Episode 2.11: Multi-Channel Marketing: Integrating Digital Campaigns with Traditional Media

 I’m Janet, and I am the founder of Fat Cat Strategies. Today, I’m joined by my colleague, Caitlin Noble. Hey, I’m Caitlin. I’m kind of kind of here at Fat Cat Strategies. Janet, what are we going to dive into today? Oh, what are we talking about? Okay, today we are talking about a powerful strategy that many contractors may overlook, and that is multi-channel marketing. Now, that sounds sort of like a buzzword, but that’s why we’re here. We’re going to break it down. So what do I mean when I say multi-channel marketing? It means specifically how to blend your digital campaigns, that’s everything that’s happening on the internet, with traditional media like TV and radio. Yeah, absolutely. So if you’re listening to this and your business has already established a strong local presence in your radio scale, this episode is absolutely for you. By integrating digital and traditional media, you can seriously boost your lead generation and maximize the return on hierarchies So let’s start with the basics. Multi-channel marketing is exactly what it sounds like, where you use multiple marketing channels. And I know that sounds redundant, same words to define it, but just bear with us. So what you’re doing is you’re using multiple channels to reach your audience. So think about it. you’re gonna have them see you and encounter your business on social media. Then if they’ve signed up to receive something from you, you can send them an email. If you’ve got Google search ads running and they search on the products and services that you offer, they’re gonna see you on search ads. If you have Google display ads running and remarketing ads, when they’re checking the weather or the sports score, they’re gonna see your branded ads. When we talk about multi-channel with digital And traditional, all of that stuff that I just described was digital on the internet. With multi-channel, we’re talking about all that plus… TV, radio, even print. And I’m going to throw in there canvassing and home shows. Anywhere, events, anywhere that your prospective customers or your addressable market, and those would be homeowners in your service area, anywhere where they can encounter and interact with messages from your company, that’s what we’re talking about with multi-channel marketing. Absolutely. And if you’re just now tuning in to this series and you need to listen to an episode of We have 30 plus episodes that break down these different channels one by one. So go back, look through any, look through the titles, look through the titles, the outcomes, send me the email to Google ads. Like we’ve got that. So keep listening, but also know we do have a library of content available. But to Janet’s point, okay, today is always about the channel marketing and what we’re going to do. The key, though, is integration. You want your messaging to feel cohesive across every hashtag. Cohesion is so important. So whether somebody hears you on a radio ad or clicks your Facebook ad, You just want to make sure that they are hearing your same way your business is presented. Do you have multiple ways that you call your business? Is it roofing? Is it exterior? Is it contractors? Make sure your business is the same. Yeah, that’s the simplest thing. Yeah, the most simple thing. Right. But we’re going to talk about integration and why it’s so important to make sure it’s connected between digital and traditional. So why is that important? So that is a great question. So why bother taking this extra effort to make sure that everything is both cohesive and integrated? Well, here’s the deal. Traditional media builds awareness and credibility. If you’re on TV and radio, people are assuming that you are legit. You’re a local business and you’ve got enough money to run that ad. Yeah. I mean, TV has been around. I’m going to date myself. What are we talking about? the 50s, the late 40s, 50s. So just by having your image and message and company name broadcast into people’s living room, that’s just going to build awareness and trust that not many other things do. That and radio. Radio’s been around a lot longer. So we as humans, we’ve been sort of programmed to receive information through those two mediums. So You know, what we’re talking about is making sure that your brand messages and your brand story are consistent across all these different channels. Absolutely. And on the flip side, digital channels, which are much newer, much newer, much, much, much newer, you know, even the origin of that cat, you know, digital channels. Yes, you know, I mean, like within the last decade, but I mean, as are most marketing agencies, that’s going to dig into data, differentity, and the fast feedback. So when you combine those two, both digital and traditional, you’re going to get reach and precision. Exactly. And plus more channels equals more touch points equals more chances to convert a lead. Praise God. So let’s talk tactics. First up, what’s the line or messaging? Whether it’s a radio javel or a Facebook video ad, your tone, your brandy, and your value proposition should always be consistent. Exactly. And so, you know, if we’re going to build on this idea about how to blend digital with traditional, the next thing you’re going to want to do is use TV and radio to drive traffic to those online channels. ads and campaigns that you’ve got. So, you know, if the big shotgun approach or the giant net that you’re using to catch butterflies is radio and TV, then the more precise, I’m mixing a bunch of white metal here, the more precise weapon is going to be that digital. So if radio and TV is a shotgun, digital is, you know, a highly precise… I don’t do guns, so my metaphor fell apart. Anyway… I think you get where I’m going. So you can amplify your traditional media on social media. But Caitlin’s going to talk about that in a second. So if you’re using radio and TV to drive traffic to these online campaigns, you should always include a call to action. Visit our website for a free quote. Visit our website to download a buyer’s guide. Visit our website for a free video on how to spot if you’ve got a problem with your sighting. You’re using that broad-based media to drive people to your online asset and then you’re including a very specific call to action. And then the way you integrate that is if you’re using your TV commercial to drive people to get something specific off of your website, then you can track that traffic from that channel with a custom URL or a promo code. So if your TV commercial is saying, hey, we’ve got a kitchen remodel design guide that’s free that you can download from our website, then the URL that you promote on your TV commercial is going to be a trackable URL so you can see how many people came to that URL from your TV commercial. And that’s that bridge between digital and traditional. Absolutely. So, on to that note, you know, you’re allowing