When you invest your business’ money into advertising, you want to know that it’s going to work. While some campaigns may cost more than others, it still sometimes makes sense to run them because they deliver a high return on investment.
Although you may spend hundreds of dollars on a campaign, you’re hoping to make thousands from the new customers it brings in. When considering the best returns on investment in the marketing world, online directories cannot be overlooked.
Many Important Directories Are Free
First consider that many online directories are free. Google My Business, one of the leading directories, is completely free. Plus, most business owners are advised to have a listing in this directory, even if they have no other listings. This means that any lead you capture, and any visitor that’s converted into a customer through Google My Business has a 100 percent return on investment. This is also true with Bing Places, YellowPages.com, and many other large directories that are entirely free to use.
Others Have Small Monthly or One-Time Fees
It is true that not all online directories are free. Some have small monthly fees, while others can become quite costly. Others, such as Foursquare, have a small one-time fee, after which it is free for the business owner to create and maintain their business listing.
Even these fees though, are very small when compared to the amount of revenue it will bring into your business. Most consumers visit, or at least contact, a business after finding them in an online directory. And online directories are used a lot. 50 percent of all Google searches are for a local business.
Putting a portion of the company’s budget towards different marketing efforts is something that most business owners do. With online directories though, it may just be profitable.
