Which advertising medium is right for your business?
Which advertising medium is right for your business
?
by Joe Bayliss, Co-Founder of Spill the Beans Marketing
For the past 30 years, I have held as many as 25 meetings per week with businesses of all shapes and sizes about their marketing and advertising (I just did the math on this and I hate to admit how many meetings this equates to). The one common thread that all of these businesses shared whether it was a single-location retailer; a dentist; a lawyer; an auto dealer; a restaurant; whatever - was they were always trying to discover the most effective and cost-efficient medium (or media mix) for their business. This is even more critical today as businesses are forced to do more with less given our economic climate.
So which one is right for you? Is it radio? Cable TV? Direct mail? Search engine marketing? Mobile marketing? Email marketing? The answer for your business isit really depends. This isn't intended to frustrate you, but if you do a little homework and have the patience for some trial and error, the clouds will part and the answer will become apparent. The two biggest considerations are (1) what is the demographic and psychographic make-up of your customer (age, gender, race, income, and given today's world, are they technology savvy?); and (2) where do your customers live and work where are they coming from? There is also a third consideration, which is what medium are your competitors using? And are they dominating that medium?
Your customer's demographic and psychographic make-up can tell you a great deal. If my customers are 55+, then I may start with more traditional media like print, cable TV, direct mail, etc, where this demographic is spending the bulk of their time. Whereas if my customers are young adults (18-34), then it's a whole new ballgame and you should be considering new media (alongside traditional media) like search engine marketing; email marketing; and social media marketing. If you are compiling a database of your customers for email marketing, direct mail, etc, it's not a bad idea to be asking your customers what publications they read; what TV channels they watch; what's their favorite radio station; what websites they frequent; etc, in order to get a better idea of their media habits.
Determining your "customer footprint" is critical when deciding which medium or media mix to use. Case in point, I recently heard a single-location BMW dealer on an ALL-NEWS AM radio station in San Francisco. This radio station covered a 60+ mile distance to the North, South and East of the dealership. Was this a cost-efficient choice? Not even close. This is a lot like going mouse hunting with an elephant gun. There must be at least five BMW dealerships between this dealer and the edge of the station's signal in each direction? The bottom line is there are a handful of more targeted options for this dealer including digital marketing (SEO and SEM including behavioral retargeting); cable TV; direct mail; and email marketing to name a few. So your customer footprint and the size of the city/market are a huge consideration. If this dealership was in San Jose and it advertised on a local, San Jose radio station, then this would be a much more targeted medium.
The last consideration I mentioned was to understand what medium your competitor is using. For example, if your competitor is using radio and they are fairly dominant on a particular radio station, then you have to be prepared to match or beat their spend, and/or make a more compelling offer in order to get results. There's no sense in chasing after a competitor in a medium where they are going to either "outspend" you or offer a more attractive message/offer. In this case you are setting yourself up for failure.
If you are in this process of determining what is the right medium or media mix for your business, there is a period of trial and error. It looks like the planets have aligned, but for one reason or the other the medium fails to produce results. Sometimes this is a function of the city/market and the make-up of the media choices. If you have multiple locations in different cities, you may very well find that one medium works very well in one city but not in the other. So there is a period of discovery.
I have always seen the best results, regardless of the medium, in "owning" it meaning that when I am using that medium I dominate it. Make sure you understand how to use the medium properly and give it a fair shake with the right frequency/investment and a compelling offer to motivate the audience. In other words, don't make a minimal investment for a week and have a message that states "we've been in business for 25 years and we're great people to do business with." I wouldn't expect any medium to work with this sort of "test."
Lastly, if you are working with a sales rep, get them emotionally invested in your campaign's success. If this test works, you turn into a long-term client and that's going to yield dividends to this person in the form of commission checks for a long time to come.
Joe Bayliss is the Co-Founder of Spill the Beans Marketing, a 105-minute information-packed video, where ten media experts "spill the beans" and unveil the secrets from the other side of the negotiating table about print; radio; direct mail; local TV; cable TV; website development; email marketing; digital marketing (SEO & SEM); social media marketing and copywriting. http://spillthebeansmarketing.com/
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