Why Advertising Should No Longer Be Called ‘Advertising’
Advertising, at one time once was defined as the embodiment of mass media that reaches a market through communication forms of outdoor, radio, print, and television. Advertising grew as organizations found creative ways to reach their core audience, influencing their market to make a purchase for an intended product or service. Advertising became a science where brands increased marketing budgets to reach top of mind awareness with their core market.
Certainly, advertisers were happy and media companies were equally content with high billings for the media expenditure (Think Superbowl commercials). As for the brands, everyone knew about the large brands. Who didn’t? They seemed to be everywhere with a consistent message across all verticals. Whether you turned on the radio, driving down the freeway glancing at billboards, or even watching your favorite television programming, advertising was everywhere. If you happened to be reading a newspaper, or magazine, advertisers were able to get your attention there too.
For example, The McDonalds’ ‘Baa ra pum pum pum’ signature tune Is inherently recognizable, but you see it on TV and can listen to the ads on radio. The Nike commercials were created to increase product demand with athlete endorsements.
You knew it was McDonalds just from the ‘Ba ra pum pum pum’ tune they play on both TV and radio or just by the placement of their logo. You saw Nike commercials and they created product demand with a super star athletes’ endorsement. If Michael Jordan wears Nike’s, they must be great shoes.
Nothing has really changed has it? Other than brands cutting budgets with mediums such as: TV, radio, print, and billboards, they have shifted their spending on the World Wide Web. Marketing budgets are focused towards social media and mobile enabled devices so that consumers can interact with a brand. In today’s digital age, consumers are interacting with products and services; it is not about pushing the marketing messages. It is about listening and interacting with the consumers, and allowing for both negative and positive feedback. Consumers consume messages at their will; all it takes is motivation from the brand.
How is that not advertising?
Some call it interactive advertising, others say digital engagements, all of which boils down to fancy terms for on demand consumer interactions. We cannot call it advertising, as we are not ‘pushing’ our communication channels. We are now in the digital age where consumers provide us permission to ‘feed’ them our marketing messages. Content rich environments are forcing brands to re-think how their brands are being perceived. Consumers have been given the power of voice and opinion, and if the sentiments are positive then consider your brand on a consistent growth curve.
We may feed messages to the intended audience through the following mediums: video, blogs, podcasts, social media sites, and more importantly remain connected through rich Internet and and mobile applications. Consumers can interact with brands on an non-intrusive level, and for the first time in history brands must continuously innovate to remain relevant in the eyes of their audience.
If you are still advertising, think again. Shift to the digital landscape and your return on investment will be that your business is still in the market. That is what we do at Creative Intellects. We ‘feed’ branded messaging to core audiences, generate buzz and positive sentiments about the product or service. We maintain and manage web presence and keep organizations relevant in the market. If you want your business to exist in five years, contact us. We would love to hear from you and see how we may partner for growth.
Measuring your Digital Media ROI – Small Business Marketing 101
This series includes:
Small Business Marketing 101
Step 1: Position and Plan
Step 2: Create an Identity
Step 3: Spread the word through Internet Marketing
Step 4: Measure your Digital Media ROI
Step 5: Measure your Social Media ROI
The Small Business Marketing series is a compilation of what most businesses should be doing to increase their visibility on the World Wide Web. We want to take the time to educate you, and empower you to increase your ROI. Now that we have covered the basics in Small Business Marketing we want to give you a macro view on how to measure your Digital Media ROI.
Before we begin, let’s go over the basics first. A digital media campaign is designed around the idea of building an awareness through various types of media channels. They can range between search marketing, public relations, social media, and online media. These mediums are generally specific in building traffic, increasing lead generation, as well as serving as a tool to monitor website performance analytics.
Keep in mind that you have to be patient, this does not occur overnight by any means. You have to understand the analytics by evaluating the types of visitors that approach your website, just the way you manage your brick and mortar facility. The right metrics are important when you want to see a solid return on investment. If this sounds like a lot of work, its not so bad once you get the basics down. In laymen’s terms, every aspect of your digital media strategy is measurable.
For example, let’s say that a visitor walks into your brick and mortar facility but is somewhat hesitant to make that purchase. We already know that he/she is likely to search on the World Wide Web for competing prices and service attributes. It’s a given. If this prospective customer were to visit your website he/she is likely to make a final decision based upon the quality of your website. Be sure that your website is positioned to obtain your target market, this is where proper design and marketing messages take priority.
Measuring ROI
In order to measure ROI in a digital media campaign, we must review the non-financial impacts first. Non-financial impacts are stages within your marketing campaign that include but are not limited to the following: the number of visitors, number of page views, time spent on website. In digital media the objectives are the following: increasing reach, awareness, coverage, and engagements across all verticals. Once visitors have engaged with the intended website and engagements occurs with the product/service – an ROI can be measured by the conversion rates. The higher your conversion rates the better your campaign is performing. This means that you have succeeded in obtaining successful website usability.
Conversion Rates & Why They Drop
Conversion rates drop for two primary reasons.
1. Website traffic is not targeted to the intended product/service. If you are selling fish tank equipment and a prospective user who is searching to purchase exotic fish, is not likely to remain on your site for too long. Takes extra measures to target prospective visitors for your intended product/service.
2. Website usability and the ability for the user to find the solution they intend is also another reason for poor website conversions. Usability is very important and design strategy plays a key component when it comes to conversion rates. Be sure to measure your shopping cart abandonment rate.
Stay tuned as we are going to be giving you Step 5 of this series in Small Business Marketing 101. If we can help national brands with their marketing strategies, who says that our agency cannot help you? All you have to do is take notes, and if you really want to be a step ahead, make a small investment in our Internet Marketing eBook. Both of these tools and resources will serve as the perfect guide in establishing your brand.
