Have you been approached by an online directory to promote your business? I know many small business owners have.
Just this last week I got an intriguing call from someone who sounded like they were a US speaker bureau looking for a speaker. When I returned their call it was in fact someone who wanted to list my business for a fee on their directory.
I do consider advertising online as a great way to build visibility of your business - it's one of the 4 platforms I recommend - but you have to be careful to measure the return on investment.
I had a client recently share with me that they had been given an advertising cost of over €1000 a month for listing in a particular industry - and as this is a brand new start up with no income that is a hefty marketing expense. It may be one of the platforms they use but before they sign any contract they will need to be clear about what their goals are so they can measure and track the success and evaluate if the investment was worth it.
I also had an email from a friend who has a small retailing outlet and they were asking if they should use Yourlocal.ie - so I put that question out to my community on Twitter and Facebook.
Rebecca on Twitter @DesignedbyRB suggested that you should check out all the directories and make a decision based on Alexa rankings - download the Alexa tool bar to your desk top.
No one told me that they were using Yourlocal.ie and therefore I am not sure how businesses are finding it - but perhaps that is because many of the people I know use online marketing and social media tactics other than paying for listings in directories.
What I do know is that there are some sites that you can use at low cost or are even free to register your site on.
For example Whatswhat.ie has a free listing and a paid for listing of just €5 plus VAT a month which includes a direct link to your website - check out their packages HERE. Their Finance Director is also very active and approachable on Twitter - @whatswhat_sian.
I also was directed to a great article by Hugh Durkin (@hughdurkin on Twitter) who responded to my question when it syndicated it's way to Facebook. He writes about three sites - Yourlocal.ie, Vazumo.com (again their have a free listing service), Yelp.ie (who have a free listing service) and Qype.ie (another free listing service).
I hadn't heard of Qype.ie before reading Hugh's article - to try it out I've listed an event there for the workshop that I am facilitating for the National College of Ireland as part of their Career Bootcamp and it was very simple to do.
So if you are looking to advertise online with a paid directory, be sure to ask for details of their traffic, demographic reach, check out their Alexa and Google rankings, perhaps even do a search for services like yours in the search engines and see which directories are coming up high in the rankings. Then consider using the free solutions before embarking on a paid campaign.
And don't forget Google Local - here is an audio tutorial I recorded on how to add your business to Google Local - and it's FREE.
What other suggestions do you have for online directories in Ireland that we should consider?
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