By Steve Roulstone
More often than not, I receive several requests to advertise in either the National press or a periodical associated with the Franchising Industry every week. Nothing new there! Indeed I take my hat off to the people charged with selling the advertising space for their continued persistence and enthusiasm for the task at hand.
How do they send the message?
But it has been very noticeable of late, that I am receiving less and less phone calls and more and more requests via e-mail. Not only that but we receive about an equal split between those who use a full page style of e-mail representative of a page from a magazine and those who send a personalised e-mail, no doubt designed to encourage the recipient to feel more at ease with the sender!
Bit of a contradiction!
I do not know if I am the only person to spot this, but what I perceive as a more concentrated effort to be successful, probably driven by the downturn in the Franchise market place, which we all know is out there, is pandering to its major competitor by utilising one of its most successful styles of communication introduced by the web, namely e-mail to get the message across, about the type of media, they wish to get the message across about, namely the written word!
They are not alone.
I think for the Lettings market to which my Franchise belongs, the clearest indication that web activity is more important than papers or magazine presence, is that nearly all local newspapers that derive an income from advertising property, for sale or for rent, are now running their own web site to ensure the income is not lost. Says it all really!
If I am bombarded by those wishing me to spend my hard earned income through the written word, I am equally bombarded by just as many (thankfully ALL by e-mail!) trying to do the same through web site optimisation. Now I think I made the correct decision on this front some time ago and the work undertaken by the Company I employ has ensured we are where we want to be (or getting their – if it were only that easy!) on page one of the most relevant searches, but let me ask you a question – what is the first page you open when on the internet? How many said Google?
First to be first!
This is one of those situations where the preacher preaches the gospel yet is already converted. There is no doubt that web presence and by that we all know I mean on Google is the Holy Grail (and if it is not it soon will be) for all advertisers. But how good that the very method by which we wish to achieve this presence is by a country mile, the most commonly used ‘first page’ we seek when starting our own regular thirst for knowledge. A case of proof being not just in the pudding, but in the starter, main course and coffee and biscuits as well!
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