David Young | Branding Blog - Marketing Advice and Advertising Strategy for Local Business Owners

Another Benefit to the Radio + Web Marketing Strategy

I've talked a fair bit about the strength of using radio (or any other off-line medium) to drive search for your business's name, or your "brand."

The primary benefit is that prospective customers will not find your competitors when they're searching for you.

There's another very strong benefit that I haven't mentioned. It's a bit more complex because there's not much you can do about it. It all takes place in Google's mighty brain, and on your own browser...as explained by SEOmoz.

Personalized search is now on by default. This means that every click, branded search, and expression of a "brand preference" or "brand affinity" in Google's results is likely to result in preferential biasing towards that domain in future searches. A "Google" Pontiac message during this Superbowl wouldn't just send users to their site, it would also mean that tens of millions of searchers would now be "personalized" towards that domain.

This means the more I search for your brand, the stronger your brand will show up in my own searches, on my own computer. This doesn't apply to search results across the web because it is a part of "personalized search" which is an individualized component of Google's system. It's the kind of thing that used to feel kind of creepy to us, but now that we're desensitized, and now that they aren't so blatant about it, feels ok.

Humorous sidenote...if you spend a lot of time Googling your competitors by name, you'll likely see their results go up, and your brand decline on your own computer. Frustrating? Yes. Worrisome? No.

SUGGESTION: If you dominate search results for your name, instead of telling people to "click over to acme-heating.com" start telling them to "Google Acme Heating!"

If you have a generic name like "Denver Heating and Air," this isn't likely to work for you because a search for your name will also show all of your competitors as well.

The truth is, most folks will search for your name anyway because it's easier than remembering your exact domain. Even if they do remember your domain, they're just as likely to type it into Google as they are to type it into the address bar. That's why "google" is one of the most searched phrases on Yahoo and vice-versa. Given the choice (or not knowing the alternatives) people will do the easiest thing.

So, tell them in your ads to do the easiest thing!

Here's the old Pontiac commercial they mentioned in the SEOmoz article:

Focus Your Share of Mind

Share of Voice is a local business' percentage of all the advertising done in her market for her category.

Here's an overly simplistic example: Jane owns a kitchen design company in a town where there are 4 other kitchen design companies. Each of them runs a weekly newspaper ad, 10 weekly cable TV ads and 10 weekly radio ads. That's 21 ads each for a total of 105 advertisements in the market for kitchen design. Each owner has a 20% Share of Voice.

Share of Mind is the percentage of all the people exposed to those ads who think of Jane first and feel best about her when the decision to remodel a kitchen comes to mind.

Let's make another simplistic assumption: All of their ads say just about the same thing in the same manner. They look and sound like average ads.

With these assumptions, you could make the case that NONE of these businesses will be getting much increased business from their advertising efforts.

WHAT IF Jane were to FOCUS her ads on one media? Let's say she decided to take her entire budget and run 20 ads per week on a single cable channel, only focusing on remodel shows in the evening hours. Even if her ads remained average, the frequency and repetition she would achieve with the fans of the remodel shows would make a difference in her sales.

When these people finally decided to shut off the TV and get busy in their kitchen, Jane would be the first phone call because she'd be the first business they think of and feel confidence in…simply because of the repetition.

Quit trying to "reach" your way to advertising success. Start putting your money into some smart frequency and it won't be very long until your focused Share of Mind begins to pay off!

Share of Voice x Impact Quotient = Share of Mind

That's the first sub-formula in the Advertising Performance Equation. If you want to learn more about the rest of the equation, just sign up for my email list. You'll be the first to know about an exclusive learning opportunity!