Reaching customers is critical for businesses looking to expand their client base and grow a lasting brand. As the 21st century rolls on, technology continues to simplify our lives and transform the world around us. In a generation that’s increasingly defined by extended staring at screens, do traditional channels of advertising still work?
Business Cards
Still the quintessential method for establishing a lasting business relationship, business cards can help form your personal branding. When you initiate a conversation with a potential client, they are judging you based on your presentation and your appearance. Closing the conversation with a professional looking business card makes ongoing communication easier, and leaves a lasting impression that you’re a serious contender for their business.
Flyers / Pamphlets
To a great extent, flyers and pamphlets have been relegated to windshield trash. They’re the items that you find on your car’s windshield after you leave the mall. They’re the pieces of paper that you take home and immediately find their way into trash bins. In the world of smartphones and email, a flyer simply isn’t a necessary part of business. Giving a client a business card with your website on it is a much more effective method of advertising in the 21st century.
Television Ads
This channel of traditional advertising is a difficult one to judge. In the world of Digital Video Recorders (DVR’s) and commercial free streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, television commercial have lost their luster. There are target demographics where television advertising still makes sense, but if you’re targeting millennials, it’s best to focus on internet-based advertising channels.
Now here is an example; television advertising may not be the best option to showcase your best crossbow products. For products like these, you may have to devise a suitable internet-based ad campaign or advertising channel, in order to see any kind of profits.
Billboards and Signage
Billboards and traditional marketing signage are excellent ways to bring attention to your company. This is especially true if you own a storefront near a major transportation artery. Motorists are a captive audiences, and if you can come up with a message that is eye-catching and memorable, you’ve made a major impression.
Increasingly, online startups are using national billboard campaigns to get the word out about their products. Easy to remember URL’s allow motorists to check out a company once they get home. Passengers in a vehicle can user their smartphones to look up apps or websites referenced on billboards. To some tech marketing directors, billboards are seen as more reliable forms of advertising, when compared with cost-per-click campaigns.
Financing an Advertising Campaign
Finding effective advertising channels can be a costly process. Many startups founders go broke trying to get their fledgling companies off the ground. For some, the process is overwhelming and they end up deep in debt without a successful company to show for their effort. For ex-founders looking to find a path forward and get out of debt, can help consolidate bad business and personal debts into one low monthly payment.
No matter what advertising path you choose for your products, make sure that it’s effective before spending your entire ad budget. Run trial campaigns and see what generates real, measurable traction for your brand.