Our entire team at American Ratings Corporation wishes you and your loved ones a wonderful Thanksgiving season. For me, this is the time of year to thank special people and reflect on outstanding deeds—an ideal precursor for personal and business planning.
Besides focusing on family members and friends, I’d like to take stock of what we’ve achieved with the Diamond Certified Resource this year. I’m thrilled to report that both consumer awareness of and preference for Diamond Certified companies were very strong in 2016. To accomplish this, we:
- Increased the circulation of the new Diamond Certified Directory Update print and digital editions, which were mailed and emailed quarterly to requesters and higher-income homeowners. This resulted in a 20% increase in our Update print circulation, taking it from 140,000 per edition in 2014 to 202,000 in 2015 and now 242,000 this year, helping us generate thousands of added tracked calls to Diamond Certified companies.
- Invested heavily in digital initiatives, which resulted in an increase in usage of our website’s company report and category pages (both of these pages are where your company will be presented to quality-seeking consumers if you qualify for Diamond Certified).
- Attended 62 home shows, fairs and festivals throughout the Greater Bay Area, during which we signed up thousands of new Diamond Certified Preferred Consumers and passed out thousands of Diamond Certified Directories.
- Ran 8,791 radio ads on KGO, KSFO and KNBR. These ads help maintain top of mind awareness of the Diamond Certified Resource as they reach 41.5% of the population at a frequency of 19, which means the average listener heard our ads 19 times.
- Ran 12,379 TV ads on KTVU; KICU; and 22 popular cable, AT&T, and Dish networks. These ads help maintain a frequent visual reminder of the key benefits of the Diamond Certified Resource as they reach 66% of the population at a frequency of 8, which means the average viewer saw our ads 8 times.
- Expanded the number of Diamond Certified Expert Contributors to 426 by helping these company owners create 1,200+ expert articles, tip sheets and video tips, which further positions the Diamond Certified brand as an indicator of local companies that are top rated for quality and provide helpful expertise in their area.
A Winning Plan for 2017
We’re in the final stages of planning for next year, and we’re developing powerful plans to build your company with Quality Customers (if you qualify). I’ll announce our winning plan in January. I’m confident that we’ll see an increase in both the power of the Diamond Certified Resource and the number of new, quality-seeking customers you’ll generate if you qualify for Diamond Certified.