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A Definitive Guide to Traditional Advertising

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“Print is dead.” “Television is dead.” “Radio is dead.”

Have you heard these sayings in the past few years?

It’s likely that you have, considering how much easier, more convenient, and more immediate it is to access media digitally. Holding a newspaper filled with print ads can feel almost novel to many these days. Watching commercials on cable TV can feel like something reserved for a hotel room. Opting to listen to the radio on a morning commute may sound crazy to the millions who choose to listen to music or podcasts from their chosen streaming platforms.

It’s true that the digital age has brought with it a huge opportunity to market businesses, products, and services in online spaces and through other digital avenues. With the ever-evolving, ever-growing rise of digital advertising, it can seem as if the logical next step is to transition away from more traditional forms of advertising and marketing.

BUT…

  • It’s estimated that we will see $13.8 billion in radio ad revenue in the US by the end of 2024. (Statista)
  • TV ad spend is expected to reach $60.6 billion by the end of 2024. (Statista)
  • Ad spend for print advertising in the US is expected to reach $9.6 billion by the end of 2024. (Statista)

Traditional advertising is far from dead, and there are many opportunities to harness the power of these ad channels to grow your brand, customer base, and bottom line.

In this definitive guide, we’re diving deep into traditional advertising, analyzing all your traditional options and showing how each channel can benefit your marketing efforts and push your business further.

 

Table of Contents

What Makes Advertising “Traditional”?

It may go without saying, but traditional advertising refers to any marketing channel that is not digital. Before the rise of the internet and digital marketing, all traditional forms of advertising were simply called “advertising.” Now, to differentiate from digital, we refer to it as traditional advertising, which includes ads that are more tangible, meaning you can encounter them IRL, or “in real life.” The ads are things you can see, touch, and/or hear away from a phone, computer, or tablet, and include:

  • Television commercials
  • Radio ads
  • Billboard ads and other signage
  • Postcards, flyers, and other materials handed out or sent through the mail
  • Print ads in magazines and newspapers

And others.

Digital advertising, on the other hand, also referred to as new media advertising, consist of ads that exist in online spaces and are viewable on a device connected to the internet. While you can see a digital ad, you cannot hold it, touch it, or hear it—well, not directly. You can hold your phone as it displays the ad. You can touch your computer screen as it displays the ad. You can turn the speakers of your tablet up as a video ad plays.

Types of digital advertising include:

  • Search engine marketing (SEM), like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads
  • Social media marketing (SMM), like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn Ads
  • Video ads
  • Email marketing
  • Geofencing ads

There are significant differences between traditional and digital advertising, as well as significant benefits to each. While it may be tempting to believe there’s a larger ROI in digital advertising, since that’s where so much attention is focused and where the majority of your audience is likely to be, traditional forms of advertising are still highly effective at increasing brand awareness, converting audiences into leads, and converting leads into paying customers.

What Are the Differences Between Traditional and Digital Advertising?

To better understand the value that traditional advertising channels and digital marketing channels can bring to your company, it’s important to acknowledge their differences and see how they can function separately from and in conjunction with each other.

Let’s look at the differences in cost, targeting, distribution, audience engagement, and tracking:

Cost

We’re not going to get into the thick, thorny weeds of cost differences between traditional and digital advertising—we’ll just say that, generally speaking, the cost of digital advertising is lower than the cost of traditional media options. While it can cost up to $10 to reach 1,000 people through digital media efforts, it can cost an average of $22 to do the same via traditional advertising methods, partly because digital ads do not require the purchase or use of physical materials the same way many traditional advertising methods do. Plus, online ad spaces are less expensive than commercial and radio slots, magazine and newspaper ad spaces, and others.

Targeting

In order to target audiences with traditional advertising, it’s crucial to know their addresses for mailers, the printed materials they are likely to encounter or thumb through for printed ads, the locations they are likely visit or travel through for billboards, the TV channels they are likely to watch for TV ads, and the radio channels they are likely to tune into for radio ads.

Digital ads allow for more specific targeting. Most digital ad platforms offer features that let you target audiences as broadly or as narrowly as you’d like. You can get hyper-specific about your target audience’s age, gender, household income, parental or marital status, preferred social media platforms, political affiliation, and so much more.

Distribution

Traditional ads are distributed through channels like print (mailers, flyers, newspaper ads, etc.), billboards and signage, television, and radio.

Digital ads are distributed through digital channels like social media platforms, search engines, email, smartphone apps, etc.

Tracking

Tracking traditional ads can be a little muddy. After all, it’s hard to determine exactly how many people:

  • Received a mailer and looked at it before visiting your website, making a phone call, or tossing it in the trash.
  • Drove by your billboard or noticed it on the drive.
  • Paid attention to your print ad in a magazine or newspaper.
  • Were watching when your ad played on TV.
  • Were listening when your ad played on the radio.

