As the new financial year is just around the corner, we decided to guide you through a few steps that you need to be aware of before planning your next OOH campaign.
Here are five key strategies you need to stick to when making most of your advertising budget.
No. 1: Research your target market
Most companies say that they know their customers, but do you really know them? Do you understand what influences their buying decisions, how far they would travel to find a service, are they price conscious or do they respond to added value?
Before launching an advertising campaign, you must truly understand your target market.
Gather market-specific analytics that includes advertising cost unit prices, average CPM, potential reach and ad unit availability.
Beyond that, don’t forget to establish your main goal and what you want to achieve during your campaign. For example, do you want to focus your campaign on creating broader brand awareness, driving traffic, or directing the viewers to your shop?
No matter what you want to achieve, gather enough research about your ideal designated market areas and locations to get a clearer picture of your target audience and optimise your market campaigns.
No. 2: Be creative!
Often, all types of businesses think that outdoor advertising is limited to billboards; however, creativity is limitless with OOH and its mix of ad formats of all shapes and sizes.
In addition, a mix of various OOH formats enables advertisers to take their campaigns even further to achieve great results.
Ensure you explore your previous campaigns and analyse what worked well and what did not. Referencing all the pluses and minuses during the past campaign launch and finding inspiration in them can help your team better understand what can work for your campaign today.
No.3: Don’t forget your existing customers
The most common mistake that marketers often make is prioritising acquiring new customers over retaining customers. Unfortunately, this means that you may be missing out on an opportunity.
With customer loyalty dropping globally, you need to adjust your marketing techniques and tactics to boost and recapture customer retention.
According to research by Bain & Company, and KPMG, you can increase customer retention rates by 5% and increase your profits by anywhere from 25% to 95%, which means your existing loyal customers are the most significant revenue drivers.
So, when you’re determining your advertising budget, be sure to include campaigns that target existing customers.
Diversifying your consumer base is essential, but so is rewarding customers that stick with your company. And if you can efficiently use OOH to provide authentic, relevant material to your devoted clients, you’ll almost certainly be recognised and appreciated.
No. 4: Define your final goal
To set a specific budget and how much you want to invest in your campaign, you must identify your goal. Once you see the path of your campaign and have a sense of your budget, you can gain insight into your industry by exploring what your competitors are doing.
If your goal this year is to drive more customers through the doors, your campaign will need to be designed to drive an action from your target audience.
However, if your business needs more exposure to boost brand recognition, then a brand awareness campaign in view of customers with a long term visibility campaigns is ideal. Set aside budget to keep the message going over the course of 6 – 12 months.
No. 5: Timing
The timing of your advertising campaigns is another crucial factor to consider when crafting a successful campaign. It can significantly determine a positive return on your investment, just by reaching the right audience through the suitable media at the right time.
If you are trying to advertise your gym, you have to know the seasons when you get the most sales conversions. For example, in advance of a hot summertime people often like to prepare their bodies for holidays or vacations, or as a part of their New Year’s Resolution. For this reason, the winter and spring seasons remain the time favourites to attract people to apply for their membership cards.
Suppose you are a school or any educational institution, then you are undoubtedly aware that the financial budgets get renewed in early April. Therefore, spring remains the best time for you to boost your pupil enrolment, retain parents and attract the right-fit families during the Summer Open Days.
Another important fact is that since customer acquisition can cost far more than retaining existing customers, marketing spending and growth need to meet objectives. One of the ways that can save you lots of unnecessary hustle to find a new company that will help with your outdoor campaign is allocating budget for doing a longer-term campaign with your existing billboard providers. In addition, you can change the outwork used before for less price and meet your seasonal needs by eliminating previous mistakes in your design.
These steps can help you protect your OOH advertising budget in the new financial year and beyond.
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What are the costs like?
On average billboards can start from £17+VAT per day. The investment varies based on the location, the size of the billboard and the length of time.
Interested in finding out more? Get in touch today at 020 7112 8624 or email us at sales@billboardmedia.co.uk and we’ll narrow down on the best locations for your budget and target audience.
