Why Hyperlocal Advertising Works So Well for Local Businesses

If we listen to conventional wisdom, businesses should be using TV, radio and online banner ads to attract new customers. But when it comes to local businesses, these channels simply aren’t as effective as turning to local marketing.

Many local businesses are finding that hyperlocal advertising — in any media channel that is primarily focused on the needs and issues of the people in that immediate vicinity or community — are more effective than traditional mass-market ads.

Community-based newspapers and magazines, metro blogs, online neighborhood community platforms, plus out-of-home advertising (OOH) like posters at bus stops and digital screens at the gas pump are all good examples of powerful hyperlocal channels.

Let’s take a closer look at why they work so well.

Why Hyperlocal Advertising Works

Local Tribes for Local Brands

In the digital age, it’s become easier than ever for small businesses to gain global attention. But is this really the right way to go? It depends on what niche you’re operating in, but in many situations, what local businesses really need are more local customers. The smart use of targeted, hyperlocal advertising can be a powerful way to connect you with a growing, passionate, local tribe.

Because local businesses generally have more budget limitations than the bigger players in the market, they must invest their advertising dollars more strategically, focusing solely on the most effective channels. For many local businesses, this means investing in hyperlocal media to get immediately in front of a local, relevant audience.

This strategy works, because people are paying loser attention than many marketers realize — especially when presented with contextually relevant opportunities as they move throughout their daily lives. This is definitely the case when we’re outside: Research from the Outdoor Media Association found that consumers are 2.5 times more alert when they are out and about than when they are at home consuming content on their own screens.

You can also create a powerful branding tool when you tap into a culture that’s unique to a local community. For example, a bank that advertises a good luck message to the local college team will be viewed as a relevant partner in the community. Finding these local events, associations and hot topics can help local businesses engage prospects in a more relatable manner.

As a local business, your marketing should feel local. Take advantage of local stereotypes that could help personalize your marketing campaign, as well as any challenges that you’ll need to factor into your campaign planning. Does your area get hit with a lot of snow? Create a campaign around that challenge and offer customers a “snow day special.” Find out if there are any local events that may be relevant to your campaign, or local partnerships that could provide a mutual benefit. Understand that in order to build a loyal local customer base, it’s important to be viewed as a part of the community.

Hyperlocal advertising is a great way to achieve this kind of relevance.

Rediscovering OOH in the Local Context

As mentioned earlier, OOH works especially well on the hyperlocal level, simply because it adapts to how people are living and moving through their cities and towns — with billboards and signs near transit hubs and along the main traffic routes, and smart screens in stores and public spaces with lots of foot traffic.

Consider these statistics about the power of out-of-home ads:

• According to a Nielsen report, 70 percent of purchase decisions are made while shopping or otherwise in stores.
• Some 79 percent of consumers take action after seeing an OOH ad.
• Approximately 59 percent of consumers take an interest in time/day/location specific OOH advertising.

Video screens are great for OOH advertising, largely because they’re great for other engaging, locally relevant information too. Location-based video screens often offer content relating to local events, traffic and weather information, nearby special offers, and useful tips and recommendations. For instance, grocery stores can include recipes that highlight ingredients that are on sale for the week. This translates to a better experience for consumers, which is absolutely necessary for better, sustained engagement.

In addition, OOH gives businesses the chance to place visually engaging messaging in strategic locations — such as at the front of the store in full view of checkout lanes — when customers are most bored with the shopping process. According to research from Millward Brown and supermarket video ad platform Impax Media, digital signs are better at capturing attention and promoting specific items than static ads. Not only that, but they resonate well with customers:

• 96 percent of shoppers noticed the in-line screens.
• 84 percent of them viewed the content to help them pass the time in line.
• Half of the customers surveyed said that digital screens in the checkout line improved their opinion of the retailer.

Solutions like Impax’s represent a milestone in OOH advertising. Retailer content drives the programming mix, while additional non-retail information like local weather and news, event listings and other information keeps customers’ attention while they wait. By giving people the information they find most useful alongside relevant ads, it’s easier for brands to create strong positive associations in the customers’ minds. And brands can tailor their content based on locale-specific attention data, translating to higher relevance and engagement.

