“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Wise words to live by. But are they always true?
What about when it comes to your marketing strategy?
For the better part of a century, the trifecta of print, radio and television were all you and your business needed to haul in new customers and generate sales.
Not so anymore.
While it’s true that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, there are certainly more effective ways to get publicity—chiefly by modernizing your advertising efforts, using a combination of digital signage, online and social media marketing.
But don’t take my word for it.
A 2012 analysis of traditional advertisement campaigns suggested that average ROI for print, radio and TV weren’t as rosy as certain case studies would have you believe.
Print ads in newspapers and magazines used to be the only way to spread your sales message, but now readers are completely swamped with written pitches.
If you’ve read any magazines lately, you know that more than half of the pages are ads. Newspapers are no different—their content is often stuffed with advertorials that keen readers now know to filter out from the real news stories.
You can’t just “show up” anymore and expect to double your ROI with a newspaper ad—and potential customers aren’t going to be as impressed with your full-page scratch-and-sniff cologne sample as they would be in the 60s.
And that’s the main problem with print advertisements—the best performers were often pop-out pages, audio-visual spectacles or some other gimmick. Small- and medium-sized companies just don’t have those kind of resources to waste.
Plus, newspapers have a small (and still shrinking) audience, mostly made up of an older demographic that might not accurately represent your customers.
Radio
Radio advertisement faces the same problem as print media—radio is slowly being made obsolete by live streaming music sites and YouTube.
Yes, many people do still tune in. But it’s a dwindling audience, to be sure.
One of the difficult aspects about paying for radio spots is simple enough to understand—usually your listeners are doing something else while your ad is playing.
Working, taking a shower, reading, even watching TV…all that means is your ad has to play second fiddle to whatever else is going on in your prospect’s life.
Similar to TV ads, you really have to pay-to-play, too. The big time slots (morning and evening rush hour) are going to take up a big chunk of your marketing budget, and all for customers that might not even be paying attention to your (expensive) message.
Television
Yes, even TV ads face stiff competition from other media.
More and more, television spots are turning into the playground of Fortune 500 companies trying to outcompete each other with the flashiest or most clever commercials.
Well, that’s fine for Coca Cola (who has unlimited reserves of cash to toss at the marketing wall until something sticks), but what about the rest of us?
TV stations are so fragmented that you can never be sure how many of your commercial’s viewers are really relevant to your marketing goals.
Where 50 years ago there were only a handful of stations, now there are too many to keep track of—which makes it all too easy for viewers to switch channels when the commercials start.
Not to mention the cost; TV ads can be prohibitively expensive for those without deep pockets, or business owners unwilling to gamble on what often turns into a sort of vanity project instead of a marketing campaign.
A Better Return on Your Investment
Print, radio and TV are fast becoming background noise. It’s far too easy to tune out another TV commercial or a boring magazine ad. That translates to wasted time and lost cash for your business.
And that’s where LED signs come in.
We’ve already talked in-depth about the stats, proving just how effective LED displays are at attracting new customers and bringing back old ones.
They’re highly visible to the general public, demand attention like no other form of marketing medium, and can be updated on the fly with new messages without emptying your pockets.
But let’s take a look at the real cost of advertising—your investment. You want the highest return on that investment as humanly possible, and LED signs are the way to make that a reality.
For starters, the Small Business Administration states that LED signs can boost sales by up to 150%.
Imagine your business sees an average daily revenue of $1000. Let’s be pretty conservative, and pretend that your new LED sign drives a 20% increase in business.
That’s an extra $200 per day. $73,000 per year.
Now let’s look at what you have to invest up front to get that sweet return in the first place.
Newspapers? Let’s use the Washington Post as an example—they charge about $600 for a single ad insert, and closer to $1000 for a coveted Sunday spot.
Radio? Expect to shell out anywhere from $500 for about 20 weekly spots…in a small town. For big metro areas like New York, that number can be closer to $8,000.
And TV? You’ll pay up to $1,500 for a small local spot. National-level commercials can run several hundred thousand dollars.
That’s all to reach a disinterested, distracted audience.
LED Signs
But to seize attention with an LED display?
MEGA’s signs start at just $500. They’re protected by a lengthy warranty. They’re completely customizable.
And, you don’t have to keep paying to play, over and over again.
Your sign is yours, period…and so are your profits.
