As part of my job I talk daily to people who are either just joining the online revolution or are already a member but commonly have something in common… the distrust or dislike of online advertising and promotion.
The main argument that comes back is “I have all the promotion I need for my business, my sales team tell people daily about our website and we have lots of print media out in the marketplace with our website address on it”.
Now this argument could almost seem like a reasonable statement at first glance, but we need to stop and think about what effect traditional advertising and promotion has when used for online purposes.
Established businesses with large sales teams and large print media advertising budgets certainly do tout their online wares quite well through the papers and magazines as well as other forms. Many times I have seen some interesting looking two door vans whizzing around the streets of Dublin with their brand name and website address splashed across the side of the vehicle. But can I honestly say I can name one website I saw off the side of that van, or even what service they provided? No not really. The main reason is that unless I am looking for a person to trim my hedges or power wash my drains at the time those vans advertising those service drove by then I am more than likely going to be a potential customer that slipped through the net.
New technology such as a website cannot be efficiently utilised with old style advertising and promotion techniques. The evolution of the internet has allowed hundreds of millions of people to search for information, products or services in real time from their homes or offices. This introduces the question, why spend money on an advert in a newspaper which may be in only 5% of people’s homes who are looking for that particular product or service when you can advertise online only to people who are actively searching for that product or service right now?
The power to tailor how and when your advert is shown makes a small budget go a long way online than it would through traditional means, usually with a much higher return on investment.
There will always be a place for traditional forms of advertising for online products and services, especially in niche markets but as long as someone can successfully target a product or service to a customer on a shoe string budget and make a profit there will always be a need for online advertising.