As we navigate what marketers are calling “the attention economy,” this kind of in-retail OOH ad delivers exactly that attention, in a way that shoppers find interesting and enjoyable.

A Holistic Local Media Mix

The most effective advertising strategies for any brand must take a holistic media approach. OOH ads, in the context of a larger media strategy, can make all your advertising more effective by reinforcing it on the local level.

When advertising includes a hyperlocal out-of-home element, its impact spikes. As the chart below from UK-based OOH trade group Outsmart demonstrates, the return on traditional media is compounded when combined with OOH advertising:

Source: Outsmart

Local OOH placements also perform better than any other paid media types when it comes to audience recall:

Source: Outsmart

The strategy behind where and when to use OOH is based on a simple idea: People in certain contexts will be more likely to pay attention, remember and take further action — such as making a purchase, for example — than others. For instance, customers who are already in a store are more likely to make purchase decisions that stray from their original intent — and to take advantage of relevant on-the-spot offers.

If you go into a store to buy a new coffee maker, it’s reasonable to think that you’re also going to buy coffee beans and coffee filters; while you’re there, you may also see an in-aisle ad for doughnuts and think, “Mmm, I could go for a doughnut with my coffee in the morning.” You didn’t originally intend to purchase those doughnuts, but the advertising, viewed in the right place at the right time, influenced you to make the purchase.

It’s also straightforward enough to augment your offline local ad buys with online ones. Facebook Ads, for example, allows you to target people based on location, and you can combine these geo parameters with other targeting methods to reach only the people who are truly most likely to benefit from your product.

Google’s new Map Ads feature allows businesses to advertise in map search results, promote locations with map pins, and connect those map pins with in-store promotions. If you’re using promoted pins, you can customize your local business page to highlight products that are currently in stock in a way that’s easily accessible to prospects — with the end goal of getting more physical traffic to your store.

With local, targeted, social campaigns, brands can reach customers as they journey their way through various cities and towns, and keep their attention afterward by using platforms such as Facebook and Twitter for continued engagement.

Putting It All Together

For local business, it all comes down to finding and engaging the local customer, in a way that enhances (rather than disrupts) their everyday experience in the community. Context provides powerful motivation to make purchases, and is the key to making products and services more relevant. Using local insights along with local reach is the fuel behind hyperlocal media like community publications, events, targeted ads and OOH media.

Going local delivers highly relevant and highly targeted offers throughout the various stages of the customer’s journey, both literally and metaphorically. When done correctly, your customers will feel like you’re speaking directly to them, understanding what they want and need in a highly personal way. When this happens, you’re fostering higher brand affinity and bringing people closer to doing business with you.

Source: https://smallbiztrends.com
Image Credit: Shutterstock


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

5 Ways To Use Video Marketing For Small Business Growth

The power of video can’t be ignored. It’s the most engaging type of content available today. And it’s never been more affordable to create one. There are many ways in which you can use a video to grow your small business. This guide is going to show you how to do it.

Implant A Video On Your Landing Page

The majority of small businesses will invest in online advertising. These ads will lead to a landing page, where customers can begin to crawl through the sales funnel. Improving landing page conversion rates is always a major matter of concern, but with a video, this is relatively easy.

Studies have shown that a video placed on your landing page can increase conversions by 80%. This is because the content is engaging and it encourages people to watch. What you have to bear in mind is that this video shouldn’t automatically play.

All the benefits can be eliminated simply by showing a video that obnoxiously plays the moment the customer lands on the page.

You Can Better Reach Mobile Customers

Over half of all Internet users now access the Internet just from a mobile device. This is an important fact because it means traditional types of content are quickly falling by the wayside, and there’s nothing you can do about that. People don’t have time to read a long blog post on the small screen of a smartphone.

The best way to get around this is to use video. A video can say up to 10,000 words for every 1,000 words written down. It’s the easiest way to disseminate a lot of information in a short space of time.

This is a brand new way of reaching over half your audience who don’t have the time or inclination to read a long sales pitch. Now you can appeal to a greater range of people.

Show Your Product In Action

It’s difficult to imagine how a product can come in handy when all you have are three or four stock photos on the screen. A video can provide people with some insight into what your product actually does and how it should be used. This will also save you a lot of unnecessary customer service questions.

