As a business owner, you want to make sure that you craft the best marketing plan that you can in order to help your company succeed. However, there are so many different ways to advertise to consumers these days, it can be hard to know if the strategies that you’re using to market your business are the right ones.
For instance, in our increasingly online world, debate continues to grow over which form of marketing is more effective: billboards or digital marketing. While billboards have been around for much longer, digital marketing strategies are on the rise in order to keep up with ecommerce. In this article, we get into the pros and cons of both billboards and digital marketing in order to help you decide which one is ultimately best for you to use to market your business.
Billboard Marketing: The Old Standby
Billboards are a traditional form of advertisement that have been around since the 1830s. Today, there are two main forms of billboards: print and digital billboards. Print billboards typically consist of a blown-up promotional image that is printed onto a sheet of paper or vinyl and adhered to a large, metal billboard structure. Print billboards have long worked to help businesses capture the eyes of consumers walking or driving by in busy metropolitan centers.
More recently, there’s been a rise in the use of digital billboards as a form of marketing. Digital billboards are similar to print billboards in terms of shape and size, however, instead of a print image, they display promotional content via an illuminated LED screen. Additionally, digital billboards can display animated graphics and videos as well as static images. Given their advanced technological features, digital billboards tend to cost a bit more than print billboards. For example, while print Portland billboards typically cost between $200 to $600, digital Portland billboards range from $2,000 to $8,000 per rental cycle. As such, it’s important to consider your marketing budget when deciding what kind of billboard to get.
Whether you choose to utilize print billboards or digital billboards, both are an effective form of advertising that can help to market your business to consumers outside of their homes. In order to make your billboard rental as profitable as possible, it’s essential to consider the demographics of consumers that you mainly want to grow your brand recognition with. For instance, if you’re looking to increase your business’ brand recognition with parents and children, it’s a good idea to search for billboard real estate located in or around popular family friendly attractions. By narrowing in on the consumer bases that you want to reach with your billboard marketing, you’ll be able to find the perfect location to garner the impressions that you want, and boost your business.
Billboard Pros:
- Located in heavily trafficked metropolitan areas
- Can help you to target specific consumer demographics
- Both print and digital options available
Billboard Cons
- Can get pricey (especially digital billboards)
- Campaigns are limited (typically run for four weeks)
Digital Marketing: The New Frontier
Digital marketing has increasingly risen to prominence as a form of advertising as our world has become more tied to the internet. With digital marketing, you can advertise to consumers online in a number of different ways including: social media posts, email newsletters, and search engine optimization.
However, you’re going to want to consider all aspects of digital marketing that you want to utilize, as each service can come at a different cost. Of course, there are digital marketing agencies who bundle these sorts of services into packages so you don’t need to search out multiple digital marketing services. In any case, you’re likely to spend around $2,000 to $12,000 a month for your digital marketing needs.
Digital Marketing Pros
- Can reach consumers directly
- Easy to market to a wide consumer base in multiple ways
Digital Marketing Cons
- Prices can vary greatly, and tend to be on the high end
- Lacks reach to consumers who might not utilize social media or email
In Conclusion: Which Form of Marketing Comes Out on Top?
When stacked up next to each other, both billboards and digital marketing have comparable pros and cons. While billboards have a great reach with consumers outside of the home, digital marketing techniques are able to capture the attention of consumers directly on their electronic devices. When it comes to price, digital billboards and digital marketing are relatively close in cost. As such, when mapping out your business’ marketing strategy, it might be beneficial to utilize a combination of billboard and digital marketing techniques in order to reach the largest number of consumers possible. What form of marketing do you think is best for your business?