The digital age can leave many advertisers wondering about the most effective ways to reach their target audiences. Some businesses may be hesitant to move away from their traditional media campaigns (print, television, radio, etc). Others may be more inclined to pull all traditional media and only push digital campaigns. Most often, the key to a successful overall marketing campaign is to incorporate both traditional and digital marketing and promote in ways that prompt them to work together.
Here are three essential tips to successfully integrate digital into your traditional marketing campaigns to benefit your business:
Promote your social media or website within your traditional media.
Traditional media often caters to a passive audience, while digital allows for the audience to actively engage with your messages, typically via comments, shares and clicks. It is important to interact with audiences from all different mediums, however one of the most beneficial aspects of digital is that it typically promotes a potential sale as soon as you interact with the consumer.
One way to integrate these different approaches together would be to incorporate a website or social profile listing within your traditional billboard or television ads. This gives a point of contact for that individual to pursue your business and inquire about your services or even complete a sale. This also allows for the individual to interact with your site in an attempt to answer any questions they may have and gives them additional exposure to your brand.
Use digital as an extension to your traditional media.
Often, digital can be used as an extension of the other media outlets you already implement. As we discussed above, it is important to give your traditional media audience the tools to reach out or develop their own research. In addition to this, once a consumer visits your site and does their research, implementing a digital programmatic remarketing campaign for example, would allow you to increase your exposure to those that are already somewhat familiar with your brand, and remind them of products they may have shown interest in but never bought. This increases the chances of closing a sale as well as increasing exposure to those that may not be ready to make a purchase yet. In theory, this process would implement both your traditional and your digital marketing tools.
Roll out new reputation and social platforms.
If you’re trying to find a productive way to begin incorporating digital into your traditional promotion campaign, an easy way to start would be by slowly adding one to two social or reputation profiles at a time. This allows for your customers to begin engaging with your business on alternative platforms. By doing so slowly, you allow yourself to manage each profile efficiently and give visitors the best experience possible.
One of the first platforms to claim and monitor is your Google my business profile. This profile is the one stop shop for anyone looking for an immediate solution. Upon searching for a product or service, Google my business can match the consumer with your profile based on their location and/or search. This would give them reviews on your product/service, a rating, a website link, a phone number, and even a map showing your location. In addition, having a strong Google profile benefits your organic search results and can help you increase your digital presence.
One of the most useful ways to structure social media for your business is to allow customers the opportunity to use it as a secondary customer service outlet. Enabling this interaction between a qualified official within your company and a customer fosters the relationship your customer’s develop with your business. In addition, an extremely active social media profile can encourage customers to share their experiences with friends and family that they are connected with on social; ideally, this would give their friends and family the opportunity to travel directly to your social profile upon reading about their friend’s experience, rather than having to do research on your business later.
It is important to remember that your advertising campaign will most likely reach its maximum potential through the use of both traditional and digital media. Even Pepsi attempted to make their advertising purely social and digital, and consequently dropped a third of their market share. Using both of these mediums allows for a broader audience to be reached. Another advantage of digital is it is easily measurable through analytics which allows for your tactics to be refined for a better result!
Make an effort to start employing digital tools in your campaigns – especially during the upcoming holiday season, even if it’s just social media. You may be surprised by the results!