Showing your product in action is easy. Combine it with a story to make it more engaging and spread it around as part of your next branded campaign.

Use Video To Go Interactive

The key to growing any business is to engage with your customers. There’s nothing worse than having a huge list of email addresses on your newsletter platform and none of them respond to you. A great way to increase engagement levels is to make your videos interactive.

There are many ways in which you can do this. Choice-based videos where people can follow a story along, which includes your product, are always popular. You can also organize events via live streaming.

For example, one popular way of ensuring engagement is to organize a live Q&A session. You will talk for a little while, answer some questions, then take comments from the floor. The reason why this is so effective is because customers feel like they’re a part of something.

It’s going to keep your customers warm and they’re not going to forget about you in a hurry.

Small Teasers To Build Anticipation

All businesses will come across a period where they’re going to have a long gap between releases. This is okay because it happens sometimes. The big danger you have is running into a situation where your customers are no longer responding to you. They’ve forgotten who you are and what you’re offering.

A short teaser video can keep them amped up about your latest product. It doesn’t have to be a long video. It can be as short as a few seconds.

Teasers can get people talking again and prevent your company from getting stale.

Last Word – Don’t Come To Rely On Video

What you must remember is that you can’t afford to rely on video. It’s a great way of encouraging people to get interested in your company, but the best companies mix in video, with other forms of content. If you keep producing the same type of content you’re only going to bore your target market.

Mix in video, with images and written content to get the most from your videos. In the meantime, think about bringing live streaming and interactive video into your company.

What do you think is the best way to use video?

Source: http://www.forbes.com

Photo Credit: Shuttershock

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

Traditional Advertising Is Dying a Slow and Painful Death. Here's What to Do Instead

The proof is in the pudding. How many times have we heard that? However, when comes to building a brand it holds true 100 percent of the time.

When companies have social proof of repeated positive interactions with their customers it builds trust in the marketplace which increases conversion rates of new customers.

Traditional advertising efforts are declining in their effectiveness. Consumers have been marketed to so profusely that they have become resistant to almost all claims made in advertisements.

I received yet another phone book on my doorstep over the weekend. Like millions of others, I immediately recycled it. Studies show most millennials don't even watch tv. Newspaper subscriptions are down across the country, rendering their ads far less effective than they once were.

There is simply so much noise that consumers have largely shut down and tune out commercials. They simply don't place any value in the claims made by marketers unless they can be validated from actual proof from within the marketplace.

Credibility is essential to building a brand and consumers simply would prefer to find out what others are saying rather than placing faith in what advertisers are telling them.

Here are several simple yet highly effective ways marketers can leverage social proof to increase conversion rates:

• Create case studies from successful customers. Demonstrating how existing customers have benefited from a brand's services establishes credibility. Share them to your website and social media

• Write blogs that tell the company's story, demonstrate industry thought leadership, document success, highlight talented employees, and create engagement.

• Encourage customers to leave online reviews and publish them to the company website. The sales team should seek recommendations from existing customers via LinkedIn that can be displayed on their profiles.

• Ask influential existing customers to give a testimonial via a quote. Create a graphic with the quote prominently displayed and share it via social media.

• Prominently feature awards, mentions in the media, or any other positive rankings or ratings via social media.

• Leverage numbers when possible. People are far more likely to take a certain action if they know others have already done it. If a company has 75,000 subscribers to their e-Newsletter making that known lends credibility and encourages new users to sign up as well.

• Encourage your sales reps and account managers to get LinkedIn recommendations from existing clients. Then, make the recommendations part of the sales pitch to prospects. I have 37 LinkedIn recommendations and have used them as a closing technique for years, "don't just take my word for it, see what my clients have said about me."

To get business, blogging has been the only advertising I've done for my startup. When I was in the corporate world and before blogging, it was always me who was doing the reaching out to companies (calling, emailing, messaging on LinkedIn, etc).

Since I began blogging and left the corporate world, I found that giving away just enough free information via my blogs attracts interest in my business. Blogging helped me convert from a 100% outbound marketing strategy to an inbound one in which people reach out to me.

