Is it YouTube ads? LinkedIn ads? Facebook ads?
No. They're a waste of money.
Forty-three percent of internet users world-wide use ad blockers. AdBlock, the popular ad blocking software, claims 65 million users. I am one of them. So is everyone I know. Frankly, there are so many sites I never even realized subsisted on advertising, because I never see them. That's not good news for you, whoever you are.
TV then?
It's underrated, I feel. TV is not hip, but it still reaches more people than web ads, and the advantage digital media claims of targeted advertising is bullocks, for reasons I'll leave Bob Hoffman to explain. (If you haven't read his books, they're a must.) Yeah, your ads are targeted. They're targeted to mouth-breathers who click through Pinterest looking for pictures of half-naked girls, while closing your popup ads as fast as their thumbs work. It's a colossal waste of money. At least with TV, the viewer is sitting there passively watching, and he or she stands a decent chance of registering the ad. With ads on the internet the viewer is usually frantically trying to skip past it and isn't paying attention.
What else works? Bus benches? Those long skinny ads on the supermarket dividers?
Skywriting?
So then what is it?
Your website!
Yeah, that thing that, to most business people, is just an electronic business card, or a necessity because "everyone has one."
It's so much more than that.
Your website is your first source of advertising. It sets the tone for everything that comes after—your social, your ads, your videos if you make them.
And it's inexpensive. You're already paying to have it. Good content can be as cheap as free.
Or you can hire a freelance writer to make it really good and keep it really fresh, which is the best move of all.
But the point is, don't overlook your website for advertising.
It's really the little engine that can, and does, and will keep on doing.
Promote it relentlessly.
Change out content.
Use it to network within your sphere. (Even I forget that one a lot.)
DON'T use stock images. They scream PHONY and nobody likes them except the people who put the pictures on the web.
And most of all have fun.
Be that entertaining guy at the bar (within reason, of course) that everyone loves to listen to.
Be the MC or the host with the best answers, the most interesting stories, the most useful info.
Become a personality.
Brand your site with yourself.
It will pay huge dividends eventually.
Comments