However, print ads, radio ads, and commercials can include vanity URLs, call tracking numbers, and even geofencing strategies* that can show how many people dial the phone number, visit the URL, or enter the boundary of your established geofence**.

*Geofencing is best for things like billboards and other out-of-home ads that are installed in a single, non-moving location.

**Geofencing can only track those who enter the fence with a device that features RFID or GPS technology, like a cell phone or a tablet.

Tracking for digital ads, when done correctly, offers more accurate performance numbers. With the proper setup, you can track metrics like:

  • Impressions, or the number of times the ad was seen.
  • Clicks, or the number of times the ad was clicked on.
  • Clickthrough rates, or the number of times users clicked on the ad divided by the number of times the ad was seen.
  • Conversions, or the number of times users completed an action after clicking on the ad (made a phone call, filled out a form, etc.).
  • Conversion rates, or the total number of conversions divided by the total number of people who clicked on the ad.
  • Engagement rates, or the rate at which people engaged with your ad.
  • Bounce rates, or the rate at which people disengaged with your ad.

And more.

How Traditional Advertising and Digital Advertising Work Together

After realizing the differences in cost, targeting, distribution, and tracking, you may be thinking, “digital advertising is far more beneficial and lucrative than traditional options,” but it’s not as simple as that.

Yes, it would be a missed opportunity not to utilize digital marketing channels to target your audience and track how your audience responds to your marketing efforts in digital spaces. But it would also be a missed opportunity not to use traditional advertising in conjunction with your digital strategies to further captivate your audience and enhance your marketing mix. When you combine your traditional and digital strategies to work together, you can harness the strengths of each platform or channel, increasing your likelihood of reaching the right target audience and gaining new customers.

Why Combine Traditional and Digital Marketing?

You want to create a marketing plan that combines traditional and digital advertising if you want to increase brand awareness, capture more leads, and ultimately earn more business.

Combining Allows You to Shorten and Expand Your Message as Needed

Whether it’s a TV commercial, radio ad, or print ad, the messaging for your traditional ad needs to be short, sweet, and to the point. You only have so many seconds to get someone’s attention and get your point across in a TV or radio ad, and you only have so many square inches or square feet of space to produce a compelling message on a print ad or billboard. You don’t have the time or space for fluff and clutter.

But, you probably have a lot you want to say about whatever it is your ads are promoting. If you have both a traditional and a digital marketing strategy, your traditional ads can include a URL or a QR code that will take audiences to a landing page with even more information about the thing you are promoting, whether it’s a product, service, or your brand in general. When executed well, your traditional ads can spark interest while your digital channels work to initiate conversions.

Combining Increases Brand Awareness Efforts and Speeds Up the Recognition Process

Are you familiar with the “rule of 7” in marketing? It’s a general marketing principle that says it takes at least seven encounters with a brand’s messaging for a potential customer to become a paying one. The rule of 7 came about in the 1930s when movie makers realized it took about seven encounters with a movie ad for a member of the target audience to become an actual audience member in the theater.

The rule of 7 is not intended to imply that consumers will always take the bait after seven encounters with your ads; it simply emphasizes the value of repeated exposure. Someone may not consciously notice your logo or your ads when they come across them for the first few encounters; but with enough repeated exposure, they will begin recognizing your brand elements and messaging, which is the first step to gaining a new paying customer.

Through a strategic marketing plan that incorporates traditional and digital forms of advertising, your ads can increase repeated exposure and draw new consumers to your company faster.

Combining Allows You to Create a Personalized Experience for Your Audience and Customers

There are many ways you can use traditional and digital advertising strategies together to create personalized experiences for your customers or audience members.

For example, let’s say you own and operate Pix, a new clothing stores that offers men and women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s higher end clothing options for the workplace, parties, and events. You want to increase sales this quarter, which you can do by displaying QR codes throughout your store and on postcards mailed to residents throughout your service area—the code takes them to a webpage on your site that shows all available in-store and online coupons. (And as a bonus, you can enact retargeting measures so that if a customer checks out a product but leaves your website before buying anything, they will continue to see advertisements for the product, encouraging them to complete the purchase).

Traditional ads offer plenty of opportunities to not only gain audiences attention but create a buyer journey that serves them on a more personal level.

Types of Traditional Advertising

There are several types of traditional advertising that you can utilize to boost your marketing strategies and capture audience’s attention, including:

Television Advertising

Television ads, or TV commercials, are a form of broadcast media that can reach a wide audience depending on when and where the commercial airs.

