Radio Advertising

You've probably heard those radio ads closely aligning radio advertising with an online presence, particularly on "talkback" radio stations.

If you have the budget for a radio ad campaign, don't waste your money unless your website (and hosting for that matter) is up to the task.

For example, I've heard many catchy (and not so catchy) radio ads for businesses, but when it comes to mentioning the website address, it is often something that you would never remember if you have to run and grab a pen to write it down, or worse, whilst you are driving.

If you can afford a radio advertising campaign, you can afford to get your website in order as well.

An easy-to-remember alternative domain name costs a mere $25.00 or less these days, so instead of your expensive radio ad saying "just visit www.schmidt-wooler-widgets.com.au" (having to mention the hyphens as well), why not register another domain name that people will actually remember - "www.hotwidgets.com.au" for example?

The "au" is very important too - people tend to expect a dot au domain address in Australia, and will often insert the dot au even if they are told dot com (no au).

There are two options to serving up the alternative address:

1) Simply register the domain and forward it to your main URL (address).

Pros:
Cheap and easy to accomplish.

Cons:
Could have a negative effect on your search engine optimisation efforts if people decide to link to the alternative address. To overcome this, the domain would need to have a permanent redirect placed on it.

2) Register an easy-to-remember domain, and create a targeted landing page (similar to landing pages created for pay per click advertising such as Google AdWords). Point the landing page to your main URL.

Pros:
Won't have harmful effects with regards to the SEO of your main website, and in fact may be of help if developed correctly.

Rather than a visitor being met with a general website where they have to navigate to the page about "widgets", the landing page will provide immediate marketing information.

Cons:
Option #2 will cost more than a simple forward. But if a basic radio campaign costs $100,000, option #2 should cost no more than 1% of your ad outlay.

For more information about landing pages for your radio (or TV) ad campaigns, please contact justweb™ today.

That takes care of your actual website and URL. Now let's look at website hosting and reliability.

Website hosting and reliability

Have you ever tried to visit a URL you've heard on the radio, or watched on TV, only to find you get a server error, or some other sort of malfunction with the website?



A reliability issue is what prompted me to write an article about radio advertising in the first place. I heard an ad this morning on a popular Sydney talkback program that was promoting the synergy between radio and online advertising. The only problem is, when I visited the website address to read more about the subject (because the ad itself was rather uninformative), I was met with a default Plesk (a website hosting software solution originally designed in Russia) message page with no contact information. An obvious server malfunction.

I visited Google and performed a search to see if I could come up with another address for the same organisation. I did, but I was met with a similar error -  this time an "unexpected server error message".

How ironic that the organisation that "represents 98% of commercial stations in Australia" couldn't get their own website in order after explaining how radio and online works so well together!

After half an hour, finally someone discovered the problem, and rather than quickly adding a page of information, a "back in 24 hours" message was used instead. Couldn't someone have quickly organised a contact page, or some sort of brief information about the organisation? It's not that hard folks - really!

Once a domain is registered, OR you have problems with updates or maintenance for an existing website, have a default information page ready to slip in temporarily. At least give search engines and visitors SOMETHING to sink their teeth into!

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If you require advice or further information about ensuring your website is ready for a radio ad campaign, please contact justweb™ today. If you are looking for a reliable, cost effective hosting solution, look at Quadra Hosting. If you want to better manage your online advertising, check out our PPC advertising page.

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