Word of Mouth Advertising in the Digital Age

The Most Persuasive Ads Aren’t Ads

Do you know how many ads we see daily?

Dozens?

Hundreds?

Well, you might be shocked to know that your average customer sees 5,000 ads per day.

Now here’s a challenge:

How many ads can you recall from the last 7 days? I’ll bet it’s a tiny fraction.

“Ads don’t get noticed”

It’s harder today than it has ever been for restaurants to get noticed in the constant noise of advertisements.

It’s no longer enough to get your message in front of potential customers.

Customers have to notice your ad, and if that weren’t hard enough, they also have to trust it enough to bring them into your store.

“Focus on earned media”

According to Nielsen Ratings, “92% of consumers… trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising.”

Even a great ad that gets noticed doesn’t have the trust factor that comes from a friend or family member’s personal recommendation.

When it comes to growing your restaurant, focus on quality and persuasiveness over eyeballs.

The takeaway

Get customers to post about you on Instagram or Google reviews.

A single positive post from a friend or family member about your restaurant has 100x more trust than any ad you could create.

Consider using a service like Localfluence to drive local word of mouth on autopilot.

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