Many times, companies use TV ads to:

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Establish trust with audiences
  • Reach a broader audience

And they have options for where their TV ad can appear, including on:

  • National TV networks and cable channels
  • Local network affiliates and independent TV stations

Television ads are effective at reaching the right audiences when there are solid strategies in place, which include:

Establishing Goals

Before you take any action in developing your TV ad campaign, you have to know the goals* you want to achieve. Whether it’s to make more sales, establish new patients, increase profits, increase brand awareness in a new market, or achieve anything else, knowing precisely why you’re executing a campaign will better position you for success.

*When creating your goals, be sure to make them SMART: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

  • Specific – A vague or open-ended goal is a hard-to-pursue goal. You want to be specific about what you are striving to achieve. An example can be: “Our medical practice wants to increase our patient base by 10% within the next two quarters. We will use TV ads as part of our strategy to increase brand awareness and attract audiences to our practice.”
  • Measurable – You want to know that your efforts are working, which requires you to track the measurables. “We will measure our progress within the next two quarters by tracking key metrics and asking new patients how they heard about us.”
  • Achievable – An outrageous goal is a hard-to-accomplish goal. You want your goal to be challenging, yet achievable with the right strategies in place. “Our goal of increasing our new patient base by 10% is achievable in the next two quarters.”
  • Relevant – It’s a waste of time, money, and energy to create a goal that does not serve the larger picture of your company. “Our marketing goal is relevant to our overall business goals of growing our practice and serving more members of our community.”
  • Time-bound – In order to track progress and evaluate if your efforts worked or not, there must be an end date for the goal. “Two quarters to reach our goal is a doable time boundary.”

Targeting Audiences

It’s important to know your audience and your audience’s viewing habits to reach the right group(s) and capture the right viewers’ attention. While TV ad targeting is much broader than video ad targeting, there are still ways to zero in on your audience by knowing:

  • Who your audience is
  • When your audience is watching
  • What your audience is watching

For example, if you are a local cardiologist who owns a private practice in town and would like to increase your number of new patients, you probably want to reach audiences that primarily consist of:

  • People ages 40+
  • People in your local service area
  • People on Medicare or those with private insurance

By knowing who you’re targeting, you can evaluate what channels, stations, and programs your audience is tuning into. A large group within your audience is likely retirees who often spend their mornings or afternoons watching local news, daytime talk shows, and gameshows. As a result, your ad would be more effective airing on channels broadcasting these types of programs.

Messaging

It’s crucial to know what kind of message, story, tone, and delivery resonates with your audience the most.

Using the cardiologist example again, let’s say you have two main audience groups: 40-64 and 65+. Your message to the younger group is probably not the same message that will effectively speak to your older group. While your younger group is more likely to include people who want to begin monitoring their heart and heart health to prevent issues from developing as they age, the older group is more likely to include patients who are currently dealing with health conditions that directly or indirectly affect their hearts. The ad for your 40-64-year-olds should probably have a different message, tone, and delivery from the ad for your audience in the 65+ group.

Knowing who you’re speaking to and how you should speak to your audiences will greatly affect the planning and creation process for your TV ad strategy.

Tips for Creating a Quality TV Ad

There’s no formula that will guarantee a TV ad’s success. However, throughout the history of television advertising, the more successful ads have typically included the following qualities:

Storytelling

People inherently love a well-told story. Generally speaking, a good story is interesting to follow from beginning to end, and it provides a takeaway that makes sense. Stories are also easier to remember. When thinking through your script or storyboard, pay attention to the story being told and the way you’re telling it.

Examples of TV ads with effective storytelling include:

Emotional Connection

Whether the goal is to leave audiences laughing or wiping away a tear, it’s better to lean into the emotion of the ad than downplay it. Some of the most effective and memorable TV ads have used humor, drama, intrigue, fascination, discomfort, and other emotional pulls to leave their marks in the minds of viewers.

Examples of commercials that harness the power of emotion well include:

Visual Appeal

The visuals of your ad, regardless of whether it’s a TV ad, print ad, or digital ad, can make or break its success. A quality TV ad is visually appealing or at least visually compelling. The goal is to keep viewers watching, not flipping away to a different channel. Even if the story is good and emotionally strong, if the visuals are not appealing, interesting, or something people want to look at, people are likely to avoid the ad or quickly forget it.

Examples of TV ads with strong visuals include:

It’s Actionable

Unless your only goal with your TV ad campaign is to raise brand awareness, the main point of your TV ad is to encourage an action. It’s important for your story, visuals and emotional appeal to come together to inspire the viewer to choose your product, service, or overall brand. Whether you include a direct call to action or create a story that inspires action, making your ad actionable is crucial to its quality and its likelihood for success.

How Do TV Ads Work Alongside Digital Ads?

The beauty of a TV ad video is that you can also use it in a digital ad campaign that includes video ads.

Places you can play your TV commercial online include:

  • Video-based platforms, like YouTube
  • Streaming platforms, like Hulu
  • Social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn

You can also upload your ad to your website or a landing page for more exposure.

