Digital Screen Marketing need not be beyond the Small Business

Digital Signage and Digital Out of Home advertising (DOOH) are two of the most rapidly growing areas in the world of marketing today.

It seems that everywhere you turn, you will see a digital marketing screen: at point of sale on Camelot's Lotto terminals; beside the escalators on the London Tube network; in railway stations and shopping malls. The use and application of these screens is varied and increasing by the day.

Why is screen marketing so important?

In previous blogs, I have talked a lot about engagement, and for any business in today's economic climate, it is becoming vital that you engage with your customers and potential customers. This is nothing new, when you analyse it. It harks back to the days of the corner shop, when the shop owner used to know every customer and was able to get together their staple purchases for them before they even entered the shop - real customer service.

Direct response marketing has always been considered to be a vital part of any marketing strategy, and that direct exchange between you and your customer is the ideal opportunity for you to increase sales.

Looking back at the principles of successful market, we are always reminded of AIDA:

Attention
Interest
Desire
Call to Action

The AIDA principle is as strong today as ever, and should be ignored by any business at its peril.

Screen marketing is important because it can combine all the above in a dynamic and evocative format. It allows you, as a business, to disseminate some of your customer service principles, your key marketing messages and your direct-response advertising in an engaging way.

This is way above the budget of the small business, I hear you cry!

No; it's not. Screen marketing solutions are becoming ever-more affordable and, more importantly, more cost-effective.

I would urge any small business to examine their marketing and advertising strategies and analyse what really works for them.

Just because your competitors advertise in the local paper does not mean that you have to follow suit. What response do you get from this traditional form of advertising? What about the Yellow Pages? Always the favourite of the small business, but can you categorically state the percentage of your enquiries that come from this medium? Have you analysed the price-per-lead from these sources?

The following came through from Chris Cardell (Cardell Media) the other day:

"Have you ever wondered what the difference is between an Entrepreneur worth £200 Million and a struggling business owner who can't pay their bills?

It's not talent, genius or hard work. It's not luck. And it's not the economy.

The difference between them is actually very small. Undetectable to the human eye. We've had Duncan Bannatyne (from BBC's Dragons' Den) as a guest at a couple of our events. With the greatest respect to Duncan, I'm sure he'd agree that the difference between him (he's worth £200 Million) and the struggling business owner is not brains (he's smart but so are many of the struggling ones) and it's certainly not education (Duncan left school with no qualifications.)

I'll tell you the difference. It's their ability to use their minds effectively and think RADICALLY differently to everyone else."

Digital Screen Marketing gives you the opportunity, as a small business, to do something different that will set you apart from your competitors. Don't spend more money; just divert some of the money you currently spend on your routine marketing activities and try something new. Something that will speak directly to prospective new customers. Something that will promote your business with dynamism and in a format that will engage with the viewers. Something that will generate a response from those people who could be about to spend money, and something that will encourage them to spend that money with you.

Argent Ram Media offer a wide range of digital screen marketing solutions aimed at both the small and large business. Local advertising opportunities exist in major UK garden and leisure retail outlets and prices compare with those of local newspaper advertising. For more information, please contact Argent Ram Media on 0845 009 5396 or email design@argentrammedia.com.

Successful launch for ICE

Happy New Year Everyone!  Hope 2010 proves to be a successful year for all..

My first post of the year is a short one, and just to say how pleased we are to be members of the new ICE Business Network launched at the end of last year by the University of Kent at Canterbury:

http://www.kent.ac.uk/news/stories/successfullaunchforice/2009

We, at Argent Ram Media, have had a very successful relationship with the School of Engineering and Digital Arts at the University; a relationship that looks set to continue.

The ICE Network (Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise) is a scheme that "aims to connect local, regional, national and international businesses to the University of Kent and each other."

The University has a wealth of talent available, and any scheme that makes this talent easily accessible to the local business community is inspired.