When it comes to standing out and attracting attention, start-ups and small business owners in the early stages of their businesses are typically looking to spend heavily on marketing to raise brand awareness, stand out from established brands, build trust, and be chosen.
However, with the constrained budgets that many expanding businesses have, building brand awareness is difficult as it can require a lot of marketing spend to reach many customers unaware of the business. Therefore, the most cost-effective approach is to invest in mediums like billboards that can reach hundreds of thousands of people every week.
Here are a few reasons why your brand needs to embrace outdoor advertising.
It Reaches Wider Audience & Markets
One of the main benefits of out-of-home advertising is reaching a broad audience 24/7 without limiting yourself to one type of customer.
By picking the right location, you can have thousands or even millions of viewers on your advert every day. So, even if commuters aren’t consciously taking in the information, it’s still creating brand recognition invaluable to any business.
The rush to digital has reduced the amount of competition for traditional billboard advertising, meaning that placing advertisements in major and high-traffic sites is now easier and more economical, boosting the reach of your brand’s message.
Furthermore, as you know, billboards are free for the public to view, and people can view them without using any additional devices or mediums like TV, the internet, a mobile phone or a newspaper. Therefore, your ad is more potent because it reaches hundreds of people who may not have one or all of these mediums when passing near your billboard.
It’s Cost-Effective
You will be surprised, but traditional paper billboard advertising is often more affordable than other forms like digital boards, newspapers or magazines, television and radio ads. Considering the potential reach, it provides a great return on investment for your business.
Traditional billboard advertising is affordable and cost-effective – per day rates can start from £17+vat a day or less! The return on investment is influenced by picking the right location where your target audience travels and an impactful design of your campaign.
It Increases Brand Awareness & Loyalty
Another reason your business should utilise outdoor advertising is because you receive continuous exposure from the same core audience group, allowing the brand to impact their buying decision.
For instance, billboards strategically located on busy roads are the most common example. Your campaign can get repeat impressions from the same core commuters, creating unrivalled brand awareness and brand loyalty by being situated on a high traffic area or route.
It Creates Memorable Impressions
Having your brand displayed in a prominent location where you know many people will see it, is a beautiful approach to reinforce your brand and keep it at the forefront of the consumer’s mind.
In today’s fast-paced, highly competitive marketing industry, you must stay top-of-mind with your target audience and convince them why your brand is the greatest option for whatever you’re selling if you pick traditional billboard advertising.
For example, when you have a digital billboard, you’ll almost always have to share the area with up to five other companies that are advertising in the same location as you, meaning you might only get 10 seconds of air time per minute, making it impossible for clients to respond to your message. Classic billboards, on the other hand, can be reserved exclusively and for months in some cases.
It Turns Heads
This one is self-evident, but it’s still worth mentioning because it works. Whether it’s a billboard on a busy road, or local shop, outdoor advertising is undeniably eye-catching. It’s not simply the advertisements’ size that draws people’s attention; it’s also the colours and messages they convey. It’s because of this power to turn heads and capture our attention that it’s such a great marketing tool that it’s unlikely to go away very soon.
Furthermore, paper billboards provide more exclusivity while digital billboards require you to share space with at least 5 other marketers, and each minute, you’ll only get 10 seconds of coverage. Traditional billboards, on the other hand, can be reserved exclusively for you, offering you sole advertising and maximum visibility.
It Creates Social Exposure
Crucially, in the digital age, the beauty of billboards is that owing to social media, the message can reach more people than those who simply walk by a physical billboard. People will picture and post your message on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms if it is eye-catching, adventurous, and grabs their attention which can be used to support PR aimed at gaining editorial coverage.
That isn’t to say that start-up’s or small businesses searching for a fresh way to tell their story should rely only on billboards. However, using billboards is excellent for raising brand recognition, but it should be used as part of a more extensive integrated campaign to capture and generate demand.
Recent start-ups that we worked with:
Kimberley Grace
House of Fusion
Big Eat
To find out how you can develop your business strategy with billboard adverting, email us at sales@billboardmedia.co.uk