Radio Advertising

Another form of broadcast media that falls into the traditional ad category is the radio ad. Businesses can purchase as spots on local radio stations to promote a brand, product, or service to those tuning in.

Like TV ads, radio ads are effective at promoting brand awareness, products, and services to a broader audience.

Types of Radio Ads

Types of radio ads business can utilize include:

Live Reads/Endorsement Ads

A live read is when the radio DJ or another radio personality reads live from a script during the radio show. It’s not a produced ad but rather an ad that presents like a direct endorsement from the host of the show.

A live read is often effective because it creates a more authentic ad experience for the listener. People like knowing a brand, product, or service is trustworthy and comes with an endorsement. If a voice they know and trust promotes something they may be interested in, the listener is more inclined to trust the endorsement and take action.

Produced Ad

A produced ad plays during the show or station’s commercial break. Produced ads can range in length from 5 seconds to 60 seconds and can consist of one or several audio elements, including:

  • Jingles
  • Dialogue
  • Music
  • Voiceovers
  • Sound effects

Sponsorships

The final type of radio ad is less of an ad and more of a name mention during a segment that the business sponsors. For example, if XYZ Company sponsors the traffic segment of a local morning show, the host or traffic anchor will mention XYZ Company throughout the show whenever it’s time for the traffic.

Radio Ad Strategies

When executed well, a radio ad campaign can reach target audiences and drive conversions. Smart radio ad strategies include:

Establishing Goals

Just like TV ads (and all ad campaigns for that matter), establishing the goals you have for your radio ad campaign is step number one. Radio ads are great for repeated brand exposure, so it can be wise to use them to achieve your goal of increasing brand awareness or raising awareness of a new service or product you offer.

Remember, keep your goals SMART, or specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Targeting Audiences

There are many different radio stations, most that stick to a theme or music genre.

Common radio station formats include:

  • Classic rock
  • Country
  • Light rock
  • Pop
  • R&B
  • Contemporary Christian
  • News talk

And others.

By knowing what your audience is most likely tuning into, you can optimize your radio ads to play on specific stations to reach the right ears and inspire conversions.

Messaging

The way your message is presented in your radio ad matters. It’s one thing to announce a message through your ad; it’s another thing entirely to announce it in a catchy way that implants itself into the mind of the listener.

A jingle is one of the greatest ways to implant your brand into the minds of listeners. Simple songs and tunes are easy to remember, and associating your brand with something that is memorable and easily recallable greatly increases your likelihood of improving brand awareness or boosting knowledge of your advertised products or services. With a catchy jingle, your company can come to mind whenever the listener thinks of a line from the song or a part of the tune.

Other effective ways to get your messaging across through a radio ad is entertaining or compelling dialogue or voiceovers. Simple, catchy taglines are also easy to remember and effective at bringing your brand to listeners’ minds.

Tips for Creating a Quality Radio Ad

If you want your ad to catch listeners’ attention and come to mind weeks, months, or even years later, here are some tips for crafting a quality radio ad:

Make It Memorable

We can’t emphasize enough the value of a memorable radio ad. Even a radio commercial that a listener was seldom exposed to can come to their mind years after the ad had been removed if it was catchy enough.

Jingles

As mentioned, jingles are the most effective way to create a catchy ad, since songs are easier to remember than monologues or dialogue. And while jingles aren’t as common as they used to be, they are still seen as one of the most effective components of a quality commercial.

Examples of memorable jingles include:

  • McDonalds, I’m Lovin’ It
  • Toys ‘R’ Us, I Don’t Want to Grow Up
  • Folgers Coffee, The Best Part of Waking Up
  • Kit Kat, Give Me a Break
  • Meow Mix, Meow Meow Meow Meow…
  • Klondike, What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?
  • Huggies, I’m a Big Kid Now

And many, many more. And these are just the nationally recognized jingles. It’s likely that you can also recall some of the jingles produced by local businesses in your area. Jingles are commonly and effectively used by local car dealerships, law firms, furniture stores, and other businesses to leave lasting impressions on their target audiences throughout the service area.

Taglines

A catchy, creative tagline is another way to create a memorable radio ad that will linger in the minds of listers for a long, long time.

Popular taglines people tend to recognize include:

  • Goldfish, The Snack that Smiles Back.
  • Allstate, You’re in Good Hands.
  • State Farm, Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm Is There.
  • KFC, Finger-Licking Good.
  • Capital One, What’s in Your Wallet?
  • Dunkin Donuts, America Runs on Dunkin.

And, again, many, many more.

Keep It Simple and Clear

When recalling memorable radio ads, what is the common factor between them? Each memorable radio ad is simple and clear. The taglines aren’t overly wordy; the jingles aren’t complicated songs or overly produced musical numbers. They are all simple, which is what makes them so effective.

