5 Tips on Switching Dollars to Digital as Internet Radio Revs Up

via emarketer.com

Yippee. Your ad budget was increased to spend more on the web.

Or boohoo. Your marketing budget was cut and now you have to do more with less.

The shift to online marketing and advertising is being seen more and more. Having been in traditional radio, with the opportunity to sell online properties, I had a rare first-hand experience into seeing how advertisers are scrambling to get audiences to listen. I saw it everyday as advertisers would call up and want to buy a banner ad on a particular page on the radio station's website that they ALWAYS visit.

But is that really a good idea? Yeah, YOU listen to a particular program, or watch a show that is convenient for YOU or to your liking, It really gets my goat when an advertiser thinks they've got it all figured out before hand, and has already sold themselves on how they want to spend their bucks. (Or buck!) So, think these five tips first, and then see how you want to play your hand before jumping onto the digital media bandwagon - and use some online marketing savvy.

TIPS ON SWITCHING AD $ TO DIGITAL

1. Who is your audience?
Knowing that you are reaching the right audience is KEY. Without that, you might as well buy a 30 second spot, broadcasting straight to a wall, or taking out an ad on a tv station that is dark 24/7. Hey, is your particular demographic online anyway? Are they 65+? Or are they children?

2. How does your audience use the medium?
You've got to how the audience is using the medium. If it's radio that you want to try out, is your traditional radio audience listening online?

If so, HOW - do they listen in another window to your internet stream, while working in another? Do they listen to podcasts? Make sure that you are expending the right amount of effort so that you can get the most return.

3. Are you in it for the long haul?
Is this marketing campaign that you want to undertake able to be sustainable? If so, how long? There are is so much competition for eyeballs - more than ever. If you want to sink your dollars in, make sure you have a clear goal in mind, but also how long you plan to get to that goal.

4. Do you have the ability to do a variety of online marketing efforts?
Multi-platform is the way to go - reach a variety of eyeballs (and ears!), however you can. Especially online, sinking all your eggs into the social media basket, or e-mail marketing is not going to be most efficient in reaching your target audience optimally. Even now through my own online marketing communications, I make sure that I spread them across a variety of mediums, and make sure I top it off with a friendly OPT-IN e-mail to my list.

5. Content is KING.
Because of the viral nature of the online space, and how people can share things with others in their own sphere, you've got to make sure that the content you provide is something more than just a message. Is it a social media site you've set up? Why are people going to congregate there? Probably because it's something real "buzz"-y that they can't get anywhere else. And because they WANT to be there. And that's going to come from some amazing content efforts and thought on your part.

If you've got the beans to spend on digital content more power to ya! But, not all of us have that capability, and we have to rely on YouTube and CGC (Consumer Generated Content), which btw has the ability to be broadcast during Super Bowls!! So, what does that say about what people want?? It's great news for us, we just need to get those creative juices flowing.

Again, just like taking out a radio ad will NOT guarantee that your audience will hear you (especially since with radio, repetition is a MUST), taking out an ad just because it's online doesn't mean it will work either. It is shown that that is where advertisers are having the most success (see the graph above from eMarketer), but just like traditional advertising/marketing relied on knowing your audience, make sure you are prepared to make the shift to digital! There's alot more to it than meets the eyeball. (somehow, that just doesn't have the same ring to it as with competition...)

Posted via web from vickie_smith's posterous

Stop Collaborate and Listen - Social Media Marketing and Vanilla Ice??

via infrastructurist.com

Not to say that Vanilla Ice is a guru in the digital marketing area, but we CAN take a lesson from this song’s opening line (Ice, Ice, Baby) - “Stop, collaborate and listen…”

Yeah, that’s pretty much all we can take from him in online marketing tips…but I think it is a strong opening statement for anyone who wants to test the waters in developing a social media marketing strategy.

I believe that social media should be included as a part of a total marketing mix, which should have multiple channels for maximum effectiveness, reaching your audience however they are using media. But wait, even if you know what media they are using, do you know HOW they are using it? When I worked in radio, I would need to break down listenership into day parts. HOW were the listeners (that matched the particular demo/psychographic that an advertiser wanted to reach) USING the medium? Were they loyal to a particular program, then that might be where you would want to apportion some of the budget? Were they listening on the web? It was very important for my success as an account manager to understand how the audience was using the medium to maximize my client’s ROI so that the message was most likely to reach them. And analytics were crucial for me to understand that, regularly researching Arbitron data.

There are many tools available for online marketers to understand how their audience is using the online space. And it seems that new technologies are popping up every day - Google Analytics is widely popular in tracking the web usage of your site and seeing how people are using it, but you can also track trends on twitter (In a previous post, I discussed another valuable tool, Twitalyzer).

Ok, now you STOPped. Once you know HOW your audience is using social media, then you need to LISTEN. Collaborate with and listen to your audience. They will tell you what they want. And I don’t mean getting them to step aside from the space they are happily using and involved with their community, but I mean track the trends WITHIN their communities. Online surveys are a great tool, but if you have the opportunity to see how they are interacting with each other in their space, and maybe putting a poll in every now and then, how much more valuable is that - and in REAL time.

And in the days (almost 7 years!) when I was a jazz vocalist running my own business, it was CRUCIAL for me to understand what my fans wanted to hear. What places did they like to go to, so I could to some B2B and book venues for them to come. What headshot did they want me to use for my press efforts - yes, they even helped me choose a photo, from 6 images on a hidden page on my website in a private survey. And that photo had a major return for me, because I knew this was how my audience wanted to see me represented. What better marketing research is there, then one conducted with your own audience!

Don’t discount the value your customers can offer you if you just take a moment to STOP, COLLABORATE and LISTEN. Then you can effectively plan your social media strategy, and pretty much all your digital marketing efforts. Be appreciated for adding VALUE to the conversation. Your audience will let you know, if you just take a moment to let them know you want to hear them. They’ve got a LOT to say!

Posted via web from vickie_smith's posterous

Advertising After The Real Digital Revolution

This is a great article that discusses the new digital landscape of advertising. No one can escape it, not even businesses, who must embrace it to reach out to us, as we are now choosing the content we watch, read and watch. Just wait, smellovision.

I thought back to the days of studying Consumer Behavior at Baruch College. One exercise was to collect print ads from magazines and show how they try to motivate the buyer and induce a purchase. I can hardly remember ever seeing a website listed in the ads, and now I don't think there would be one without it.

Companies need to have deeper conversations with consumers, and in today's ever busying world, I don't think there's a way to NOT try to induce a visit to a website for a deeper conversation.

See my post on this article on TalentZoo:

https://secure.talentzoo.com/news.php?articleID=1713&