The Physics of Digital Marketing

You’re in business. 

And you know being in business in this day and age means you have to add “digital” marketing; you have to be “online”. 

“Traditional marketing” is holding its ground statistically, and you can’t abandon what you know works. 

But your actual return-on-investment (ROI) is not quite what it used to be. You don’t need a calculator to tell you that higher costs and static returns equals lower profits. And you know that pattern can’t continue forever. Even 1% adds up.

You’ve considered adding “mobile” marketing to the digital mix. You know you have to market your business – advertise – to “eyeballs”, and more customer eyeballs are looking at their smartphones for products, for information, for deals. Coupons. Punchcards. Rewards. Right there on your customers’ smartphones. You know, instinctively, that every great recipe has a variety of ingredients that complement each other. That “pinch of spice” turns a great dish into a legend.

But you’re conflicted. Even though you know all this, even though you know that you have to adapt your marketing plan to the realities of your market, you keep seeing or hearing things like “consumers are using more than twice as many “ad blockers” as a year ago”; “half of consumers are annoyed by push notifications”. You might not even be sure what those terms mean, but you know they apply to “online” or “mobile” marketing. And you know they’re not good.

There are 2 stories being told. Two realities, from one set of facts. Here’s the thing:

BOTH STORIES ARE TRUE. BOTH REALITIES ARE VALID

More than half of all online searches happen on mobile devices. In the car (bad idea, but people still do it); in waiting rooms; in the parking lot; in the store. An estimated 146 MILLION people are even on their smartphone (or other mobile device) while they’re watching TV!

That’s truth. That’s reality.

But more than twice as many are annoyed by unwanted, unwelcome ads on the websites they find, and use whatever they can find to “block” those ads from showing up. They’re annoyed by getting constant messages from someone they did business with awhile back (“Check out our Tuesday at 3:45 PM special!”).

That’s truth, too. An equally valid reality.

You know what else is the truth?

THESE DON’T HURT YOU AT ALL

In fact, they can work to your benefit. The last decade or so has taken its toll on “Big Brands”. People no longer trust them like they used to. And all those “ad blocker” stories are about “Big Brands”. The same is true with the “push notification” stories”. They’re all about “Big Brands”. “You’ve been here before!! Come Back!!!” comes across as “Give us more money!”

But if a customer is at “the corner of X and Y”, and is looking for what you sell (product or service), and finds you a block away because you’re “online”, haven’t you just increased your chances that they will walk through your door?

And, visiting your website on their smartphone, if they see a “coupon offer” they can have RIGHT NOW, on the device they’re looking at, haven’t you just increased your chances even more?

CALL US! 602-618-6626 TEXT US! 602-618-6626 We’ll be happy to go through your current marketing plan with you. We’ll even give you a tweak or two to improve it – no charge.

And if you decide you’d like us to help you merge “mobile” with what’s already working for you, we’ll be happy to do that, too.