Even if you create an ad that does not include a tagline or jingle, it’s most effective to keep your message simple—otherwise, the listener may struggle to catch the point of the ad or not understand what the takeaway should be. Remember, the only way a person can interact with a radio ad is to listen to it; there are no visuals to help them interpret the message. You want to help them as much as you can by keeping things as simple and clear as possible.

Make It Actionable

In Middle Georgia, a personal injury law firm, Mike Hostilo Law Firm, once ran radio ads and television ads that included the same jingle, “Do yourself a favor and listen to me, call 746-M-I-K-E.” It was incredibly catchy, incredibly memorable, and incredibly actionable. If those who could (and still can) recall that jingle should ever suffer from a personal injury, chances are the only phone number they would know off the top of their heads is 746-6453.

That’s the power of a catchy and actionable ad. You want people to think of your company when they want to or need to. And with a well-crafted radio ad, you can achieve just that.

How Do Radio Ads Work Alongside Digital Ads?

Just as TV ads fit nicely in digital video ad spaces, radio ads can be used to fill digital radio ad slots.

Radio streaming platforms include:

  • Pandora
  • Spotify
  • IHeartRadio
  • SiriusXM
  • YouTube Music
  • Google Play

Plus, the audio of a radio ad can be added to a video to be posted on your website, social media pages, and other appropriate digital locations.

Billboards and Other Out-of-Home Advertising

The billboard is a classic form of out-of-home (OOH) advertising that predates television ads by just over 100 years and radio ads by just under 100 years. First appearing in 1835 New York to promote the Barnum & Baily Circus, the billboard was primarily used to announce the arrival of traveling shows or promote nearby stores.

Posters varied in size but were typically 50 square feet, and the vast majority were drawn or painted by hand. Essentially, early billboards were oversized posters that would be displayed on the side of street-facing buildings, fences, windows, and similar spaces where people on horseback, on foot, or in carriages would be able to take notice.

Gone are those days! Now, the most common size of a billboard is 672 square feet (14” H x 48” W) and can be displayed on billboard spaces that allow the ad to sit in strategic locations that are 20 to 50 feet in the air.

What Types of Billboards Are There?

There are two primary types of billboards, which include:

Traditional Billboards

A traditional billboard is your most standard billboard where one ad is printed on vinyl, aluminum, paper, PVC, or another type of material, manually installed on the billboard, and displayed until the contract between the ad company and the client ends. At the end of the contract, the ad is removed and the space is available for purchase so another company can display its ad.

Typically, traditional billboards are static, meaning only one ad is displayed for the length of the agreement. However, trivision billboards and other solutions can allow up to three ads to show sequentially, with the ads rotating after a number of seconds or minutes.

Digital Billboards

Rather than requiring ads to be printed on vinyl, aluminum, paper, substrates, or other materials and then manually installed, digital boards only require a working LED screen. The ad is uploaded to the screen’s program in whatever format is required so that the ad will display on the screen.

With digital billboards, ads can be static, but it’s possible and common for digital billboards to be dynamic, meaning multiple ads can run on the same screen at once, with the ads rotating after a number of seconds or minutes.

Less common forms of billboards include:

  • Interactive billboards – Usually digital, these billboards are displayed in a location where viewers can approach the screen and interact with whatever is on display. From brand-related quizzes to simple-to-play games, interactive billboards are effective at capturing users’ attention and encouraging audience engagement.
  • Mobile Billboards – Mobile billboards are displays that can be installed on a vehicle so that you can take your message to the streets, literally. With mobile billboards, you can determine where your ad goes and when, allowing you to target audiences at certain locations and at certain times of the day.
  • 3D Billboards – 3D billboards work to look as if the ad is coming off the screen. For traditional billboards, sculptures can create the three-dimensional effect. For digital screens, the manipulation of lights and angles can make it appear as if the display is 3D.

Other Types of Out-of-Home Advertising

So far, we have focused on billboards, but there are many additional types of OOH advertising similar to billboards that can benefit businesses, including:

Wallscapes

Popular in larger cities (think Times Square in New Yok City), wallscapes are large ad spaces on building exteriors where ads can be displayed. Spaces are typically digital boards, but it’s possible to rent traditional, non-digital spaces, as well.

Bus and Streetcar Posters

Many buses, streetcars, taxis, and other commercial vehicles provide the space to display an ad, either on the sides or the top of the vehicle. This form of advertising is most common in larger cities or areas with higher populations of people.

Bus Shelter Posters and Bench Posters

Bus shelter posters and bench posters are displayed exactly where you think they are displayed—on bus shelters and benches. These ad spaces are effective in high-foot-traffic areas like popular parks and larger cities where public transportation is commonly used.

Vehicle Wraps

Vehicle wraps help brand your company’s vehicles so that:

  1. People will know which business the vehicle belongs to.
  2. Audiences can learn about your company or business while on the road.