When I meet with companies about their social media, one of the biggest fears I see is negative reviews online. They are hesitant to go all in on social because they fear that by doing so it will give their customers more opportunities to voice a negative experience.

What many don't realize is that these negative reviews are likely already happening to some degree with your company. The best way to offset a negative customer experience online is to share and highlight positive outcomes from customers that show the real benefits of your products and services.


Once a company has an understanding of how to leverage their social proof, they become truly influential within their industry. The key to marketing is what others are saying about a brand, not what the brand is saying about itself.

Source: http://www.inc.com/
Image Credit: Getty Images




ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

Why Your Visual Advertising is Failing: Display Advertising 101

Do display ads work? If you’re going by the number of clicks, the answer is a deafening no. In fact, the average click-through rate for display ads across all formats and placements is downright abysmal, just 0.06 percent, reports HubSpot. A January 2014 study found that Millennials (18- to 34-year-olds) were far more likely to tune out display ads on social media sites and search engines than they were to ignore traditional TV, radio and print ads, according to eMarketer. Worse, half of all clicks on mobile ads are accidental, reports GoldSpot Media. At the same time, display ad spend is expected to surpass search ad spend in 2016. So, what gives?

The Internet is flooded with visual ads– and most of them are pretty subpar. Sure, we’ve moved beyond those flashy banner ads circa 2005 that screamed “Buy Me Now” in loud, clashing colors. (Right?) But even the most attractively designed visual ads can still fall short. Effective ads align simple, professional design with compelling messaging and smart backend analytic refinement. These ads leverage the channel in a way that makes sense for a business’s specific goals and the target market’s needs.

Could it be we’re actually over thinking display ads? The ABC’s of the perfect visual ad are not rocket science. Here’s how to get back to basics and fix your visual advertising problems.

Display Advertising 101
Keep It Simple

Bannersnack’s collection of the best examples of display advertising all feature simple designs that harness the power of brand elements (like logo and colors) to build trust with viewers and drive clicks. Great ads speak to users. The harness the power of empathy to understand the target audience, what makes them tick, and what elements they respond to. The Apple Music ads are the perfect example of simple design that harnesses brand recognition and trust with a clear call-to-action message. Apple has already created plenty of buzz around Apple Music. There’s no need to explain how the service works. Here, a simple “Available Now” CTA works best to drive conversions.

Create a Sense of Urgency

Today’s savvy Millennials are used to display ad retargeting with multiple offers. To drive click-throughs, you need to create a sense of urgency with your ads without sounding like spam. Adobe’s display ads for Creative Suite are the perfect examples. The ads use compelling visuals to draw on what Adobe is already best known for – amazing photographs via Photoshop – and then add simple CTAs with limited time offers. The blue “Join Now” or “Get Started” buttons visually contrast with the darker backgrounds, subtly drawing attention to the CTA without being in your face about it.

Focus on One Offer at a Time, A/B Test for the Most Effective Message

Businesses like Amazon and eBay offer a host of services and products. But their ads are completely streamlined. They never cram too much information into one display ad. But just because you’re making one offer at a time doesn’t mean that you can’t have multiple ad iterations. Check out what Amazon Prime did with the company’s Prime Video display ads. While the text is the same in each of these four ads, they vary design elements (background color, CTA button color) for A/B testing. Changing too many elements between ads can make it difficult to determine which element truly is responsible for the boost (or fall) in clicks. By focusing on one offer at a time and only varying background color and button color, Amazon is better able to determine which subtle design difference have the biggest impact on click through rates.

Design Ads Specifically for Retargeting

Users who are retargeted are 70 percent more likely to convert, reports Digital Information World. To maximize the effectiveness of your retargeting ads, align design with strategy: what does the user need to convert? For Asana, this meant building greater awareness around the app’s benefits, reports Bannersnack. For Marin Software, their goal is a bit different: rather than promoting benefits, they promote reports with information that’s relevant and timely for their audience. For Moz, the strategy is even simpler: try Moz Pro for free. All three of these strategies have been effective because the companies understood what prospective users needed to see to convert. Don’t assume what works for Company A will also work for your business. Learn what moves the needle for your users and align your ad messages accordingly.

