What advertising methods give you the best ROI for your money?

One of the things we do is work with _lots_ of advertising agencies. The answer is very dependent on the size and scale of your business, the characteristics of your target market, your market reach, etc. If you are a small business serving local customers only, then utilize those visibility channels that reach your target demographic. That could be coffee shop bulletin boards, or it could be a Yahoo directory search, or google ads. It's important to know what your average sale size is, and what your average cost of customer acquisition is. Then the cost of the advertising figures in. If you have a very unique service in an area, and your sales are large $$ it very well could serve you to pay Google for the top keyword in your geography. It also depends on whether your business depends on small or large numbers of transactions. Are you selling high value consulting, or low-priced consumer objects off a web site. No easy answer to this question. (That's why there are specialist advertising agencies that can help answer the questions and find the right channels so that you get good advertising ROI (>5x at least).

For advertising a business, the best advertising is free advertising and word of mouth. It's important to give back to your own community, and many benefits will come from press and press releases if you have a unique service of product. Just remember, do something good, they tell seven. Do something bad, they tell twenty, plus go negative on social media. They used to call it the Laws of Twenty. Just be positive, and sell yourself.

Every industry has it's preferred or more successful marketing/advertising campaigns. Word of mouth seems best because you are being referred to someone by a person known to that person. This doesn't always lead to a sale because the product or service still might not be needed at that time but at least your are talking to your direct customer. From my experience, you have to have a targeted marketing plan and a broad marketing plan. The targeted marketing plan is used for warm/luke warm prospects and the broad plan is for the industry as a whole. People want to see you in different venues. If you only advertise on/in one venue, you will probably miss a percentage of your market. For example, if you only advertise on radio, you miss those who only watch TV. If you only advertise in one trade journal, yes most of your business will come from there but to get that extra 5-10% of business (which is where your profit its), you have to advertise in perhaps 2-3 other venues. The bulk of your targeted marketing pays the bills and gives you some or a good amount of profit but that last 10% gives you a greater percentage of profit because all the revenue generated there goes right to the bottom line (all the sustaining bills are already paid by your primary advertising campaigns). The key to marketing, advertising being a component of marketing, is to identify the message(s) that your audience wants to hear. First you identify the problem, then identify the audience that has the problem, then figure out which message they need to hear. Next you have to find out where that audience hangs out. Are they driving to work listening to the radio, browsing the Internet, hanging out at a local bar/tavern or country clubs, watching TV, flying United? Focus your advertising on those venues. If you go through that exercise, marketing will be less of a crap shoot.... Food for Thought!

These are a list on online ads that work depending upon your audience

Google AdExchange, AppNexus, Facebook Audience Network, OpenX

You can place ads to show up using tools like adroll which retargets people who have visited your site.

Typically online is made up of Ads, Video Ad (my favourite) and infographics.

If your market is local sometimes local advertising is great too - things like Used.ca is great. Craiglist still works. Lowest Cost here

Traditional media still works too but may be more expensive...

In the old days, we posted our services in the Yellow Pages, but today businesses need a solid online presence. This means a functional website with SEO in place along with cross links to your business page posted on big sites like Google, Yelp and Facebook. Testimonials also play a vital role in establishing legitimacy. Sames Digital Marketing helped me put these things into place for my own site and it's helping! What's the point of a website, if no one can find you?

Word of mouth has always served me well. We also use social media and direct email (I use Constant Contact) to remind people who haven't been to a class recently. I found the leads we got from Google Ad words to be very expensive for the few purchases that were made. Good organic SEO on your website is invaluable.

Digital advertising (Google AdWords, Facebook Ads) will yield more cost effective results than traditional TV, Billboard, Radio advertisements every day of the week. Beyond advertising, however, search engine optimization is typically the highest ROI marketing mechanism that exists beyond sales referrals from past clients.

I have never advertised, my growth is totally "Word of Mouth". I started with a few people in 1998. They showed positive result typically in a short period, they told people, which created a domino effect, and it keeps growing. we were producing 1,800 kits every 3 months in 2010. we are now at 5,000 kits, looking too be 6,000 in our next batch. Integrity is also a key point. We stress Honor, Morals and Ethics in everything we do in our life. in our 26 years of marriage, 8/10/91, my wife Lora and I have never had a fight nor an argument, not even an unkind word. People see attitudes and how well we get along, some people comment on that

The best kind of advertising is going out and meeting people. There is nothing more personal than saying hello and discussing idea's and how your services may be of benefit. Even if there is not fit today, there may be in the future. Having established a connection, you never know if that person or someone that person knows may be introduced to you because of the connection. Unless you go out, meet people, and get a face to face, you will never close a sale. You need to go out to open a case before you can close it for that sale to happen. Look forward to meeting more of you on Alignable to see how I can help you be the best you can be, for yourself and family.

Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation. If your business is innovative (meaning you've solved problems the competition hasn't), then you have a great story to tell and ROI begins to have less meaning than the importance of telling your story to everyone who will listen.

Case in point... Elon Musk just launched the Falcon Heavy, the biggest rocket every launched. They were innovative in their design and it was a great success. However, behind the scenes, SpaceX spent millions of dollars convincing Congress (telling their story) in order to get permission to enter the space transportation business. Especially since they were competing (partnering) with NASA. Measuring the ROI of their efforts would be difficult, but seeing their success is easy. As a matter of fact, I was in Florida and saw the launch with my grandson and family - it was AWESOME!

Don't worry about ROI so much. Focus on telling your story and being innovative - and excited about what you do. Excitement is contagious.