Vehicle wraps usually display the company’s brand, website URL, and phone number or other contact information.

How Effective Is Out-of-Home Advertising?

The most beneficial reason to use OOH advertising is for brand awareness and name recognition. According to the rule of 7, a person needs consistent and frequent exposure to a brand so that they will begin recognizing the brand’s name, logo, products, and services. Ideally, the chain of events that follows the recognition period is that those in the target audience will check out the brand’s products and/or services and make a purchase.

The reasons that many still rely on billboards and other OOH advertising options to promote businesses and offerings include:

OOH Ads Are (Typically) Large and Compelling

An effective billboard, wallscape, mural, or poster design is large, eye-catching, and draws the reader to it. Drivers passing by billboards on the highway or passersby walking through an area with wallscapes or posters aren’t necessarily going to look at all the ads in hopes that they see one that stands out. Instead, they’re going to look at the ad(s) that draw them in and probably ignore the others that failed to catch their attention.

Elements that play a part in how eye-catching an ad can be include:

  • Color Usage
  • Font Choices and Font Size
  • Content Choices
  • Layout Choices

OOH Ads Are Easy to Read

The last result you want from your OOH ad is for people to be so overwhelmed by it that they miss the message or even the brand associated with the ad. The best course of action when it comes to creating your ad is to keep it simple with clear, concise messaging.

Consider the 3-second rule. When passing by your billboard or OOH ad in a car, the driver or passengers should be able to gather all information within 3 seconds. That means your copy, layout, and design choices should all work together to create a simple and clear message that, with enough exposure, sticks in the mind of the viewer.

OOH Ads Reach Large Audiences

The most effective locations for billboard ads include high-traffic areas like major highways and interstates, popular areas within large, highly populated cities, and strategic locations within your service area where those in your target audience are likely to view the ad.

There are ways to target particular demographic(s) and strategize billboard or OOH placement to put your brand in front of the right people. Will ALL of the people who see your ad be a part of your target audience? Probably not. Nay, definitely not. But strategic placement still improves your likelihood of reaching those you want to reach and gaining repeated exposure. Plus, increasing awareness of your brand with those outside of your target audience is beneficial for word-of-mouth advertising and general name recognition efforts.

OOH Ads Promotes Brand Exposure and Brand Recall

For the length of your out-of-home advertising campaign, your ad is visible. Whether your campaign includes billboards, posters, or wallscapes, your brand and message are on display around the clock, increasing the number of people exposed to them. People who pass your ad on their daily commute will see your messaging the most, improving their likelihood of recalling your brand and focusing on the products or services you offer. But those who only occasionally pass by your ad or only encounter it once or twice are still potential customers who you can still attract to your business with an effective message and design.

Tips for Creating a Quality Billboard or OOH Ad

The goal of your billboard ad is to catch attention and send a clear message. You want it to take as few encounters as possible for people to recall your brand after exposure to your ad. Here are some tips to achieve that:

Keep The Message Simple

While pedestrians and passengers have more time to read billboards on their walk or commute, you want to consider the driver when putting your billboard or OOH ad together. Drivers only have so long to view your ad until they need to put their focus back on the road. Going back to the three-second rule, people should be able to gather the message of your ad within three seconds of viewing it. That means including as little content as possible and developing a simple design that complements the copy.

In general, a billboard ad should not exceed 6 words and should avoid long URLs, phone numbers, fine print, or unnecessary copy. In almost every case, a short and sweet slogan, tagline, or headline is enough to spark interest, be memorable, and lead to more brand awareness, serving the purpose of the ad.

Examples of simple, memorable content on billboard and OOH ads include:

Let the Design Talk

Many, if not most, successful billboard ads include designs that do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting messages across. In fact, there are plenty of ads that don’t have content on them at all. The visuals are enough to make the brand’s point. When thinking through an ad, consider how you can use the design to do the talking for you.

Examples of billboard designs that do all the talking include:

How Do OOH Ads Work Alongside Digital Ads?

In a comprehensive and cohesive ad campaign, billboard ads and other OOH advertising can complement your digital ad strategies very well. Elements, content, and messaging from your billboard ad can be used to create:

  • Display ads
  • Geofencing ads
  • Social media ads
  • Social media posts

Digital ads can easily emulate your billboard ad design to increase the likelihood of brand exposure, brand recognition, and brand recall. People who see your ad on a billboard while driving to work could also encounter the same ad when scrolling social media later, reinforcing your brand and message to that particular person in your audience or target area.

Plus, if you place a geofence around the billboard(s) or OOH space(s) displaying your ad, you can further target those who cross the fence’s boundary with geofencing ads, again further increasing brand exposure, recognition, and recall.

