What Channels are Most Effective for Lead Generation
BrightLocal recently surveyed 20,000 U.S.-based businesses to assess sources of leads and found respondents indicated the following:
- Word of mouth: 26 percent
- SEO: 19 percent
- Online local directories: 15 percent
- PPC: 3 percent
- Local TV advertising: 1 percent
- Local radio advertising: 2 percent
- Online marketing as a whole: 54 percent
These statistics confirm why many small businesses ask for SEO as their first online marketing product, they know this technique has worked for others. However, SEO is the worst place for a small business that is moving from word-of-mouth marketing to online marketing due to uncertainty, ROI time frame, and complexity.
PPC is the Best Starting Point for Small Business
Small businesses that are just starting online marketing distrust the newness and complexity of the Internet. They are likely coming from the Yellow Pages and local networking. While they don’t like the Yellow Pages, they understand how it works (or used to work).
Agencies should steer inexperienced customers into PPC first because it is most similar to Yellow Page advertising. Furthermore, 72 percent of marketers that use PPC plan to increase their PPC budgets in 2014, which demonstrates it is generally successful.
PPC allows customers to secure new business rapidly. Trust will develop over time, and new products can then be proposed.