As a young marketer, I always thought advertising was the more glamorous part of my job because my work would end up on TV, radio, billboards and in magazines. Little did I know that as I matured as a professional, so would the marketing and advertising industry. In fact, the industry zoomed by me at warp speed and never look back. Today, advertising can be very tricky. After all, there are hundreds of ways to spend your hard earned company money and in the end, you’re really not sure if the advertising channel you spent money on actually helped drive qualified leads and increase sales.
Two Questions Every Marketer Must Ask
- How do I know what advertising channel is best for my company?
- Is it possible that the paid media I just purchased may not be the best one because their audience is not really what I need?
These two questions must be answered before any money is spent on advertising. If you’re not sure about the advertising channel, then keep looking for another. Additionally, if the audience on that media channel is not reaching the persona that’s best for your company – STOP! Don’t keep using it. Better yet. Don’t use it in the first place. I’ve made that mistake before. Now I know better and really look for key factors in choosing the right advertising channel. Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Personas
Before you place any media buys, do some due-diligence at the office and completely understand your personas. Take some time to fully understand your customers. Once you define your personas, do your research and review the media kits of digital publishers you are looking at for your advertising. These kits will give you a clearer picture of who the people are that frequent that publisher’s website and if they match-up to your company personas.
Is There Such A Thing As A Bad Lead?
Keep in mind, just because you advertise doesn’t mean leads will start knocking on your company’s door immediately. Those leads may not be the people you really want. Marketing and advertising does have the potential to drum up what I like to call bad leads. A bad lead is someone that is remotely interested enough to potentially inquire, but that bad lead is not one of the defined personas that are most important to your company. These individuals (bad leads) take up valuable salesperson time and they don’t end up buying. Thus, finding the right media channels that have the highest percentage of qualified prospects is very important. A shotgun approach, which exposes your advertising to a lot of people, may end up costing you a lot more money in your ad budget as well as more salesperson time and resources trying to sell prospects that are really not that interested.
Yourbrandexposed.com is designed to look at digital with an eye into the future using a creative, innovative marketing perspective. We’re a consultative and tactical resource for companies looking to leverage the power of digital, social and content marketing strategies.
Scott MacFarland
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmacfarland
Twitter: @scmacfarland
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Email: Yourbrandexposed@yahoo.com
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