At Mad 4 Marketing, we’ve always been strong proponents of the 360-degree campaign. This means approaching your target audience from all angles to create a balanced, interwoven appeal. For example, you might want to have a strong website launching at the same time you put up local billboards and take out a well-placed radio ad. These diverse tactics all work together to strengthen brand recognition and drive your messages home. But the challenge isn’t necessarily choosing your marketing mediums or negotiating ad space. It’s about making these efforts communicate with a consistent voice in a way that gets your demographic to respond. So how do you bring together your various advertising campaigns with one solid message and successful calls to action?
In the example given, you’ve got a website, billboard and radio ad. The first option is interactive, while the last two appeal to the eyes and ears, respectively. And somehow, you’ve got to tie it all together to entice your prospective customers to reach out.
How do you ask a driver on the highway to respond? One thing you might want to do is eschew the typical contact information. It may feel counterintuitive not to list your phone number on your billboard, but is the driver really going to memorize those digits or stop to punch them into the phone? One thing you can do is tell the viewer to tune in to the local radio station when your ad is playing to get even more information. Since they’re already in their car on their way to a destination, those who view your billboard might either tune in immediately or at least recognize the brand and remember the ad when they’re listening to the radio commercial at a later time. You’ve already got them considering, remembering and reacting to your message.
The repetition of a radio message, perhaps along with a catchy jingle, means that this spot can potentially convey more information to your audience than the billboard. But instead of trying to cram every ounce of information into 30 seconds, you can choose to just focus on getting the listener to visit your website. Once there, they can find all of the rest of your information and contact you through a variety of formats (contact form, phone number, fax, e-mail, etc.). With the correct calls to action, it’s easy to get someone who willingly went to your website to follow supplied links and travel through pages of attractive, exciting information about your business. You might be able to ask them for their information to follow up or even complete a sale without leaving the page. It’s also easy for them to share links about your services with friends, or bookmark them for later.
By simplifying your calls to action and understanding how multimedia can interrelate, you can avoid harassing your audience or hitting them over the head with what you’re offering – but still build a strong presence for your brand through various channels and efforts that are in conversation with each other.