Did you know that according to Neilson Ratings, 92% of people trust earned media above all other forms of advertising?
Earned media includes things like online reviews, recommendations, endorsements, and organic traffic to your site.
But how do you grow your business through online marketing?
It essentially boils down to 2 options:
A) Promote yourself
B) Have others promote you
Ok, no earth-shattering revelation here but just think about it for a second.
You’re in a new city and looking for something to eat. You search “food near me” and boom! You have more options than you know what to do with. So what’s the first thing you do?
Check out the reviews.
We all do it. I have friends who will look up Yelp reviews while sitting in the restaurant to help them decide what to order. It’s actually not a bad strategy and I usually end up having food envy.
Welcome to the age of information
With unlimited access to resources at our fingertips, we turn to reviews and recommendations to point us in the right direction. And that’s exactly why traditional advertising just isn’t cutting it anymore.
On average, consumers see 5,000 ads per day.
Holy advertisements. This information overload has led to a phenomenon called ad blindness.
Basically, we’re so desensitized to traditional advertisements to the point where we don’t even pay attention to them anymore. Our brains have learned to simply put up the blinders and tune them out.
So why is earned media effective?
Simply put, people trust recommendations from their friends and family.
Their endorsements don’t come off as someone simply trying to sell them something, but instead as someone genuinely trying to share a great experience with the ones they love.
Makes sense. But this revelation leads to one big question.
How do you control reviews posted about your restaurant?
This common question is exactly why we created Localfluence.
Localfluence points the right people in the right direction to discover your Phoenix restaurant.
These locals then share their positive experience through online reviews and social media. Their friends, family, and followers in the area see these reviews and decide to check it out for themselves. And so on and so forth.
Two reasons why word of mouth posts are so effective:
- Their followers will actually stop to read and engage in these posts.
- A solid recommendation from a friend or family member carries more trust than a thousand advertisements.
Every restaurant says they’re the best.
But when you have a bunch of people you know personally saying how amazing a place is, chances are you’re going to want to see what all the fuss is about.
Ready to connect with more people in your area? Set up a free demo with us today. Let us help you grow your business and have your fellow Arizonians do the marketing for you!