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Are You Engaging?
Understanding the Consumer's Relationship to Advertising
By Sandra Pearce, MPA Media Marketing Coordinator
The age of consumers welcoming our advertising into their lives has passed. They're now inundated with more messages through more media platforms than ever before. They can turn the page, change the channel, block the pop-ups and tune us out. We can't just expect to get their attention by putting words on a page or our logo in a banner ad anymore. We have to engage them. It's not simple, but it's more relevant than ever before. The good news is that by increasing consumers' connections to our advertising we can positively affect our bottom line. That makes it worth the effort.
As marketers we tend to focus on measurement, return on investment, quality of leads, etc. But let's look at the facts. Some ads just work better than others. The only thing that is consistently unique is that those ads do a better job of engaging their intended audience. And engagement affects purchasing intent.
So let's look at what engagement is. Is it what the customer sees or feels? Can it be quantified in degrees of interest and if so, how do you measure it? Can we create connection, stickiness, wanted-ness and relationships with it? Unfortunately, there aren't any one-size-fits all answers or definitions. It's more about finding a fit between our advertising message, our consumers and the media environments we use more than anything else.
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To Market Or Not To Market?
What Is Your Return On Investment?
By Stephanie Beck, Bon Vital Products Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Every company knows they need marketing. Unfortunately, most don't know how much they need it; in fact, many don't even know what works for them or how to measure results. But one thing everyone does know is that it costs money to make money and every business spends a certain amount each year on marketing in some form.
There are two things to consider: Are my marketing efforts getting me a direct return on my investment? Are my marketing efforts helping me build my brand? One you can track directly; the other is an investment in sustainable growth. In my opinion, both are necessary. However, not every company has the budget to run two-page spreads in all applicable publications 12 months of the year, or sponsor Webinars, or attend every tradeshow, or cover the Web with banner ads, etc. It can be intimidating when you start to really consider investing in marketing.
Once you decide to invest or to invest more, in marketing you have more decisions to make. At that point, the questions are where to advertise, how often to advertise, how to know if your advertising is working and which of the many marketing options are going to produce the best return.
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Choosing an Advertising Agency Begins With Understanding Your Needs
By Juan Nodarse, President of The Marketing Advantage
Choosing an advertising agency is one of the most important business decisions that you can make. Before we talk about how to choose an agency, let's first address the question of whether you should have an agency at all.
I happen to think that every company should have an agency. Whether you have a large company with a fully staffed and talented marketing department or a small entrepreneurial company struggling to get off the ground, the right agency can be a major benefit.
Traditionally, advertising agencies held the power; that is, all the talent resided at these agencies. These large, often bureaucratic entities positioned themselves as "full-service" in order to get all of your business. And they could do it since they controlled all of the talent.
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