Beware the unintended consequences of online advertising

If you’re running a small business, it stands to reason that you’re going to want to get noticed. After all, if nobody knows about your gig, no one is ever going to buy anything from you. There are, of course, dozens of ways to promote any enterprise, from offline to purely online and hybrid methods in between.

Naturally, the method of advertising you choose (and there’s no reason not to use many different methods simultaneously) depends on the type of business you run and the services or goods that it offers.

Let’s take a look at a couple of effective ways of getting your message in front of customers:

Leafleting

It’s an old-fashioned concept but it’s consistent and it works, albeit at a low level. General experience shows that leaflet marketing has something like a 3 to 5% efficiency quotient. In simple terms, that means for every 100 A5 leaflets you produce and distribute, around four inquiries will come your way from the leaflets that have been read. Clearly this is an inappropriate method of advertising for a business selling nationally via social media or even worldwide (say an e-Bay collectibles or car spares store) but it can be a very strong method of becoming known locally. For example, a double-glazing company based in a certain city might employ half a dozen students to walk around suburbs each day with the instruction to leaflet any houses that have dilapidated windows and doors.

Equally, someone running a dog walking service might leave a stack of their leaflets at local veterinary surgeries and pet food shops. The cost of producing these leaflets can be extremely cheap – so long as you order a print run in quantity. If, say, the price of 5000 leaflets was around $50 or €50, then at 4% per response that’s about 200 new business enquiries for $50. That works out at a customer acquisition cost (CAC) of 25 cents. Always assuming you don’t have to pay to have the leaflets distributed. So if you’re not wanting to tramp marathon-runner distances through suburbia all day, losing your fingertips to angry dogs and overzealously sprung letterbox covers, you might want to recalculate that CAC. But leafleting remains a strong way of advertising for local businesses.

Social Media

Clearly, online advertising like Facebook ads and sponsored Google search can reach a vast audience. But beware, because that audience will contain hackers and online baddies who make their living out of malware, ransomware and selling your passwords to even nastier people than themselves. To protect yourself from online fraud, it’s a great idea to use a free VPN for Windows if you’re using a PC laptop to access the internet.

A VPN (virtual private network) works by anonymizing and encrypting your connection to the internet, by using a third-party server between you (the VPN user) and your regular internet service provider (ISP). This means that you can’t be identified by your Internet Protocol (IP) address –so both your ISP and anyone looking to find your geographical location (and identity) can’t do so.

Look up any IP address.

Try it for yourself. If you have a Windows computer you only need to right-click the bottom-left corner of the Windows screen to open the menu, then select Command Prompt. On seeing the prompt screen, type “ping” (without the inverted commas), a space, then in the website’s address – including the three W’s. For example- ping www.mondovo.com.

This is relevant because hackers often target small business owners from their presence on Facebook and other social media. For example, if you run an eBay store selling collectibles, and post about a new rare first-edition book that has come into your possession, the hacker looks at your social profile, and notes that you live in, say, Chicago. They then target any Chicago based bookstores and obtain IP addresses, noting the servers to attempt to hack. But if you join the web via a VPN to access

the back end of your website, the hacker can’t identify your IP address nor the location, as you can choose a VPN server in Mexico or anywhere else. The hackers tend to go away and find lower-hanging fruit.

Going underground

Likewise, if you’re selling something the authorities might not approve of, perhaps cannabis related paraphernalia or short-wave radio scanners, a VPN will hide your location and identity. This prevents any police probing of your online activities by them contacting your ISP for online activity records.

It’s really a simple equation, the more visible you are online, the higher your likely conversion rates, and the more likely you are to attract attention from people trying to exploit any security vulnerabilities, which are unfortunately numerous in the small business community. It’s like running a greengrocer’s shop with a huge inflatable 6-foot cucumber bobbing outside, more people are going to notice your shop! And there’s always the risk of the pesky thing going down on you, but that’s another story…

But seriously, choosing a VPN for your online access is the easiest way to avoid such problems, and the best part about it is it’s free.

In summary, don’t forget that the best way to advertise on social media is to stay active and visible. Post in groups, comment on influencers’ posts and be a little controversial, it’ll attract publicity as you intend it to do. Just think of a good VPN provider as your ‘bodyguard’ as you walk your way through those online mean streets. Be careful out there.

Awesome, share it: