Don’t Start With The Billboard
Written By: Shannon Briggs
I have heard too many times in my career that business owners don’t think they need a digital marketing strategy, preferring to invest instead into one or more billboard, radio, television, or print advertisement contracts.
(Let’s be clear, one time is too many. Let alone how many times I have actually heard this.)
While I respect traditional marketing efforts and agree that there is a specific time and place where they are valuable, I would highly encourage anyone in this situation to rethink their strategy. Here’s why:
First, ROI.
Traditional advertising companies will give you a rundown of the return on your investment that you will receive by utilizing their services for a specific time period. How can you verify the accuracy of this information? How do you know that 1) people saw your advertisement, 2) people took action based on your advertisement, and 3) you made an increase in profit based on that action? The numbers you are given to measure the value of your advertisement are based on subscription or viewership numbers. Yet, you can’t really tell that everyone who has a subscription saw your advertisement, and that you made money because of that view.
However, great news! You can determine ROI through a digital marketing strategy. Thanks to the internet and data software, you can learn exactly how your campaign is doing by measuring website hits, social media views, online purchases, and so much more. You can use that data to define what parts of your campaign are performing the best, and what parts could use tweaking to perform even better. Then, you refine, improve, and get even better results in the future.
Second, Digital Age
Whether you love it or not, we live in a world where people spend a good amount of time on the internet. Whether it’s on their desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone, you can just about assume that the majority of your target audience is online for some time every day. Will they look at a billboard every day as they’re driving down the road? Maybe. Maybe not, because they’re looking at their phone or focusing on driving. Will they see your television ad?? Maybe. Or maybe not because they don’t watch TV unless it’s Netflix or an ad-free streaming subscription based service. Will they listen to the radio? Maybe. Or maybe, again, they have an ad-free streaming service.
However, based on current data, I guarantee you they have:
One or more active social media profiles
Used Google at some point in the recent past
An email address that they have checked recently
You will reach more people digitally.
Third: Cost
Your dollar goes further in digital marketing. Traditional advertising is expensive, because it has to be. There is production cost, print cost, labor cost, and much more involved with traditional advertising.
Did you know that ad placement on Google, Facebook, or Instagram costs as little as $1 per day?
Did you know that by hiring a digital marketing professional you pay for quality strategy and execution for a digital marketing plan, including an advertising budget, for a total cost that is cheaper than a billboard contract?
Traditional marketing has its place, and can be effective in specific instances. Yet, if you don’t have a digital strategy to back it up, your dollar is not going to go nearly as far and your campaign risks falling flat.
