Think about the kinds of companies you deal with regularly and don’t trust. Who are they? Do they offer these services?
- Cable & Internet
- Credit Cards
- Insurance
- Car Service
- Government
Now think about the kinds of companies that regularly send you letters in the mail. Who are they? Are they on this list?
- Cable companies
- Internet providers
- Credit card companies
- Insurance companies
- Government agencies
- College
Is it absurd to think that there is a link between the two? While many organizations are resisting transition to digital marketing, which offers many advantages over traditional marketing, they may be inadvertently affecting their brand image negatively in their customers’ subconscious.
When was the last time you actually called a phone number you saw on a billboard? Those ads are expensive and they offer no method of accurately tracking ROI. Sure, you can ask customers how they heard about you, but only a few will actually trace their interest back to your 36-foot wallpaper advertisement.
In contrast, how often do you make fun of billboards you see? Now if you are the marketing strategist for a brand, why would you want to take that kind of risk with absolutely no measurable return?
Buy an ad on Google Adwords and voila, you know exactly how many people see it, exactly how many people click it, and exactly how many people make a purchase that is traceable back to that investment (aka “conversion”). The percentages will look low (typical conversion rate in my company is less than 3%) but think about your billboard: on a metropolitan freeway it probably boasts more than 1 million viewers in a day. So your exposure is huge and if you get a dozen people to say “I saw your billboard” in a month, well… do the math and your conversion rate is approximately 0.00004%. It would take 900,000 customers saying “I saw your billboard” to match my 3% ROI from a single, targeted Adwords campaign. Does 900k sound realistic?
Let’s use another example. Say you put an ad in the local newspaper. It’s relatively cheap, and with a single new customer it’s more than paid for itself. For example’s sake let’s say you get three new customers that confirm they saw your ad, and you make $200 from each. Still though, a newspaper in a medium-sized city might circulate to 100,000 people. So three new customers is only 0.003% of your exposure. Invest in digital marketing, set your exposure level to 100,000 (because yes, you can do that — you can even define gender, region, age), and if you get a 0.8% return (low-end), that’s 800 new customers. Business is suddenly booming, isn’t it?
Traditional marketing is not worth the money so don’t risk your brand on it.
