If you’ve been handling advertising on your own, you’ve probably encountered some problems along the way. This is especially true within a digital marketing sphere that’s constantly changing and adapting to how people use the internet.
However, it’s important to conquer all your problems head-on instead of letting them cripple you and prevent you from moving forward. This is easier said than done but thankfully, we are here to help you anticipate problems before they occur and solve them when they do. So read on to learn everything you need to know about issues and solutions for complex 21st-century advertising.
How Has the Advertising Game Changed in Recent Years?
Advertising has been around for a long time, but it has seen unprecedented growth and changes in recent years due to the rise of the digital sphere. In the past, companies could simply focus on print advertising through things like billboards, catalogs, flyers, etc. The next phase of advertising involved television advertising through commercials or paid programming.
However, now that people are spending so much time online, it makes sense that advertisers focus more on this digital arena. But what does that look like in practice in 2021? While it depends on the company, it’s good to take an omnichannel approach to advertising. For example, a company should invest in various tactics like paid social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and an informative and user-friendly website.
While it’s beneficial to use various channels to reach your target customers, it can quickly get confusing and problematic if you don’t know what you’re doing. Thankfully, we here at Greg Gillman can help you troubleshoot your problems and achieve your business goals through an effective marketing strategy.
What Are Some Problems Commonly Seen in Advertising?
When it comes to business, it’s always important to be proactive and stay ahead of the game. If possible, you should try to anticipate problems before they become problematic! However, if you’re new to business in general or marketing specifically, you could feel as if you’re going through this entire process completely blind. Let us open your eyes by highlighting some commonly seen problems in advertising, so you know what to expect.
- You don’t set yourself apart in your marketing and are being totally overtaken by the competition as a result.
- You’re totally focused on reach rather than engagement.
- You’re posting a constant deluge of content but aren’t seeing engagement or results.
- You’re not taking advantage of data and insights available to you.
- You’re not offering value in terms of your advertising content — making it less effective.
How Can We Solve These Problems?
We cannot simply talk about common problems without also talking about solutions. While these solutions may not work for every scenario, they’re definitely a good place to start. If you ever find yourself totally stuck, it might be a good idea for you to reach out to a marketing expert like Greg Gillman to obtain personalized and effective solutions for all your roadblocks, big and small.
- Set yourself apart by creating a solid value proposition. Make it very clear what you’re offering, who you’re offering it to, and what makes you different from the rest. Don’t be afraid to do some opposition research here to find out more information about your competitors and use that information to your advantage.
- Don’t sacrifice engagement for reach. Sure, reach is a good thing but it won’t matter if you don’t also have engagement. People want to buy from reputable brands — and solid engagement shows that you’re reputable and trustworthy. Once you have the engagement, you can focus more on reach.
- Don’t post content just to post content. You should always post strategically rather than randomly. It may help to test your content before posting to ensure that it’s effective.
- Use all available data on your platforms to your advantage. This is a major selling point of digital marketing these days, so make sure you’re using it to learn more about your customers, engagement, and content. From there, you can make tweaks to achieve better results.
- Always offer value in your content. Make the value clear, concise, urgent, and engaging. Prioritize copywriting and design for eye-catching and attention-grabbing content that will lead viewers to click and learn more.
Steps You Can Take for a Solid Advertising Strategy to Avoid Problems
Instead of dealing with problems as they come, that can feel like a never-ending game of whack a mole, conduct planning and due diligence on the front end that can potentially eliminate problems from occurring in the first place. It’s definitely worthwhile to put in some more work in the initial stages that can save you from running all over the place putting out fires later on. For that reason, we’re going to tell you the steps you need to take to develop a solid advertising strategy that limits problems and promotes success.
- Start off by reflecting on your own business, including brand mission, values, personality, and voice. Then, compare with competitors to set yourself apart.
- Identify your target audience by using things like demographics, geography, interests, actions, and more. Think about their likes, dislikes, desires, and motivations to develop a complete buyer persona.
- Choose your channels using social media, search engines, eCommerce platforms, email, SMS, and more. That being said, all of your channels should work together as part of a cohesive and comprehensive advertising strategy.
- Test your content and monitor your campaigns post-launch. Testing is a great way to ensure effectiveness, but it’s still not 100%. So to avoid potentially wasting money on an ineffective campaign, be sure to monitor your campaign throughout its journey and make any necessary changes along the way.
How to Find the Right Advertising Agency
We’ve mentioned using an advertising agency to prevent and solve your advertising problems. But how do you actually find the right advertising agency, and what can they do for you? It all comes down to building a partnership. An advertising agency should do more listening than talking. They should be invested in and committed to helping you grow your company and achieve your goals, rather than just taking your money without giving you actual results.
With these factors in mind, you should consider Greg Gillman. He specializes in omnichannel growth strategies for direct-to-consumer brands, especially within the eCommerce sphere. As you know, eCommerce presents a uniquely difficult advertising challenge where you really need to get the right content in front of the right people to actually sell anything. That being said, Greg definitely boasts amazing results in this area — generating nearly $4 billion in annual revenue for his clients.
The Rundown on Complex Advertising
At the end of the day, advertising is definitely a complex and tricky concept that can leave you scratching your head when problems inevitably pop up. While you won’t be able to totally avoid issues altogether, you can decrease their occurrence by doing adequate research and planning on the front end. Another way that you can solve your advertising problems is to reach out to advertising experts like Greg Gillman, who know the advertising game and can help you plan and execute cost-effective solutions to all your advertising issues.
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