To succeed in business, you need to make as many sales as possible and make a decent profit from those sales. That’s not going to happen if you don’t advertise, but throwing out a lot of advertising on its own is not enough. In fact, doing this could be detrimental to your business because you’re wasting your marketing budget trying to appeal to people with no interest in and no need for what you’re selling.
Because of this, it’s crucial you undertake in-depth market research. This will tell you who your target market is, which means you can create marketing that appeals to them. It also means you can work out where to place that advertising, so they are most likely to see it.
This is just as important as anything else. If you put your ads in the right places, you’ll find they will help you bring in a lot more customers than if you put them somewhere no one (or at least not the people you’ve identified as your target market) will see them.
If you need to appeal to commuters, for example, there are some excellent places you can put your advertising and use your marketing budget to ensure those commuters see it. Read on to find out more.
Billboards
Billboards are an excellent way to market to commuters, whether they are driving, taking the bus, or even on a train. As long as your San Diego billboard is installed in the right place, you can guarantee that thousands of people are going to see it every day.
Imagine you are driving to work along a highway; you’ll know there are billboards on either side. Pick a spot where a lot of traffic tends to congregate, and those drivers will easily and safely be able to read your message.
Placing your billboards in train stations is another great idea. Thousands – possibly hundreds of thousands – of people will walk by every day, and if they are waiting for a train, they’ll be a captive audience where they will read your billboard over and over. They might even take action there and then go to your website or make a phone call.
Social Media
Commuters will use social media often on their journey to and from work unless they are driving, of course. Even so, without the driving commuters, you still have a lot of people who will be keen to see something interesting and different on their social media feeds as they scroll through while sitting on a train or a bus (or waiting for that train or bus to arrive).
Commuters will use any social media platform, including Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or perhaps LinkedIn. You won’t want to advertise on all of these platforms because they will all appeal to different people, and your target market is probably not going to be using all of them on a regular basis. Plus, you’ll need to come up with different ads for each social media platform, and that is costly and time-consuming. It’s better to choose one or two platforms where – through your market research – you know your specific demographic spends their time.
Make sure the ad really stands out so that as people are scrolling through their feeds, they don’t just pass over yours without even seeing it. Make it eye-catching and different and they’ll pay a lot more attention.
Video Or Music Streaming Services
People love to be entertained on their commute, and many will turn to music or video streaming services to keep them occupied. Drivers will use music, but those on trains and buses will be able to use both types of service. If you can create an ad that will be placed on those services so that listeners and viewers hear and see them between their songs and in the middle of videos, you can’t fail to be noticed.
Again, knowing who your target market is is crucial because you’ll be able to determine which types of songs or videos are best to advertise around. Plus, you can make sure the ad itself fits in with what the listener or watcher is happy to engage with. Although you’ll technically be interrupting their streaming experience, if you can make the ad as engaging as possible, it won’t matter, and people will enjoy your marketing as much as their other entertainment.
Email Marketing
If they can, many commuters will try to get a head start on their work when they are on the train, for example. It makes sense if they have enough time to get a task out of the way; they won’t have so much to do when they get to the office.
With this in mind, it’s highly likely a lot of people will check their emails. In fact, even if they don’t do any other work, they’ll easily be able to read and respond to emails through their mobile phones. So why not send them an advertising email? They will have needed to sign up for this, of course, but if they have, you can connect with them at a time when they are more likely to want to read your email.