Bottom Line


Display ads are most effective when great design aligns with brand strategy and user needs. Understand what makes your users click on an ad: is it a sense of urgency to sign up for a trial offer? Is it out of curiosity to learn more about a new product or service? By getting back to basics, you can maximize the impact of your display ads.

Source: http://smallbiztrends.com/
Image Credit: Shutterstock




ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

Online Advertising: What Marketers Can Do In Light Of A Crisis Of Faith

You remember the promise at the turn of the 21st century: online advertising will provide comprehensive data and proof of effectiveness, all with incredible new opportunities for interactivity. This statement could also be called “The Great Digital Over-Promise.”

Nearly two decades later, marketers are finding themselves in the awkward position of having sold a dream and a promise that has faltered under real-world conditions. Jessica Davies described the current state of online advertising in Digiday, writing that “online advertising is under the microscope, thanks in large part to the rise in ad blocking.” Davies’ assertion is reinforced by research conducted by Adobe and PageFair, which reveals that as much as 28% of U.S. internet users may have ad blocking enabled.

Ad blocking, fraud, viewability and a host of other challenges have bruised online advertising’s reputation and left many marketers in the unenviable position of buying something they may not completely believe in, nor can perfectly demonstrate its effectiveness.

In a stroke of irony, online advertising finds itself in the position most other forms of traditional advertising have dealt with their entire existence: everybody knows advertising works, yet no one can prove exactly how or when or why. As the old adage goes, half of advertising works — we just don’t know which half in today’s digital age.

This creates an environment that every tech startup and marketer has been trying to overcome for decades. In the end, advertising remains just as much about faith as fact.

Expectations, Expectations, Expectations

Online advertising is effective, but marketers have been trained to expect far more from it than other forms of media. This means that every false data point and report of impropriety is under a level of scrutiny rarely applied to other media channels. If marketers had access to data that showed every missed billboard impression, for instance, every distracted driver, or every overcast day that affected billboard legibility, we might see an upheaval in pricing and demand.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/


ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a business networking association dedicated to helping small businesses and entrepreneurs develop, expand and grow. We offer affordable opportunities to help create a positive impact and advancement in your business interests and personal quality of life to take you to the next level.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

7 Predictions For The Future Of Online Marketing

I recently wrote a piece on my “7 Predictions For How The Internet Will Change Over the Next 15 Years.” Among my predictions were the disappearance of conventional Internet “connections,” the commoditization of privacy, the arrival of augmented reality, less work for skilled humans, and the arrival of the Internet to planets beyond Earth.

Those predictions for the development of the Internet got me thinking about their more practical, grounded ramifications. For example, with these predictions in mind, what can we say about the future on marketing and advertising? Here are my predictions for how online marketing will change over the next 15 years:

1. ‘Reality optimization’ will become a thing.

With augmented reality and more digital interactions with the physical world, brands will have to hybridize traditional and digital models of advertising. For example, the concept of search optimization is all about getting found, but there may be a new, physical application of this inbound discovery effort once augmented reality devices become popular. Companies may invest in some digitally relevant style of advertising, such as pop-up ads that appear when a user is close, or there may be digital ways of accessing physical locations, like virtually shopping at a supermarket. Think of these as a way of “optimizing” reality for digital consumer interactions.

2. Content feeds will become finely-tuned for each individual.

With the rise in connection availability and better algorithms for surfacing and serving content, users will have access to instant forms of information and entertainment at all times, highly-tailored to their interests. They’re going to become dependent on constant streams of this individualized content, filtering out anything deemed irrelevant for them the same way most modern users ignore generalized traditional advertising. For marketers to survive, they’ll need to provide a similarly instantly-rewarding experience, also customized for the individual. This may include adopting technologies that allow for such customization, or a simpler route of engaging people individually.

3. Non-digital ads will die.


People have been saying it forever (and I’ve even written about it recently), but once the Internet is truly everywhere, with no concept of connection, traditional advertising is going to eventually die. It may become digitized in some way, such as the pop-up digital ads I mentioned in my first point, but it will cease to exist in the form we know it today. The key disappearance here will be tangible forms of advertising—billboards, magazine ads, and so on.


