We still get asked about what independent retailers think about digital advertising as opposed to traditional advertising. Here’s a chart from emarketer.com that helps us answer that question.
The source of the survey was Constant Contact, they specialize in email marketing so we may take a little salt with the results.
The research found that email, website and in-person interactions were considered the most effective marketing techniques by SMBs. B2C and B2B businesses found email and website marketing to be effective in about equal numbers, but a gap opened up when it came to the effectiveness of face-to-face interactions.
Maybe Constant Contact only surveyed their customers who had already determined that email was very effective. That being noted, it is still a long way down the list before we see traditional advertising.
The point we always make with our clients and others is that when you look at your marketing digital asset management system and/or ad builder for your retailers, how much do you favor traditional advertising over digital? Most major brands today still favor traditional over digital in these systems. Most often the reason given is that, “our dealers still think traditional advertising works for them.”
Survey like the one above and the many, many discussions we’ve had with retailers tell us a different story. Retailers live in a digital world and really understand the need for digital advertising but don’t know how to do it, or what is the most effective way to us digital.
We think many ad builders out there today slow down the dealers move from traditional advertising to more effective digital when they should be doing the opposite. Does yours?