When you're crafting a local digital marketing campaign, you may find yourself working mostly on specific elements like key phrases, search engine optimization or search engine marketing. There are certainly benefits to committing your time to improving a single part of your strategy, but when you focus too closely on one digital component, you could be missing an opportunity to use the power of traditional media to boost your digital marketing campaign.
While traditional and digital media might seem to be diametrically opposed, these two marketing strategies can actually work together in an interesting and effective way.
Leveraging Local Media Publishers
It might seem strange to include local media publishers like regional TV and radio stations as part of a digital marketing campaign, but traditional media actually works well to augment digital aspects of your campaigns. Even in our smartphone-dominated society, a study by the American Press Institute found that around half of millennials still tune into local and national TV when they want information about international events or about weather and traffic. These findings show that TV is a particularly fertile ground for marketers who want to reach this demographic.
People are more likely to trust local media's websites, too. Forty-nine percent of respondents in a comScore survey reported on by the Guardian found ads on local media sites useful, whereas less than half as many said the same of national sites. Ads on local sites were also considered 17 percent more relevant and 19 percent more trustworthy than ads on national sites. Advertising your local business on a local media site is a great way to build trust with your audience.
Finding a Common Thread
If the goal of your campaign is to drive traffic to your company's Facebook page, for example, you might not initially see the value of running a local newspaper or TV ad to boost activity. However, even though traditional media is different from digital strategies when it comes to form, key similarities exist between the two in terms of function.
For instance, Entrepreneur points out that both digital and print media can be used to deliver personal messages to a broad audience, and this is great for driving engagement. A newspaper ad promoting your company's Facebook page can invite consumers to read up on the day's news stories, current events or local affairs and then share their thoughts on your page. In this way, businesses can bring locally focused conversions online by inviting personal actions.
Building Brand Awareness
Beyond driving conversions, traditional media can also be used to build brand awareness. This is an especially effective strategy if you offer a service that consumers might not need all the time — such as an electrician or plumber — but that they might need in a pinch. By advertising in print, radio or TV in addition to through digital means, you will ensure that your name is familiar to consumers. Then when disaster strikes and customers are searching for a solution, your name will be familiar and they'll be more likely to call you first.
While crafting a primarily digital campaign, it might seem strange to work traditional media into the mix. However, marketers who integrate print, radio and TV into local digital marketing campaigns are able to reap the benefits that traditional media provides.
