August 14, 2018

For New Customers To Find Your Business, Advertising Is Key

By Mike Hampson, owner, Helicopter Links.

(San Diego, California, USA): Most business people would agree that it's good to have a base of customers and do everything possible to keep that customer base. Why is this? Because gaining new customers is typically a more difficult task.

However, things change over time and your customer will change because some of your customers will either decide to use a new vendor ors will eventually go out of business.

The question is, if your company is not actively seeking new customers, then how can new customers who don't know about your company, find your company?

The answer is advertising. In the helicopter industry, there are helicopter manufactures selling helicopters, helicopter operators, parts companies and service companies. In my opinion, there are several things which quickly come to mind about the helicopter industry.

• There is not a worldwide printed yellow pages that serves the helicopter industry. It would be nice but it would be extremely costly to mail out such a yellow page book to every helicopter related company in the world. So, we made a helicopter yellow pages, or also called a directory, and put it online (with no printed book).
• People and companies who need to purchase a new helicopter (civilian and military) have the option to buy direct from a helicopter manufacture or a third party and/or lease a helicopter. How do you find all these in one place? On Helicopter Links website.
• Those who want to see helicopters up close and talk to as many of the major helicopter manufacturers, in the shortest period of time possible, can attend a helicopter trade show. If one can afford the time and money to attend the trade show. One can also find all helicopter manufacturers on Helicopter Links home page, our most visited web page on our website.
• Companies (such as contractors, pipeline companies, utility companies, construction companies, firefighting/agricultural government entities) searching for helicopter operators tend not to have subscriptions to helicopter magazines or attend helicopter trade shows. However, we have plenty of contractors and other companies contacting us looking for helicopter operators to help them complete construction and other types of contracting jobs.
• People needing helicopter parts and services can find companies advertising in helicopter magazines and at helicopter trade shows. However, when a buyer is in their office and needs to find a new parts supplier, they probably go online to find a vendor. And this is when people find and use Helicopter Links website.

The unique part of Helicopter Links is that over 80% of our visitors don't know us, yet out of the millions of websites online, people in the helicopter industry are finding Helicopter Links. How do we know this? Our web statistics tell us. We use Google Analytics (considered by some the Gold Standard of Web Statistics) and people are typing in two (2) or more helicopter industry related search terms and then find Helicopter Links website.

For example, when one types "helicopter manufacturers" (without quotes), "helicopter engine repair", "helicopter commercial company", "helicopter construction company", "helicopter external load companies", "helicopter windows", "helicopter service centers", and things of this nature, you'll typically find that Helicopter Links is listed on the first page of Google's search results list. This means that Helicopter Links is search engine optimized which not only helps our visitors find our website for the information they are searching for but this also means that our client's advertising is being seen by buyers from the helicopter industry. That is, buyers in the buy process, either researching before buying or ready to buy.

The other unique part of Helicopter Links is when someone types the single word "helicopter" (without quotes) into Google, you can't find Helicopter Links website. Some might not realize how good of situation this is. Because people who usually type in a one (1) word search term are either A) Trying to find a definition of a word, B) Trying to find very general information about a subject (such as how a helicopter works), C) Searches by a novice and D) Searches performed by children. By Helicopter Links not showing up in Google Search Results List with the one (1) word search term "helicopter", keeps stray visitors from our site and actually provides us with more accurate web statistics.

Back to advertising...

There are two types of advertising: Creative Advertising and Directory Advertising.

What Is Creative Advertising? Creative Advertising is used by a seller searching for buyers. Creative Advertising is the shot gun approach. Anything that is not Directory Advertising, is Creative Advertising.

Examples: Newspapers, TV, radio, magazines, billboards, transit advertising, trade shows, trade show give-aways, flyers, mailers, business cards, websites, social media, email blasts, coupons and etc., are all Creative Advertising.

• When companies use Creative Advertising, they are advertising to people who might have no need for your product at the time they are looking at your ads.
• Creative Advertising is typically regional in nature.
• Creative Advertising is generally more expensive than Directory Advertising.
• Take for example magazines. When a buyer is in need of a product, there is little chance that the buyer will know where a seller's ad is in a stack of magazines. (Unless they buyer cuts them out and puts them in some sort of filing system!)