Print Advertising

Print advertising is one of the oldest and most reliable forms of marketing and includes the use of newspapers, magazines, direct mail, brochures, posters, and other printed materials to capture audiences’ attention on paper.

Print ads offer a lot of flexibility in terms of what a brand can advertise and what goals they can pursue with their campaign. If the goal is to increase general brand awareness, the company can use magazine ads, newspaper ads, and mailers to reach wider audiences, increase brand exposure, and attract leads. If the goal is to push a particular service or product, the company can create a more detailed campaign, targeting current customers or clients and high-value audience members with a series of mailers that promote the benefits of the featured product or service.

What Types of Print Ads Are There?

There are many types of print ads and print media outlets that companies can rely on, including:

Newspaper Ads and Magazine Ads

Image of a full-page magazine ad for Griggers Wealth Management, designed by M&R Marketing.

Newspaper and magazine ads offer an easy way to get your brand in front of audiences who engage with the publications you choose to advertise in. Your options include national, local, and regional newspapers and magazines that appeal to the interests of your target audiences and offer sections within the pages to place your ad and promote your brand.

Ad spaces are available in a variety of sizes, the most common being:

  • Full page
  • Half page
  • Third page
  • Quarter page
  • Eighth page

Depending on the extent of your message or the goal of your campaign, you can choose your ad space strategically. Ads to promote a product or service may require more space for messaging than ads that just want to promote the brand/raise general brand awareness. Larger ads also offer more room for QR codes and calls to action, promoting and simplifying the start of the buyer journey for the reader.

Direct Mail Ads

Direct mail ads are the print pieces a company sends directly to those in their target audience or to those who live within the boundaries of the company’s service area. Mailers offer a ton of flexibility and allow the space to create more detailed, compelling copy. They are also effective at pointing people to other places, such as websites and landing pages, where the company can make an even stronger pitch and further encourage conversions and sales.

There are a variety of printed mailers a company can create and send, including:

Postcards

Image of a Stratford Academy flyer designed by M&R Marketing.

Postcard ads can range in size but are usually 6” x 9” so that they stand out from other pieces of mail in the stack and offer the space to create a compelling message and attractive design to promote your brand or the products and services you want to advertise. With a strategic design, you can include phone numbers, website URLs, and QR codes, making it clear and easy for the reader to begin the buyer journey with your company.

Use postcards to:

  • Provide coupons
  • Announce a current promotion or deal
  • Advertise a new product or service
  • Announce a new location opening

And so much more.

Letters

Letters are typically 8.5” x 11” and are effective at making more detailed announcements. A company can use them to inform target audience members of all the benefits of a current promotion, deal, or new product or service. It can also employ letters to communicate with its current customer base about a change in service, a change to the company, or any other announcement that an existing customer should know.

Use letters to:

  • Announce a new promotion
  • Provide more details about a product or service
  • Inform recipients of important changes in the company
  • Announce upcoming events

And so much more.

Flyers

Image of a Sleep Practitioners flyer, designed by M&R Marketing.

Flyers are typically 8.5” x 11” like letters and are used for more promotional announcements, similar to postcards. However, flyers offer more space than postcards, allowing you more flexibility in how you push your message to the reader. While you can effectively keep your content on the minimal or general side, you can also create a flyer with more detailed, explanation-based content if the messaging calls for it.

Use flyers to:

  • Promote your brand
  • Showcase a new product or service
  • Announce a new location

And so much more.

Additional types of direct mail print pieces include:

  • Bifolds
  • Trifolds
  • Brochures
  • Catalogs

How Effective Are Print Ads and Direct Mail?

With all the digital ways to reach audiences and encourage conversions, it’s easy to assume that print ads and direct mail campaigns are not worth the time, energy, or money. However, there are numerous benefits to reaching targets through print, including:

Easy Combination With Digital Strategies

A well-thought-out print ad or mail campaign can effectively and efficiently complement your digital ad campaigns. Whether you run a social media campaign across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, launch a Google Ads strategy, or initiate an email marketing campaign, you can further target your audience with physical printed advertisements that match your digital ad messaging and point readers to your promotional spaces on online.

For example, you could include a QR code on your mailer that sends the reader to your landing page or a webpage on your site for more information. Your mailer could also include a coupon that is redeemable on your ecommerce website. You could even point newspaper and magazine readers to the website to redeem a coupon or promotional deal. The options and possibilities are endless.

Targeting Capabilities

Targeting audiences and tracking your print or direct mail campaign is not as cut and dry as targeting and tracking for digital campaigns. However, it’s still very possible (and easy) to reach the right audience members through the mail and track the performance of your direct mail campaign.

Through the USPS’s Every Door Direct Mail feature, you can evaluate specific zones and see the number of residents and businesses, as well as the average age range, household size, and household income of those who live in the zones you are analyzing.

