ANGIE'S LIST, HOME ADVISOR, YELP & THE YELLOW PAGES ALL FAIL AT CREATING NEED.

In growing a small business or sustaining a small business, an owner needs to keep customers calling.  If you own an Air Conditioning/Heating Company, do you wait for potential clients to have a desperate situation or bring Top Of Mind Awareness aka TOMA to future customers?  You cannot grow your business without creating need.  If a person does not suddenly want new windows, how will they discover your great company?  We have an array of new marketing firms like Angie’s List, Home Advisor, and Yelp to go along with the old stand by the Yellow Pages.  These services rate companies that provide products and services to consumers.  They are unique resources.  Each service has strengths and weaknesses.  Angie’s List, Home Advisor, Yelp and The Yellow Pages have HUGE marketing budgets to let consumers know that they are there. 

Angie’s List was founded in 1995 and has been one of the pioneers in on-line reviews of service providers for businesses in communities.  Businesses must pay to actively promote on the list and consumers must pay as well.  This may be one of the greatest business ideas ever.  People actually pay to review businesses and businesses pay to be reviewed and to be on the list.  If you think that this would actually create need on its own.  It does not.  Angie’s List spends Millions of Dollars in radio, television and internet advertising.  The company must recruit enough consumers to attract businesses to pay.  Angie Hicks one of the founders of the company is the spokesperson.  If Angie’s List spends Millions of Dollars creating need, how is your business building new consumers?  Angie’s List cannot create need.  If you have a broken computer, you look at Angie’s List.  Oh, there is a repair person with good reviews…  I will call them.  A consumer may need a service that you are offering, if they never hear, see or read about it they will never know.  Angie’s List does have ads, but people must pay to subscribe.  Angie’s List gets people coming in and going out.  But, it is a small part of the population.  Angie’s List in the June 2015 Securities and Exchange Filings said that they had over 3.1 million subscribers nationwide.  That sounds quite impressive, but in reality it is small potatoes.  A city like Houston has more people listening to radio in 1 week than Angie’s List has subscribers nationwide.  Your business may get business or use reviews on your website from Angie’s List to substantiate your firm’s strengths, but it will not create that need.  Need creates business growth.  Consider Home Depot, the Radio and TV ads certainly don’t make you familiar with them.  But, Home Depot’s ads create need.

Home Advisor was founded in 2008.  This company provides internet and print ads for consumers.  Quarterly magazines are mailed to homes especially in affluent neighborhoods.  Home advisor does on line reviews without charging consumers.  They are not in every market in the US.  The Magazines are shiny and bright.  The online portal is a little confusing but consumers can get through it.  Home Advisor spends millions of dollars on advertising promoting themselves.  Like Angie’s List, people just don’t show up at Home Advisor by accident.  Home Advisor does not offer any content to drive people to the website or magazine.  You must want to get something for your home.  Home Advisor also falls short at creating need for clients, but Home Advisor spends millions creating need for their services.

YELP is a lot more fun for consumers than it is for business owners.  It is a social media review site that allows consumers to cross post on Facebook and have friends.  You are able to give feedback on the reviews of other people as well.  YELP has created a viral effect because of these abilities that Angie’s List and Home Advisor could never do.  YELP sells click through ads.  Now, there is a controversy brewing about YELP.  There is a Documentary being made called Billion Dollar Bully about YELP removing Positive Reviews if businesses listed on their website do not pay them.  Well, YELP owns the website.  If you don’t spend money with them, YELP can potentially do whatever they want with the website they own.  YELP like Angie’s List, Home Advisor does not create need.  You need a mover or need a Mexican Restaurant, YELP is there.  Yelp cannot create new consumers for your business.  Word to businesses that have yet to be contacted by YELP.  They make the rules.  Once you do business with YELP, you are stuck.  The other note about YELP is that the auto mechanic is now an expert now an expert on Sushi.  I am sure Mr. Auto Mechanic loves it when an amateur tells him how to repair a Camry.    

