Today I’m going to talk about what every small business should know about digital billboards.
Digital billboards, for those of you that don’t know, are those screens on TVs, mainly, that you see in restaurants, hotels, etc. where there are advertisements and information. Today I’m going to talk about what every small business should know about these digital billboards.
The first is where they are located in a place matters as much as the place they are located.
They might be in the area where somebody’s walking by and focused on getting to their room, or getting to the counter to check in, and the billboard’s located on the left or the right, and the people don’t even look at it. Typically, those of us who stay at hotels, we go into the hotel, we want to check in, and when we check in, we want to go to our room.
The second thing is, unless you track it with a specific phone number or landing page on a website, you’re not going to be able to tell if it’s working. That may be a good thing for the person or company that’s selling the brand awareness concept, “Well, you’ll be out there and people will see you.” But you as small business don’t have the luxury or the budget to do much brand awareness.
Your advertising has to be focused on getting people to do business with you sooner rather than later. Generating sales should be the focus. You can try the digital billboards, but track it. Have a special phone number.
A tracking phone number is very easy to do. I could help you do that. It’s very inexpensive, but then you’ll know whether or not it’s working. If it isn’t working, don’t do it. If it turns out it is working, then that’s great. You can spend more money doing it in similar locations.
The third thing is, look around at any place and what are people staring at? Go around anywhere. These days, I don’t care where it is, and I have traveled around Central America, North America, Alaska, by train, plane, automobile, RV. I’ve been to major tourism areas across the country.
I have been around, and I can tell you without a doubt where people’s eyeballs are glued. More often than not, they’re glued to their smartphones. More often than that, they’re either texting or they’re on social media.
You have to take a look at that. If you’re lucky, they’re going to look up and look at a digital billboard, but 9 times out of 10, they’re staring at the phone. It’s hard to even have a conversation with another person, because they’re staring at their phone and their social media.
You really have to evaluate that. If you have limited advertising dollars, do you want to spend them in a medium that doesn’t necessarily get the eyeballs? Particularly at restaurants. You know it and I know it, if you’re at a restaurant you’re either talking with somebody else or you’re staring at your phone, 9 times out of 10. These are the things you have to take look at.
To summarize, what every business should know about digital billboards, particularly small businesses, is that where they are located in a place matter as much as where they are located. You need to track it with a phone number or landing page. You need to have a bunch of other things in there.
Finally, look around and see what people are actually doing with their eyeballs. Very often, they’re staring at their phones.
If you need help evaluating whether or not you should do a particular advertising medium like digital billboards, give me a call at 321‑613‑8476 or send me an email at brad@justsmallbiz.com. Thanks.
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