If you have executed mail campaigns before, you can target those you’ve reached before and target new groups of “look-alike” audiences. Simply evaluate the demographics of those in your current audience and find more of the same or similar types of audience members who would benefit from receiving your ads in the mail.

Tracking Capabilities

Just like targeting, tracking mail pieces is less straightforward than tracking digital ads. But there are ways to do it. You could create a call tracking number that is unique to your mailing campaign, so you’ll know that the people who call the number received it from your mailer. You can also create a vanity URL that directs the reader to your website or landing page when the QR code is scanned or the URL is plugged into the search bar. With it, you can determine how many people accessed your site using your direct-mail-only URL.

Cost and ROI

Direct mail campaigns are fairly inexpensive to execute, and they offer a sizable return on investment. The median ROI for a direct mail campaign is around 29%. In comparison, the average ROI for a social media campaign reaches about 25%. Make it a really compelling campaign, and you’re likely to see that percentage go up.

Direct Mail Can Grab More Attention Than Email

When someone receives a postcard or flyer in the mail, they have to physically touch it and look at it to decide what to do next. In some cases, the next step is to throw the mailer in the trash. Or, the next step is to make a phone call or visit a website using the number or URL on the piece.

With email, there could be filters in place that send your email directly to the recipient’s trash folder. Or, your email could be sent to their “promotional” folder, not their primary inbox, causing the recipient to miss your email completely. Because they are physical, recipients cannot easily avoid or miss direct mail ads. Plus, ad-based emails are sent constantly and tend to clutter up inboxes and overwhelm recipients. Direct mail is less common, meaning your ad may be the only piece of mail a recipient receives that day, further increasing the likelihood of the recipient paying attention to your brand and message.

Tips for Creating a Quality Print Ad

The goal or purpose of your print ad depends on the medium you choose. While there are many different approaches per medium to make your ad stand out or be effective, many of which only work for the medium chosen, there are a few tips that can apply to the development and execution of any print ad to make it worth your time, money, and effort:

Understand the Medium

Every print ad option comes with its own pros, cons, and parameters. Understanding what those are for the medium of your choice will guide you in creating an effective message and design.

For instance, you don’t have the same content flexibility for a one-fourth-page ad in a magazine as you do a double-sided flyer that is sent in the mail. Understanding how to optimize the ad for the medium selected will enhance your likelihood of producing a quality, conversion-driving ad.

Keep the Message Clear and Concise

If you only have a small space in a newspaper or magazine to work with, you have no choice but to keep the message short, simple, clear, and concise. It can be tempting to overload a flyer or postcard with information or content because you have more usable space, but it’s important to keep your content and design as focused as possible so your message has no choice but to pop.

People thumbing through a magazine aren’t going to read every line of every ad presented. People sifting through the day’s mail aren’t going to pay close attention to every direct mail ad they receive. They will only focus on the ads that grab their attention, which are almost always the ones with clear design and messaging.

And once you grab attention, you won’t have it for very long. Your content needs to get the point across quickly to increase the reader’s likihoood of taking action after viewing the ad.

Create an Appealing Design

Your ad should include a design created to attract readers to the page, postcard, flyer, or whatever medium you’re using to promote your brand and message. The design should complement the message and vice versa to optimize the ad and draw readers in. In many successful print ads, the design does the majority of the work getting eyes on the ad and pushing the message onto the reader. When thinking through a print ad, consider how to use the design to enhance your message.

How Do Print Ads Work Alongside Digital Ads?

As we’ve mentioned earlier, print ad strategies pair well with digital ad strategies to bolster your marketing and encourage more conversions.

Print ads can easily include QR codes, website URLs, and social handles that point readers to your spaces online, giving you the chance to push them further through your marketing funnel and ultimately turn new leads into paying customers.

Additionally, just like with your billboards, you can create digital ads that emulate your print ads for a cohesive, complementary, and comprehensive digital and physical ad campaign. Elements, content, and messaging from your print ads can be used to create:

  • Display ads
  • Geofencing ads
  • Social media ads
  • Social media posts

Digital ads can easily emulate your print ad designs to further increase brand exposure, brand recognition, and brand recall. People who see your ad in their stack of mail or in a newspaper could spot a similar ad online, reinforcing your brand and message for those paying attention.

Traditional Advertising Wrap-Up

Want to reach wider audiences, push your brand further, and reel in more customers? Then you want to add traditional advertising solutions to your marketing mix. With the right strategies, your commercials, radio ads, billboards, and print ads can effectively strengthen your marketing efforts, leading to positive and lucrative results for your business. Sure, digital advertising works and it works well, but traditional ads are equally effective and easily mix with your digital solutions to elevate your brand, reach more people, and push your business further.

Ready to Optimize Your Marketing Strategies with Traditional Advertising Solutions? Call 478-621-4491 to Partner With the Ad Pros at M&R Marketing!

 

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