John Heenan

Chief Marketing Officer

RP3 Agency rp3agency.com

I recently had a conversation with the CEO of a digital firm whose mission was to improve consumer engagement with their brand through the online experience. That’s good and important because there are over 200 million people online in the US, and his work was comprehensive and outstanding.

But the conversation went south when he said, “I told my client, don’t waste your money with online advertising. I can take that $5 million and build an incredible online experience.” I thought to myself, “If you build it will they come?”

There is clearly a “digital divide” within our industry. An incredible online experience is important but not if you don’t get people to ‘experience’ it. Does that happen organically? Can you do that through SEO, WOM or social media? Will that happen if your site appears on FWA? Maybe, but not likely.

Traditional Delivers… Fast

Can you do it with traditional marketing tactics? Yes and fast. For one client we recently increased site visits and subscribers by 250% using a combination of on- and offline tactics, with a modest budget, in four months (and the site was no award-winner but we didn’t build it).

Another client was ‘sold’ a best-in-class website from a well-known digital agency for a super-sized fee, replete with wiz-bang widgets and whistles, “absolutely critical” to lead the industry and leap-frog the competition. If only it were that simple.

Advertising agencies have a wider view of their client’s needs. And, they have a more comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior. It is true that time spent on the internet searching, friending, and sharing is increasing, but even more time is spent in the analog world for almost every consumer segment. According to most studies, people go through a behavioral process of need recognition, discovery, and decision making that occurs in the analog as well as the digital world.

Digital Alone Won’t Fill the Sales Funnel

Remember the classic sales funnel; awareness, interest, comparison, and purchase, then referral and repeat purchase? A website alone won’t bring the requisite quantity of qualified prospects into the funnel but it certainly can help move them along the route. Cool widgets have great appeal to build interest  with certain sub segments but don’t do well to convert the playful into a customer. Don’t get me wrong. These are all great tools but alone don’t make great marketing.

A cool website can be an important part of a marketing strategy just like a great retail experience or exemplary customer service. An engaging app or clever widget is helpful to keep the brand front and center but can’t stand on its own. The only thing missing is the customer. That’s where the new generation of advertising agencies has it all right. They know how to find and deliver customers on- and off line to experience and engage with all these new tools and techniques. And they know how to pre qualify, retarget, follow up, and strategically move the customer down the path to success.

Agencies Can Improve

Can advertising agencies improve? Absolutely. Many have lagged behind the development of new technologies and techniques. Some cling to the past for fear of what the future has in store. In this post recession era there is a new generation of agency that straddles the digital divide bringing best practices of the past together with the most promising of today’s techniques.

The new generation advertising agency provides greater value and more efficiency to marketers who may have brought on specialists from digital firms before. Marketers are more likely to look for new agency partners with a comprehensive skill set to free up their time and resources for the other Ps.

We always hope that the customer experience, once they arrive, is top notch, and we eagerly work with clients to ensure it is so.  And we seek new ways of engaging customers through apps, widgets, social tactics, events, viral, combined with traditional tactics built around a powerful creative idea and a sound consumer-centric strategy focused on business results. I’m sure there are digital agencies that do the same, right?