Does Traditional Advertising Still Work? Yes. (If you do it right.)
We’ve shared a lot about digital advertising lately. It’s because we like the flexibility, the effectiveness, and the ability to see results through data. But there’s a place for traditional advertising methods—print, radio, and outdoor—too. Traditional advertising is often part of the communication plans we create for our clients, serving in conjunction with digital as part of an overall strategy to help our clients increase their bottom line. In general, traditional methods are great tools for brand and relationship-building and improving awareness. If you’re a local business with customers who live within a radio listenership, newspaper circulation, or billboard drive, it is much more effective. We’ve...
7 ways to improve your hiring process with digital advertising
These days, many businesses are understaffed and struggling to find new talent. Gone are the days of placing an ad in the “Help Wanted” section of the local newspaper and receiving a flood of qualified applications. Fortunately, the digital tools you use for marketing your products and services can also be used to market your business as a top-notch employer. We’ve highlighted seven digital tools you can tap into to reach more candidates and fill positions. 1. Post job openings on your company careers page. If someone really wants to work for you, the first place they’re going to look for openings is on your website. Using...
Making sense of digital benchmarks and buzzwords
Why big numbers don’t always mean big success. What’s worth more: 100,000 impressions or 10 conversions? What does a high click-through rate actually mean? Does conversion rate matter? The answer to those questions is: it depends—digital advertising is rarely black and white. But having a good understanding of basic metrics can help you determine what success means for your digital campaigns. Impressions An impression is when your ad is displayed or served. 5,000 impressions mean that your ad was seen 5,000 times. When served to the right audience, a high number of impressions can do wonders for increasing brand awareness and keeping your business top-of-mind. But if actionable results...
5 Google Analytics Metrics to Watch
You can assume what people are doing when they get to your website—but do you know for sure? Are your digital advertising campaigns leading to increased awareness and conversions? If you’re not consistently reviewing Google Analytics for your site, you just don’t know. It’s easy to get lost in a data rabbit hole in Google Analytics—and if you’re new to Google Analytics, you might not even know where to start. Some basic metrics can give you a sense of how your customers are interacting with your digital ads and your website. Here are five metrics the Strateligent team monitors regularly. 1) Page Views + Page Path Flow You...
Digital Advertising 101
Digital advertising can be overwhelming. Digital advertising can be confusing. Digital is different. It doesn’t have to be hard. Let’s cut through the jargon and break it down. Understanding digital differences Digital is different than traditional advertising (e.g., newspaper ads, radio ads, direct mail, and billboards) because you can more easily target specific audiences and track what is working and what’s not. To know if your digital campaign is performing well, you must monitor engagement and conversions. A digital ad with 100,000 impressions (i.e., views) sounds impressive, but who saw that ad, and what action did they take after seeing it? If you sell pet food, but the people who saw...
Building A Brand To Build A Better Future
Working with RIPL to prevent school violence, together. Our mission is to improve the future for our clients, our communities, and ourselves—and what better way to make good on our mission than helping RIPL (Relational, Impactful, Preventive, Leadership) Training—a school violence prevention program—transform their image, positioning, and sales process. National School Safety Consulting, LLC’s RIPL Training focuses on a “Recognize and Prevent” approach that produces a safe, inclusive, and positive culture that prevents school violence and suicide. It’s different. It needed to look and feel different, too. RIPL came to us for help rebuilding their entire brand—updating everything from their website to their employee email signatures. We refreshed...
How we relate.
Communicating with a purpose hinges on listening, adapting, and achieving. But the secret to our success? We aim to build genuine, long-term relationships with each and every client we serve. We get to truly know them, their businesses, and their customers—and we work together every step of the way. Lake Mille Lacs—a renowned walleye fishing destination—started experiencing an economic downturn when changes in walleye fishing regulations reduced the number of visiting anglers. We were tasked to develop new positioning and showcase new tourism opportunities to complement the already strong fishing base—but first we needed to get to know Lake Mille Lacs. Our team was baptized in Lake...
How we achieve.
When we adapt, we must do so to achieve results. We don’t promote change for the sake of change. We make a change to get results. It’s not always easy, but it is always worth it. Over the years, our work (including a strategic and well-executed communication plan) helped Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport (BRD) reach record ticket sales. But when COVID-19 arrived in the community, we were charged with shifting the messaging to focus on the airport’s safety precautions and overall community value rather than increasing sales. While flights weren’t grounded, stay-at-home orders ultimately affected travel—but not for long. Despite the challenge of a pandemic, once...
How we adapt.
Listening is key to developing a successful communication plan. But things don’t always go as planned. Who hasn’t run into unexpected budget constraints, staffing issues, or world-wide pandemics? We’re experts in helping our clients pivot (being adaptable is one of our values). Sometimes that means making a small tweak to improve results. Sometimes it’s venturing down new avenues and trying new tactics in digital advertising, geo-fencing, or social media marketing. Sometimes it’s walking into a seemingly impossible situation and reworking an existing communication plan entirely. We’ve done it all and we’ve done it successfully. As COVID-19 began to affect tourism in the McGregor, Minnesota area, we stepped...
How we listen.
Our vision: To improve the future for our clients, our communities, and ourselves. How do we do it? We communicate with the sole purpose of positively changing hearts and impacting minds. In this blog series, we’ll explain how listening, adapting to change, achieving results, and building relationships help make the impossible, possible. Our creative process starts with stakeholder input sessions. Traditionally, we’ve conducted in-person input sessions at our clients’ choice of location—but we’ve become masters in conducting them via Zoom (thanks, COVID). Stakeholders can be anyone and everyone—business owners, boards of directors, investors, marketing and sales teams, employees, or a combination of folks. We focus on organically...