Looking for more ROI, print marketing is shifting to digital mediums.
Posted by Dale Berkebile on Wed, Jun 10, 2009
In tough times, a lot of companies start cutting marketing budgets. Sadly, this drives a nail in the coffin for most companies. Similar to the stock market's common theory of "Buy low… sell high", now is the time to take action since things are at an all time low. It is the same with marketing, and for the wise and experienced company, now is the time to get aggressive with your marketing. Ongoing regular marketing keeps your company ahead of the pack. But in slow times when everyone is cutting back, this is when it is easy to excel past your competitors and leave them in the dust when things turn around.
So how can this be done in a time of recession or slow economy? Well, the companies that do not have an endless budget are looking for marketing that gets a better ROI (Return On Investment).
With the internet and digital mediums offering so much measurement and tracking ability this is the direction smart marketers are heading. It is still very important though to define who your most profitable customers are and find the best mediums that reach them. Lastly, compare all the digital mediums to find a system that offers the best way to measure the results of your campaign.
The US Print Ad Revenue is expected to drop 10% over the next 5 years - going from $125B down to $112B. Digital is expected to jump 96% over the next 5 years - going from $16B up to $32B. Mobile search on the other hand is making a huge jump by 1400% in the next 5 years - going from $81M to 1B. The source of these numbers come from the Kelsey Group's Annual Forecast.
So now is the time to start looking into this digital thing if you are not already a part of it. Digital marketing is much more than a static web site though. You must be constantly adding content/pages and optimizing the content/pages. This will help the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Organic Search Listings. On top of this you should start your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) via google/yahoo ad words, yellow page/online directory listings. Lastly and depending on your business, researching if Mobile Marketing is a right fit for your company and start this process.
There are several marketing options all tied in somehow with digital marketing, all of which offer highly measurable campaign results. Maybe you use a call to action on some of your offline marketing to drive customers and prospects to a landing page. So the point is find a strong way to start going digital and you should be able to get better results based on digital tracking and measurement tools.
