Advertising has changed dramatically for businesses, seemingly regardless of the particular industry they are in. The growth of the Internet has torn down gatekeepers and opened up new avenues by which firms can communicate with their partners and – most importantly – their customers.
In one sense, this means that it is more difficult than ever to attract a mass audience in an increasingly fragmented media environment. However, it also means that firms have opportunities to attempt creative marketing efforts that were never before possible, while also maintaining an unprecedented ability to measure the effectiveness of this advertising.
It used to be much harder to determine how effective a particular ad was. While it was possible to measure TV advertising ratings, and develop a rough correlation between the launch of an ad and a subsequent increase in sales, there was a lot that businesses couldn’t know. For instance, how many people were really paying attention to TV commercials, or taking the time to read print ads? And for those who did pay attention, how did they respond to the ad?
The rise of the Internet as a viable marketing tool has given business owners new ways to collect this information, and use it to create better ad campaigns.
Match the Competition in Promotional Reach With More Effective Ads
Business owners that face stiff competition may be tempted to flood the market with advertisements in an effort to drown out the competition. While this can be an effective strategy in some circumstances, it can also be tremendously expensive. It’s important to make sure that the expenditure is worth it by carefully measuring the effectiveness of the campaign.
Internet advertising is particularly rich with data sources. Firms can keep count of page views on their websites and track the sources of these hits. They can monitor social media to see which posts and topics potential customers respond to most strongly.
A similar approach can be taken to analyze your competition. While it may be impossible to obtain information about every detail of your strongest competitors’ plans, it is still possible to extrapolate their overarching strategy based on their observable actions on the ground. Business owners can track the specific topics and themes that competitor advertisers promote, and measure their effectiveness on social media.
If you are looking to be more creative with your data management as you develop a better advertising strategy, consider contacting Interactive Edge. Take a look at the rest of our website to learn more about the services we offer to our clients, which will give you more time to focus on your most important business objectives.