What is Directory Advertising? Directory advertising is where the buyer is searching for a seller. Directory Advertising (also known as Directional Advertising) is any printed book or website which lists companies by categories, and within each category, companies are alphabetized. Some examples of printed Directory Advertising are: The yellow pages, a small town independent yellow pages, a small tourist directory in a vacation area, a company directory with employee and department names and an online directory such as Helicopter Links.

• People using directories want to look at the advertising. Why? Because buyers using a directory to find the right product or service. This is a seller's (and marketing department's) dream come true. s
• Buyers use directory because they are in the buying process, either researching before buying or ready to buy.
• Banner advertising on an online directory alerts the buyer that the seller wants to earn their business.
• A website directory not only reaches to a local audience but also reaches to a regional, national, international audience. And while some businesses only sell mostly regionally or nationally, the beauty of a Directional Advertising on a website, is that it helps buyers no matter where they are located, to find the right seller.
• A buyer might be just down the street or in the next city (or country) but would have never found the right seller if it hadn't been for an online directory, such as Helicopter Links!
• Directory Advertising is typically less expensive than Creative Advertising.

The best approach to advertising for any company is to use both Creative Advertising and Directory Advertising. While Creative Advertising is usually expensive, a business can typically afford to send out at least some mailers to companies they'd like to do business with, participate in a trade show, have a website and print business cards. The unique feature of advertising with Helicopter Links is that is is Directory Advertising and rounds out your marketing tool kit and it is also affordable.

While a trade show might cost a smaller company around $10,000.00 USD to $20,000.00 USD or more, for three (3) days only (including air fare, hotels, transportation, shipping, the cost of the booth, food, trade show give-aways, labor hours before, during and after, etc.), the price of advertising for a small to medium sized business on Helicopter Links website would typically be in the $2,000.00 USD to $5,000.00 USD per year range. That price lasts for a full 365 days! (Pricing on Helicopter Links can be as low as $552.00 per year, when advertising is on one web page and can be as high as $36,000.00 per year for the large turbine helicopter manufacturers.)

Here's are some advantages for companies who advertise on Helicopter Links website.

• Over 80% of our visitors are buyers searching for sellers.
• When people visit our website, our visitors want to look at the advertising.
• Advertising on Helicopter Links helps your company gain new customers, get back old customers and will remind current customers of your business.
• Our visitors are from inside and outside the helicopter industry. Those outside the helicopter industry are contractors, construction companies, demolition companies, government agencies, pipeline companies, utility companies, oil companies, private citizens and more, looking to purchase the services from helicopter operators.
• Visitors to Helicopter Links will never see restaurant ads, plumbing ads, off-beat ads, offensive advertising or any other type of non-helicopter banner ads on our website. This stops confusion and/or frustration for the visitor.
• The only banner ads allowed to be placed on Helicopter Links website are from companies which serve the helicopter industry. Our visitors will feel comfortable when visiting Helicopter Links because our visitors came to find sellers in the helicopter industry, in the first place, and all banner ads on Helicopter Links are helicopter related and therefore, our visitors will be more prone to read and click-on the banner ads .
• Helicopter Links is also a website which can be safely used throughout the day in normally quiet offices. There is no music playing, no videos automatically playing, no non-helicopter ads, no offensive banner ads and there are no pop-ups asking people to join a mailing list or any other such nonsense.
• Our clients also have the option to have several sales-only posts, each month, on Helicopter Links Facebook and Twitter pages. We will also post relevant articles about your company and press releases for your company, if you choose to use this free service.
• We also offer to make the banner ads for your company, at no charge.
• Directory advertising is not only advertising your company to buyers in the process but it's also marketing and branding your business, products and services to these buyers as well.

I hope this article helps you to being to see the advantages on advertising with Helicopter Links website. Our goal with Helicopter Links, is to discuss with helicopter industry related business owners about the most important parts of the business where they want to advertise, explain our advertising options, our prices and find a good advertising strategy using Helicopter Links website and social media pages. We want your advertising on Helicopter Links to be successful for your business.

Please feel free to give us a call +1 (858) 413-7074 or email us at staff@helicopterlinks.com and let's discuss how Helicopter Links can help you advertise to buyers in the helicopter industry, in the buying process.

-End article.

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