NORA Uses Internet To Reach Consumers
My take on an article from Oil and Energy Magazine January 2007
According to the January article, the National Oilheat Research Alliance ( NORA ) in 2006 decided to segment and actually target specific groups of consumers. Their goal was to position Oil Heat as a modern fuel for your home that was efficient too.
NORA , has been coordinating their efforts with the various state associations and actually hired the Martin Agency (an advertising firm) to coordinate an 8 million dollar advertising budget focusing on magazines, newspapers, radio and of course my favorite... THE INTERNET.
The internet is where more of the heating oil industry consumers and the public in general are going. Statistics show that newspaper, TV and radio are losing market share to the internet like never before .
I applaud NORA on trying to improve the image of the industry by influencing the type of homeowner that spends time surfing. It was nice to see NORA President John Huber quoted as being pleased to begin an internet campaign.
Internet is a critical link
I was surprised to learn that the Martin Agency suggested that NORA take advantage and actively use the internet. Statistics show the internet is how people are doing a lot of their decision making in today’s world. In my opinion if the goal of the industry is to be perceived as modern the industry needs to associate itself with the internet.
I’ve done a number of surveys with www.heatingoilhelp.com and found that the industry is not held in a very high regard by most consumers. In fact out of the 50,000+ consumers that rushed to sign up for my list the majority had a healthy fear of the oil heat industry .
I don’t believe the industry completely comprehends the power and reach of the internet. I generated that list of 50,000+ people in only 4 months . That’s right that list was generated from 3 sites in ONLY 120 days. Even by internet standards that’s a significant number of interested consumers.
People are actively searching online. In fact the bigger the purchase the more research people do using the internet.
Think about how people research car purchases or home purchases. Ultimately if people are considering even home improvements, they search online. That’s exactly why www.homeheatingreview.com was created.
I was impressed to learn that John Huber felt so strongly about the internet. In fact from a marketing perspective his focus on targeting a specific audience was brilliant. It was clear Huber also was familiar with the local search power the net has to offer.
You’ll notice this site has been search engine optimized for particular cities and town’s in all 50 states. That means when people search for heating oil, kerosene or propane in their area our pages always show up in the top 10 searches.
Our active search engine optimization campaigns will continue to get higher in the rankings. An example of our SEO is www.oilheatmarketing.com . Just search yahoo or msn and it’s listed #1, search google and we vacillate between 1st and 3rd place depending on the continued seo testing we’re doing at the time.
I had to smile when I learned that the article directly mentioned the internet as the primary entertainment vehicle. My only challenge is NORA is placing banner ads on broad sites. In my opinion a more targeted “niche” site advertising approach would make more sense. If you want to see NORA’s banner you can visit hgtv.com
Learn more about oil heat advertising online.
Home Heating Articles
|