4. Privacy concerns will reach their zenith, spawning more brands that prioritize it.

User concerns over privacy, transparency, and trust will reach their zenith as more tech brands monopolize the industry and consumers increasingly rely on digital systems to provide their wants and needs. Brands that are able to offer these rare, commoditized factors are going to have a distinct advantage over the majority that aren’t, which means a handful of competitive brands will jump on this opportunity and differentiate themselves accordingly. You’ll start to see more brands with “old world” values, and a niche of customers who want to stay as off-grid as possible, evolving into their own targetable demographic.

5. Competition will be reduced.

Thanks to increasingly sophisticated algorithms and machine learning systems, there will be less work available for humans. With less work, there will be fewer businesses, and the ones that remain won’t be quick at adapting to these new technologies and applications. All this results in a complicated evolution of our economic system; we’ll all have more access to the resources we’ve always wanted, but there will be fewer brands and businesses providing them. If your brand is one of the cutting-edge (and lucky) businesses to make the cut, you’ll likely benefit from the reduced competition. That doesn’t mean you won’t have to work hard to stay relevant, but you’ll have an easier time differentiating yourself.

6. Strange new social interactions will be introduced.

Social media platforms as we know them today are giant collections of content; each individual or organization has a dedicated profile that submits and promotes content, which is then pooled together in the newsfeeds of other profiles. In the future, this relationship has much room to evolve. Digital profiles may be more closely tied to an individual, and individuals may be able to produce content and exchange with one another in more immediate, interactive ways with wearable technology such as Internet-connected augmented reality contact lenses or glasses.

7. Face-to-face interactions will be rare, but highly valued.

Future generations may grow up in a world where digital-exclusive interactions are the norm, but until we make that progress as a society, most of us will still have a need for in-person, face-to-face interactions. The slow disappearance of these interactions in favor of digital experiences and algorithmically generated content feeds will leave users hungry for this personal interaction, and the brands who deliver these kinds of experiences will have a chance to get ahead of the competition. In some ways, this is like marketing taking a step back, reverting to one-on-one, in-person customer relationships to compensate for the overly digital age.

These predictions are somewhat general, and intentionally so. They’re based on predictions on the future of the Internet, which themselves are highly speculative and open for debate. I do imagine some of these outcomes manifesting no matter how the Internet develops—for example, the “death” of traditional advertising (as we know it) and the rise of individualized marketing efforts—but we’ll just have to wait and see how everything plays out.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is an organization consisting of professionals and entrepreneurs which focuses on the success of our Members. We help our Members establish lasting relationships and generate new business opportunities towards the growth of their business.
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Simplicity Is Key to Effective Online Advertising

If you want to get the most out of your online ads, focus on simplicity, not cleverness, new research suggests.

In today's hectic and cluttered online environment, advertisers have milliseconds to get viewers to see and comprehend their ad. That's why basic and straightforward ads make a bigger impact than those that are clever and visually complex, according to a study recently accepted by the Journal of Marketing Research.

Complexity doesn't pay off online: Eye-tracking research shows that people actively try to avoid ads, said Michel Wedel, one of the study's authors and a professor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

"A lot of advertising is being tested over fairly long exposures — several seconds, or even 10 to 20 seconds," Wedel said in a statement. "The problem is that ads that do well in that scenario may not do well in short exposures."

For the study, researchers tested reactions to ads over periods as short as 100 milliseconds, which is less than a full glance. The authors divided the ads into three categories: upfront ads, which present a product in a straightforward, expected and typical way; mystery ads, whose visual complexity requires work on the part of the viewer to decipher; and "false front" ads, which use a clear image of one thing to sell something else.

The researchers tested the different ad types in experiments involving 1,360 test subjects and 50 advertisements. The experiments looked at the participants' reactions at 100 milliseconds, 500 milliseconds, 2 seconds, 5 seconds and 30 seconds after they viewed the ad. A final experiment let the participants look at ads as long as they wanted.

The study's authors found that upfront ads, such as a photo of a bottle of orange soda to sell orange soda, were understood and received positively by viewers in those 100 milliseconds. In addition, the participants continued to view these ads positively over 5, 10 and 30 seconds.

