and it gives you statistics about your website. you can see where people are coming from, where they're going when they leave your site, how long they stay on each page, etc.

 

[Greg]

Google AdWords, target keywords and your specific location. You can set the dollar amount you want to spend on advertising per day and you ONLY pay for clicks that lead to your website. You can choose to advertise within so many miles of your business, too.

https://accounts.google.com/Service...1&sarp=1&sourceid=awo&subid=us-en-et-awhp_jfk

Any website that is running Google AdSense and their page has your target key words may display your advertisements. Your business will also turn up in searches, especially Google, more often. Pretty good way of getting online advertising that is targeted to your business and opens you up to all kinds of online traffic. RME runs AdSense and it would be possible that if you were advertising on AdWords (the other side of AdSense) you could see your own advertisement on here, thru AdSense.

 

[I Lean]

You could also buy a banner ad on RME. I'm surprised Greg didn't mention that.

Other than that, I don't know much.

 

[Greg]

You could also buy a banner ad on RME. I'm surprised Greg didn't mention that.

Other than that, I don't know much.

Guess I don't know much about online advertising...

 

[Kevin B.]

We draw most of our clients from within a 5 mile radius.

I'm no expert, but look for choke points in and out of that area and buy a couple billboards?

 

[Herzog]

Get your business marked and listed on google maps (free), get your site crawled by google (google: webmaster tools) and look into bidding on higher search rank spots for your demographics and locale. Adwords to advertise on other sites where content and location is relevant. Find local social sites and forums and inquire about advertising rates.

 

[SAMI]

Dex, yellow pages, etc = handheld (localized) google before there was "online" and "google". Those are simply search engines powered by your page flipping fingers. Search engines are not advertising. Think about it, how often does someone see your listing/ad in a yellowpages? Only when they need a pet care specialist; every what, 2-3 years? That's not effective at all; even with online versions. A banner at a baseball diamond, HS football field, community publication such as a monthly newsletter..

Is there a community or local paper/newsletter in your area? These can work very well for a small localized client target. If there is, see if you can add content about general pet care; folks will notice and it keeps your business name in front of them all while building trust. Look for this type of opportunity in/around schools as well.

Door hangers are an effective tool for educating and advertising; combine the two to educate your surrounding community on pet care/animal health tips and advertise your services. PM if interested in the door hanger idea.

To combine online tech with the door hangers, you could do QR code(s) on the door hangers linking directly to articles or videos about pet care/your services. This is not too difficult to set up.

 

[SAMI]

FWIW, I am a business member on RME with our little dance studio. Being associated with RME helps bring our name up to the top of google.

 

[Herzog]

FWIW, I am a business member on RME with our little dance studio. Being associated with RME helps bring our name up to the top of google.

You are correct.

Using SAMI as an example, him posting a links with relevant information in the vendor section about their dance studio gives his site more credibility to Google, especially in a geographically located sense. This is also a reason why people try to sneak their business url's into their signatures without actually being a vendor and it's a reason we remove them when we come across them. It's also surprising how fast content on RME is picked up by the google crawlers and made available in their search.

 

[Houndoc]

Thanks for the good suggestions.

Someone official want to bring up to speed on being an RME business member?

 

[Deleted member 12904]

What is your business? That makes a big difference in how you advertise online IMO.

 

[Houndoc]

What is your business? That makes a big difference in how you advertise online IMO.

Veternary clinic.

 

[Greg]

Thanks for the good suggestions.

Someone official want to bring up to speed on being an RME business member?

Become a General Store Vendor, $50 for a year and you can advertise on RME4x4, here - http://www.rme4x4.com/forumdisplay.php?37-The-General-Store

Let me know if you're interested, looks like the option to sign up as a General Store vendor has been removed. We can take care of it back channel...