Yellow Pages is the old standby.  The online portal is called YP.  The Yellow Pages used to be the #1 game in every town billing more advertising than TV, Newspaper or Radio.  That is why business are still spending 100’s of thousands of dollars with this traditional source of advertising to this day.  The Yellow Pages have become more diverse now.  Your community may have 2, 3 heck maybe 5 different books.  Some communities are asking if you wish if you want your book delivered to your home.  Wow, if you are a business owner.  Which book do you advertise in now?  When was the last time you actually picked one up?  Sadly, like Angie’s List, Home Advisor, Yelp, The Yellow Pages does not and cannot create need.  So, your business cannot create new consumers who are not looking for your service through the Yellow Pages either.

So, how does your business create need?  How do you take a person and make them from a candidate to spend money to spending money?  You have to market to the right consumers consistently.  I come from a Radio and TV background.  Let’s start with TV: vision and audio stimulation that in 30 or 15 seconds tells your story.  TV commercial production costs always must be considered.  Great TV Production costs $5000 if you are fortunate and then the spot ad rates.  Local TV News is the best or targeted cable for your product, like HGTV if you are a window company for instance.  Depending on your location, there are 2 to 5 cable TV providers.   The positives are that you can geographically target the ads on some cable operators.  Once you get past the production costs cable is reasonably affordable for targeted advertising.  Because there are now 400 channels on cable, the audience is quite fragmented.  Be smart about your marketing buy.  Your personal favorite channels may or may not be the right ad buy for your business.  Be very logical and cold thinking in your decision making. 

Local Radio makes much better sense for the following reasons: low to no production costs, average on air cost per spot is affordable, critical mass audience and personal connection with potential consumers.  If you are a business that is targeting women 18-34, you can purchase the CHR Station in your market and really blanket a large portion of that audience.  If you are seeking upscale Adults over 50, you can advertise on a News/Talk station and really efficiently hit that target demographic.  Your business is in the targeting the best consumer business, meaning the person most likely to purchase your product now.  You don’t need to talk a 60 year old into purchasing a skate board.  Get the people who are buying skate boards to buy them from you instead of the big box store or from a  dot com company.  Angie’s List, Yelp or the Yellow Pages may help the person who is interested in purchasing a product or service find you.  But, if someone is actually thinking about a new car, skate board, or painting their home needs to be made aware of what missing in their life, Radio creates the impulse to buy now.  Just like TV, purchasing ads on the Radio station you personally like may be the wrong idea.  Case in point, a high end hot tub dealer purchased a Country Station to sell hot tubs with a price tag of $30K each.  Country stations have large audiences of largely working class people with middle to lower incomes.  The business owner likes Country Music.  It is a bad buy.  He should purchase News/Talk and Adult Contemporary where the demographics are high income listeners.  Remember, this is business. 

Creating need is the most important thing that marketing should develop.  Most review sites just fail in that objective. Marketing is about a consistent message to the right audience in a frequent enough manner that compels people to purchase your product or service.  So often, people purchase marketing in small doses.  Business owners often buy what they like for their marketing instead of what is best for their organization.  Sometimes, what the owner likes is right.  A lot of the time, purchasing what is liked by the boss is wrong for the business.  In your city, 90% plus of the population will be listening to the radio this week.  Where are you spending your marketing dollars? If you have limited resources, pick one station that has a favorable demographic for you.  A listenership with the right income, targeted age and other factors you crave for a customer.  Work with the station’s Account Executive to come up with a schedule where you will be heard regularly every month.  This consistency will built Top of Mind Awareness or TOMA.  TOMA will create branding with that audience.  If your business has a very limited budget, a spoken word format station like a News/Talk, Sports talk or Religious talk would be a great option, if you have the right products or services.  You can build TOMA quicker with these listeners who usually happen to be higher income and the stations also are active listening.  Your commercials will penetrate the audience quicker.