Traditional Media Works for Local Marketing - New Study

Published October 22, 2014 | By Elaine Fogel

In a new study by Brandmuscle, hundreds of local dealers, agents and franchisees across a wide range of industries indicated that “traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio, television, yellow pages, coupons and billboards) continue to play a significant role in local marketing.”

Respondents rated their level of satisfaction with a variety of traditional marketing tactics. Surprisingly, they chose coupons as having the greatest satisfaction, with newspapers having the least. Coupons performed well in terms of overall satisfaction and were the most widely used tactic with 83% of respondents using them and 77% of those saying they were either somewhat or very satisfied with the results.

Interesting that daily deals like Groupon, had just 29% of respondents using them and nearly one in four stating they were “least satisfied” with the results. Daily deals also topped the list of tactics that affiliates felt were “too risky” (14%).

local-marketing-tactics

Other Data to Note:

Billboards: ranked well for overall satisfaction with 72% of affiliates stating that they were either somewhat or highly satisfied with the results. However, just 45% of the affiliates we surveyed use billboards. Expense is what prohibits wider adoption according to the majority (78%) of respondents.
Print: Respondents cited investments in ethnic newspaper ads, community newsletters and out-of-the-box strategies like sticky notes on newspapers as working well.
Radio and TV: 65% of respondents using television and 68% using radio were somewhat or very satisfied with the results. For the vast majority who do not use either, cost was the primary reason for avoiding them.
Direct Mail: is popular among local affiliates, with 81% using it and three out of four of those (75%) saying they are somewhat or very pleased with the results. Respondents overwhelmingly stated that direct mail is more effective at retaining existing customers than at attracting new ones. The primary reason some affiliates avoid using direct mail is cost (70%).
Local Events: captured the highest rank for overall satisfaction across all the tactics considered, with 80% of respondents stating they were somewhat or highly satisfied with the results, and 71% saying the same about community sponsorships.
Non-Traditional Advertising Methods: such as cinema ads, gas pump toppers, pizza box toppers and vehicle wraps – had fairly decent adoption (47%) but lower than average results, with just 54% of respondents saying they were somewhat or highly satisfied with the outcome.

What did respondents say about digital marketing? Overwhelmingly, affiliates feel these tactics are just “too complicated or time consuming.” However, those who use these channels are quite pleased with the results and cite the low cost to execute and ability to measure results as positives.

Most fascinating finding for me: Websites had the highest adoption rate of any digital tactics considered (72%), but it’s important to point out that while adoption is high in comparison to other tactics, it reveals that one out of four respondents still do not have a website. That’s 25%! Yikes.