The mystery ads weren't viewed as positively as upfront ads in the initial glimpse, but they gained in approval over time. An example of a mystery ad used in the research was one for apple juice. The ad showed a ninja severing a rope holding a refrigerator, which was about to crush apples to make the juice.

The false-front ads, such as one that used a headshot of a blond woman to sell wheat beer or ads that take the form of news articles, were initially received positively because they appeared logical. However, the longer the participants looked at these ads, the less favorably they viewed them, because viewers had enough time to reorient themselves to the correct interpretation.

"We find very little justification for false-front ads," Wedel said. "People don't like to be duped."

The study also found that a viewer's familiarity with the brand being advertised didn't affect which type of ads they preferred.

The research isn't trying to tell advertisers to stop being creative. Wedel said there are certain times, such as the Super Bowl, when advertisers can be sure their ads will get full attention.

"But for online banner ads, for example, advertisers should realize that they'll have only a tenth of a second of a viewer's attention, if that," Wedel said. "And so they should stick to the basics: What's the product? And what's the brand?"

The study was co-authored by Millie Elsen and Rik Pieters of Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Source: www.businessnewsdaily.com 

ABOUT WNFP
Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is an organization consisting of professionals and entrepreneurs which focuses on the success of our Members. We help our Members establish lasting relationships and generate new business opportunities towards the growth of their business.
Stay Connected with WNFP!

The Top 20 Places Your Business Needs to Be Listed Online

Remember when you had to find a phone book and flip through hundreds of pages in order to find a local business?

The use of Yellow Pages has declined over 50 percent in the last five years. People now conduct quick searches on one of the many popular online directories. Since Internet search is the primary tool to finding businesses today, it’s vital to make sure your business is listed on all applicable online directories.

To get you started, here’s a quick guide to the top 20 online directories and links to their sign-up pages

 
Google Places for Business

Listing your business on Google Places for Business should be at the top of your priority list. Google outperforms every other search engine by a long shot. In fact, Google receives nearly 6 billion searches per day.

Advantages

• Registering for a business listing on Google is easy and free
• Business listings appear in Google Maps
• Happy customers can leave reviews on your Google+ page

Create your Google Places for Business listing.

Bing Places for Business

Bing is the second most visited search engine on the Internet. If people aren’t searching on Google, chances are, they’re searching for your business on Bing.

Advantages

• Quick, easy, and free to register
• Add multiple business locations at one time
• Include other content in your business listing like photos, videos, and more

Create your Bing Places for Business listing.

Yahoo! Local Listing

Yahoo is the Internet’s 3rd most popular search engine, bringing in millions of searches per day.

Advantages

• Yahoo Local Basic listing is free
• Include photos, company description and more for $9.95/month
• Get maximum exposure and listed on 40+ other directory listings for $29.99/month

Create your Yahoo Local listing.

Yelp

Yelp is one of the best places on the Internet for consumers to find a quality review. If you’re looking to tap into the word-of-mouth advertising world, then Yelp is the perfect place to start.

Advantages

• Create deals for loyal customers right in your Yelp account
• Send messages to your customers, publicly or privately
• View business trends in Yelp’s reporting tool

Create your Yelp listing.

MerchantCircle

MerchantCircle is an online directory that helps small businesses connect with local customers, and other local small businesses. They offer free marketing tools to help you build your business.

Advantages

• Geographically localized to your target audience
• Ability to advertise to boost your listing
• Host a business blog on the site

Create your MerchantCircle listing.

Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages is the online version of a modern day phone book. Besides listing your business in an organized directory, Yellow Pages also offers advertising, lead generation services, and online payment options.

Advantages

• Well-organized interface
• Detailed ad performance data
• Receives millions of searches per day

Create your Yellow Pages listing.

White Pages

White Pages is the online equivalent of the white pages in a phone book. It’s a great way to make your business contact information available to over 200 million people.

Advantages

• List your business among 30 million other businesses
• Premium text message service for mobile marketing
• Sponsored advertisement opportunities available

Create your White Pages listing.

Superpages.com

Superpages.com is another online directory that is easy to navigate. Superpages.com includes some unique features like cars for sale, lottery results and helpful tips for finding business services.

Advantages

• Local weather listings right on the home page
• Facebook sign-in option
• Popular search categories listed on the home page

Create your Superpages listing.

