Wisdom from the bad-breathed guy on the airplane…
Wisdom from the bad-breathed guy on the airplane…
Do I have your attention yet? So this morning I boarded a flight to Oklahoma at an ungodly hour, have I mentioned I’m not a morning person? I repeat, NOT a morning person. Anyway in typical dramatic fashion, I nearly missed my flight, leaving me as the last person to board the plane. Do you know what happens when you’re the last person to board the plane? You take the walk of shame to the seat next to the chatty guy who hasn’t brushed his teeth in 3 days… yay.
So as I sat down, dreaming of the large McDonald’s diet coke I had missed out on, Mr. seat buddy decided we should chat about life. Again, yay. Not deterred by the fabulous tawdry romance novel I was attempting to read on my IPad, he decided to tell me about his company and how they manufacture something (at this point I think I had blacked out from the fumes) blah blah blah, what got my attention however was when he mentioned the amount of money they were spending on advertising.
He told me about their print campaigns, and their local radio spots and how they spent thousands of dollars every month and never really knew what benefit it had for their business. He told me how “young bucks” like me didn’t do things like his generation used to. People didn’t shop at their local stores anymore, just because they were local. (Ps- I would like to mention that I think he was maybe 50, watch out for that 22 year generational gap…face palm). This got me thinking though, about the benefits that Facebook really does provide for us.
We’ve all, myself included, been guilty of complaining about Facebook charging us to get messaging out. We are appalled by this “injustice”. If you really think about it though, Facebook is actually giving us a break. I mean, you wouldn’t walk into your local radio station and ask them to run a spot for free would you?
Obviously there are two sides to this, but today I’m choosing to look on the bright side. Perhaps I’m delusional, I again blame that on lack of caffeine. Did you know most radio stations charge a spot rate of $50-100 for a :15 or :30 spot between the hours of 7AM-7PM? They also encourage a high frequency of ads, because who are you kidding, 2 ads isn’t really going to make an impression. You’re talking thousands of dollars for 1 month’s campaigns, and how do you know it’s even working? Are you even hitting your targeted audience?
Having worked in radio, I can tell you there is a time and a place for this type of advertising, but for most of us, it’s unrealistic. That’s where Facebook saves the day. With a relatively small amount of money, you can accomplish a large goal advertising wise. Even better, when done correctly, you can cater your audience to be just the people you already know are relevant to your business. Why waste money on someone who is interested in your product? Hearing a crossfit commercial is going to do nothing but give me nightmares, target me with a Ben & Jerry’s ad though, and watch your sales go up. It’s all about knowing your audience, and who can explain your audience better than you?
I dare you to give us a chance with running some targeted digital ads for you. I recently placed a campaign with a budget of around $500. That money led to over 6,000 new fans/ page likes who were genuinely interested in this company’s products. So let’s just say 1/6 of those new fans buy one product from their buisness site over the next year. Assuming you make $5 per product for 1000 orders, and your initial investment was $500, that’s a pretty good return for very minimal money.
I could blab on all day about page like ads compared to click through ads, or google verses Facebook, but my point is it’s worth a shot. It’s time to get with the times, and jump into the world of digital… if it helps take the sting off, just think of it as a digital print ad, you’re welcome.
Now that I’ve convinced you, let’s chat about it. Let me put together a low-risk plan to see if digital advertising is right for your business. I think you will be pleasantly surprised…
