Why you should be advertising online
One of the great things about the social channels is that most of them have advertising options for your business to make use of and the really valuable thing about using them is the precise targeting they offer.
Think back to the last advert your business placed in a newspaper, on TV or at a trade show. What were the results? Could you even measure them? Did the right eyeballs see it and did the phone ring because of it? If you can’t answer these questions with a ‘yes’ for each one, look at digital – online adverts on social networks. In my opinion, something we are still way behind in using to our advantage. It may seem a little basic to still be talking about these options, but many businesses are still relying on the traditional methods they have always used. It’s nearly 2016 folks.
Whether your target market is B2B or B2C it doesn’t really matter because there are options applicable for both. An example – you want to talk to procurement managers at larger companies about your range of vehicles suitable for their company fleet. By creating an ad or sponsored update within LinkedIn, you can target people with procurement in their title and only those people will see your advert. This means that you are not wasting your marketing budget by irrelevant eyeballs seeing something that is not applicable to them so when someone does click your ad to find out more, they are very much your target audience. Choose from creating an advert that will be seen around the LinkedIn site, or promote a post or advert within your targets’ newsfeed, the choice is yours. If you are in the B2B sector particularly, advertising on LinkedIn is a no-brainer.
If your target market is found mainly on Facebook, you have options available here too, and by choosing the location of your target audience, interests and relevant age groups among other markers, again only the people specified will see your ad. But what Facebook has that LinkedIn doesn’t have yet is the ability to show a particular ad to a previous visitor to your website. Ever checked out a hotel online then suddenly seen an ad from that same hotel in your Facebook newsfeed and thought it a coincidence? It’s no coincidence. It’s called re-marketing and is extremely clever and cost effective. Someone that has already visited your website is in the market for what you have to offer so by ‘popping up again’ in their stream, you are jogging their memory and promoting your brand once again to them. Maybe this time they will make contact and buy. This type of ad is only seen by your past website visitors over say the last 30 days and really doesn’t cost much at all. If you are not utilizing this aspect of advertising online, whether you are B2B or B2C, you are missing out on an opportunity, definitely low hanging fruit.
Behind both platforms are metrics so you can see just how many relevant people your advert reached and how many interacted with it in some way. The trick with any advert online or otherwise is to deliver the right content. By using the social networks to deliver your message, it is easily tweaked, redesigned or stopped if it’s not quite hitting the mark you require, saving you money. You have much more control. Another tip is to try several versions of a similar advert and see which ones gets the most traction, focusing your budget on the winner. That’s something you can’t do with traditional forms of advertising quite so easily.
