When you advertise to draw in customer awareness, you're likely using outdated methods to try to stand out among your competition. Learn 3 reasons why your method of advertising isn't working for your business, and how you are actually costing yourself customer retention.

Customers Don't Seek Companies in Print Anymore

Its true-most customers will turn to the Internet to do their research on a company, and printed advertisements like flyers, coupons, and full-page ads don't catch their attention. In fact, if you're spending more time and money on nabbing a front-page ad in the paper or a billboard sign than you are on your website or social media outlets, you're likely losing customers rather than gaining them.

Television Ads are Annoying and Unpredictable at Best

Not only are TV ads costly to purchase, they have to play a number of times to get your customers to pay attention to them. On average, your customers have to see your cheesy TV ad 4 times before they even pay attention, and by then they have already looked at your competitor's amazing website, app, blog or other inbound marketing efforts and gone with them instead. You also have no control over when your ad actually airs on TV, so you may be paying money to have your customers never even view your ad. This is why traditional advertising doesn't work and how you are actually costing yourself customer retention.

Print, TV, and Billboard Ads are Costly

According to FT.com, the US television industry declined for the first time since the recession. Spending fell 6% and industry executives attribute it to new digital avenues of advertising. Read the full article here.

The US television industry has just suffered the first decline in early advertising-buying since the recession. At this year’s upfront market – the summer sales process in which networks typically sell about two-thirds of their commercial inventory to big brands for the coming TV season – spending fell 6 per cent to $18.1bn, according to Media Dynamics estimates. This is the first annual drop in upfront ad sales across broadcast and cable networks since 2009.

Broadcast spending was hardest hit, down 7.7 percent, while for cable the drop was 4.7 per cent. Industry executives attribute part of the fall to the new digital competitors that are starting to steal market share from TV.

For what you get out of your old-school advertisements, you spend a lot more money than you need to. You likely spend thousands of dollars a year hoping to grab customers when your customers are trying to find you online. In other words, you are spending money just to see your own ads in print, and not reaching your customer base like you should.

When it comes to advertising the right way, you should look less towards the traditional methods of reaching customers and think more about social media, website advertisements, and ads that will place you in front of new customers when and where they are looking. TV is out while the Internet is what's grabbing consumer awareness, and the sooner you understand what really works the sooner you can start nabbing new customers. When you know why traditional advertising doesn't work, you can actually start making a profit and spending your marketing and advertising dollars more wisely.

Let us help you advertise and market the right way. You'll get more return for your money, create a better brand for your company, and retain a broader customer base than ever before. Where you've been failing, we can help you succeed, and where you've been advertising successfully, we can show you really how to make your company known. When it comes to small businesses, we know advertising best. Contact us today and see how we can help your business succeed in a whole new way.