You’ve got funds in your budget to grow your business through advertising, you want to make sure that you spend the money in the most efficient way to attract the most clients. But there are several ways that you might advertise. Which is best for a home care business? In this episode of A Drink With the Hurricane, guest host Rebecca highlights the top advertising venues and explains why one is superior for your company.
At our last boot camp event, an important question came up, which I’ll address today: Which are the best ways to spend your advertising funds? You hear a lot of ads on the radio, you see many ads in print publications and you know that direct referral marketing is available, as well. People wanted to know whether we prefer one over the other. Here’s our position:
Radio
Radio may seem glamorous; it’s exciting to hear someone talking about your business between the songs or the sports scores. But you’re not likely to reach the right audience through radio advertising, since most radio programs have very broad listening audiences and don’t target your clients.
Radio advertising is very expensive, which is another reason why this isn’t the best choice. And it’s nearly impossible to track where your referrals are coming from, when people hear your ad on the radio. That isn’t very helpful when you’re trying to allocate your future advertising funds to your greatest source of revenue.
Print
In today’s green world, it’s best not to contribute to more trees being cut down. Save that paper and stay away from print advertising. Another reason to steer clear: Print advertising isn’t as effective as it was years ago, because print readership levels aren’t as high as they were in years past, since everyone is moving to an online forum. As Nick has said in previous posts, there’s movement toward Facebook and other social media platforms. Save your advertising dollars for something better than print ads.
Direct Referral Marketing
This option is cost-effective, and it’s trackable. You can reach referral sources directly, and you can train your staff to drill down on those Internet leads to see if they are linking together or if they’re just getting leads off the Internet, which is not very useful.
At Hurricane Marketing, we know that the answer to the big question about where home care businesses should advertise is easy: It’s direct referral marketing. You’ll be reaching the immediate customers who can send you referrals to generate higher revenue, longer cases and better-qualified cases. All of this will help you increase your conversion ratio. Choose wisely when you spend your advertising funds, and you’ll see positive results.
If you need more advice about where to advertise or how to grow your business, Hurricane Marketing can help. Soon, we’ll be adding a new stream of videos to our blog called The Coach’s Corner, which will feature everyone who has a hand in coaching here to provide you with useful tips. But we’re also available to help with more specific matters if you call us directly. We’ll help you learn how to Blow Away The Competition!