It is a well-known fact that digital platforms have transformed how people do business these days. The influence of digital on the shopping journey is impacting how people shop and make decisions about products and services in which they are interested. It is also setting new digital expectations of retailers in terms of how they help their customers gather pertinent information to make shopping decisions on their path to purchase. The reality is there is a tremendous amount of value in all of the touch points and actions leading up to that final transaction. No advertising strategy or tactic is always best for every purpose, product, brand, or industry.
Multichannel advertising campaigns (meaning using more than one type of advertising medium) can become complex and challenging, but research by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) shows that consumers viewing a constant message across a variety of advertising channels can improve purchase intent by 90%
This emphasizes the importance of mixing traditional media and digital in order for companies to get the most out of their advertising dollars. Using the correct blend of advertising techniques allows you to reach your audience at the most opportune times and places.
Traditional media is a highly effective way to reach a broad customer base, a megaphone to get your brand awareness. Digital media is a great way to reach a very specific audience by targeting the exact type of person you want to reach such as age, location, behaviors, etc. Traditional advertising is generally considered to be passive, while digital is much more targeted. These two elements complement each other, working together to help reach the targeted audience.
Vici’s own experience reinforces this research of the effectiveness of digital and traditional advertising done together. A charter academy wanted to increase student enrollment and tours of their facility for their upcoming school year. Utilizing a broadcast radio and a digital campaign, the call to action to local parents was to schedule a tour with the school. They coupled a high-frequency radio campaign with four elements of an online campaign: retargeting visitors from the school’s website, behaviorally targeting families who have showed the recent behaviors of researching homeschooling and scientific institutions in the area, keyword targeting a list of 150 high-value primary school related keywords within a 50 mile radius of campus, as well as targeting websites that indexed high for both private schools and well as moms and families.
The results showed a .14% click through rate – 2 times the industry average. The online traffic to the school’s website increased over 1100% from the previous period. Their enrollment goals were reached, a 4x campaign Return On Investment (with the online campaign achieving a 6x ROI, and radio achieving a 3x ROI).
It’s also important to remember to keep your advertising message and look consistent across whatever advertising channels you use. Doing this maximizes frequency and promotes recall and awareness which leads to more customers for your business.