Yellowbook

Yellowbook.com is a subsidiary of Hibu Business, and allows you to create an easily searchable business listing on their network. Listings come with access to a full profile that includes business information, a link to your website, product descriptions and more.

Advantages

• Information distributed across yellowbook.com network and partner sites
• Display and video ads available
• Cool map feature included in every listing

Create your Yellowbook listing.

YellowBot

YellowBot is yet another online directory similar to the yellow pages in a phone book. YellowBot provides basic contact and location information about businesses, and allows online reviews from customers.

Advantages

• Easily sign in with Windowslive, Google, Facebook, Yahoo or Twitter
• Premium Listing opportunity for easy account management
• Ability to add searchable tags to your listing

Create your YellowBot listing.

Manta

Manta is an online directory that receives over 30 million unique visitors per month. According to Inc., it is one of the fastest growing business sites on the Internet.

Advantages

•       A fantastic way to increase your website traffic with paid business optimization packages
•       Get set up within minutes
•       Highlight your products and brands on your business profile

Create your Manta listing.

Citysearch

Citysearch is an excellent network for restaurants, bars, spas, hotels, restaurants and more. It’s free to get a listing and easy to update your profile once you’re listed in their search results. Citysearch also offers city guides for the most popular cities in the United States.

Advantages

• Vast partner network including Expedia, Urbanspoon, MerchantCircle and more
• Profile includes a fun welcome message for viewers
• Customers access business listings through popular Citysearch mobile app

Create your Citysearch listing.

MapQuest

MapQuest is a web mapping service to help bring local customers right to your business doorstep. This listing is great for businesses that are trying to get customers to visit a physical location.

Advantages

• Detailed driving directions to your business are available
• Only $3/week
• One central dashboard to manage business listings across multiple sites (paid service)

Create your MapQuest listing.

Local.com

Local.com is a free business directory powered by Yext.com. Local.com offers searchers detailed information about everything going on in their city, including events, deals and information on popular businesses.

Advantages

• Additional advertising options available
• Add a coupon to attract customers
• Resources available to make sure your business is listed correctly across the web

Create your Local.com listing.

Foursquare

Not only is Foursquare a popular business directory, it’s a popular social networking site. Customers can check in and comment on your business — ultimately leading more potential customers to your business.

Advantages

• Connect your Twitter handle, so visitors can Tweet you
• Add a map so people can “check-in” to your business
• Popular mobile app available

Create your Foursquare listing.

DexKnows

DexKnows is a popular online directory that not only allows a business listing, but provides a way for you to track how your customers engage with your profile, thus allowing you to track your online reputation.

Advantages

• Identify places where you can advertise both online and in print
• Detailed lead information available through reporting tools
• Monitor your ratings and reviews

     Create your DexKnows listing.

The Business Journals

The Business Journals is a local listing that has 4 levels of service options— free, bronze, silver, and gold. Each service option displays your listing in the directory, but the more you pay, the more opportunities you have to receive targeted traffic to your website.

Advantages

• 8 million monthly searchers
• Searchers have an average income of $97K+
• 84% of searchers shop online

Create your Business Journals listing.

Angie’s List
Angie’s List is one of the most well respected online directories for services, and is touted for its ability to provide accurate and reliable reviews for readers. If you’re looking to establish an online reputation through positive reviews, Angie’s list is a must.

Advantages

• Online reputation management services
• Ability to read and respond to reviews
• Access to additional helpful business tools

Create your Angie’s List listing.

Hotfrog

Hotfrog is a free online directory whose aim is to help get your website listed in Google’s search results.

Advantages

• Registration takes less than 5 minutes
• Add as much detail to your profile as you would like for free
• Create coupons to incentivize your customers

Create your Hotfrog listing.

Kudzu

Kudzu is free and geared toward homeowners that are interested in making renovations. If you offer any type of home improvement services, make sure you list your business on Kudzu.

Advantages

•      93% of Kudzu users are homeowners
•      74% of those homeowners are interested in home renovation projects
•      Enhanced profiles come with a dedicated account manager to help you boost your website in search results

Create your Kudzu listing.

source:www.verticalresponse.com

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