your message already through your tone, your branding, the value of your company is. You’re doing this through TV and radio. You’ve got that J-will. You’ve got that commercial spot. You’ve got to also use social media. People are using that as a way to stalk who you are as a business to, I’m going to sift you out. Yeah, sift you out. And, Vicki, one thing, like, okay, I mean, and it’s like my mom, you know, she’s coming up listening to this, but, like, she’ll go check out, you know, a business on Facebook before she goes to their website. And, you know, I feel like both of our, like… So she starts on Facebook and then ends up on the website. Yeah. I mean, I think, like, that’s what she, quote, unquote, searches. I mean, she’s 61 years old. And I think for a lot of us, I’m going to Google. If I fear a business name, I’m going to do it in Google and just Google that. My 61-year-old mother uses Facebook as her search engine. So if she were… Let’s leave contractors on the table for just a second to make a sillier hypothetical scenario. If your mom wanted to get her nails done, she’s going to open up her… iPad probably is what she’s got. She’s going to, launch Facebook and search for nail salons in Facebook before she goes. Absolutely. Okay. So, yeah. And, but like, they have friends like, yeah, what’s a lavish nails. She would, I mean, she wouldn’t even mind has to search. She would type in lavish nails and then go check out what they’re saying on social. And then maybe after that, go to their website. She has to be playing it. If she can do it all there on social media, she’s got to just do it all on social media. Yeah. So that really drops the point home about, and Exactly. to show for PPC as well. I mean, every PPC campaign, you should absolutely be mentioning the same offer that you’re mentioning on radio, on TV, on social media. Make sure it’s all aligned. So to James’ point, if someone hears you, hears your business name, they are seeing consistent messaging. Yeah, and I’m kind of getting in the weeds with like a technical setting, but if you really wanted to dive deep into the integration, you know, we’ve had clients ask us to have settings on their Google search campaigns to be timed, you know, inside with when they know they’re running TV style. it was increased. Yeah, increased. So you make sure if somebody sees your ad while they’re watching a television program, whether it’s on, you know, major broadcast network and you’re doing it through a local affiliate or whether you’re doing it through streaming, which I’m going to tease the next episode of our podcast where we’re talking about streaming and OTT. So like, The lines are getting blurred, but on the Google PPC, those are paid ad search front, the search front, you know, think about the other places where your target audience could be hearing your message and make sure that your ads are optimized to show up when somebody says, sees your TV ad and then picks up their iPad and searches on your company name. Yeah, I think that’s going to make the whole experience. The experience does purport better. I mean, especially for, we’ve talked about this in previous episodes, your call center. Like you’re not having like mixed messaging on all these different channels. So then when somebody from the call center enters the zone knowing, hey, I heard a $1,000 off offer, the call center is like, What? We had a 50% installation going on. Make sure it’s all the same. Yes. Integrated. Yeah, integrated. That’s the whole point of this. So we always talk about the power of social proof. If you’re not a favorite online reviews, make sure you’re featuring them. I think this is another part of just making sure you’re supporting and following up on the different ways you’re using that multi-channel marketing. So take those online reviews online. Make sure you’re featuring them on TV and radio stats and send people to your website to read more. So social proof is huge. You can use that TV, radio, your video reviews online, even other places that you can show those reviews as well. So if you’re running ads on the local sports talk radio, you know, just make sure to include in your ad script. Hey, we’ve got check us out on Google. We’ve got 325, you know, five star reviews. Just let your audience know in those traditional channels about what people are saying about you online and tell them how to go find that information. So also let’s talk about follow up. So if we’re talking about bridging this gap between traditional and digital media, email marketing is a great way to connect with leads captured from your digital campaign so you can continue the conversation. And I’m going to add text messaging into this. So if you have a compelling enough offer on your website or in your marketing to capture someone’s contact information whether that is email or text, then that’s another bridge between traditional and digital where you can put those folks into a nurture campaign to continue that conversation. Absolutely. And this is a no-brainer. If you’re already as sophisticated as, you know, we’re making it up. If you’re writing TV, you’re running radio ads, you’re online running TPC ads, you’ve got a great website, please make sure you’re tacking everything. Google, even Linux. You’ve found out it. You’ve got to have it. Use that to track the source of the traffic coming to your website. TV, radio, they’re going to also want to make sure that they’re integrated with your Google Satellites. In case they are, they can make sure. If they don’t, that’s probably a problem. And I’m going to Yeah. Yeah. what converts dashboard which by the way can also send that information into the crm that you’re using the crm of your choice so when we’re saying track everything we’re saying track every phone call track every text track every uh web web form submission and do it with technology that the customer is it’s frictionless for the customer they’re just calling what they think is your number but you’ve just captured the source and channel of where that phone call came from did it come from Or did it come from your Google My Business profile? Or did it come from an LSA ad? So there are really cool software platforms and technology out there to allow you to track everything. And then you’re able to play back to that multi-channel marketing. And while we say do all of it, integrate it all together, you are able to then weigh, okay, this is working better than the other thing with the right tracking. tools and advice. Let’s talk about case study. Yeah, let’s give this some real world context. One of our clients recently ran a seasonal promotion using a true multi-channel approach. Yep. They had two days radio ads for any of their local market. Okay. I was at the gym and saw one of those radio ads. I want to see you see a radio ad. I was at the gym and I saw even the local TV ads. So they were running TV and radio ads throughout the local market, directing people to a landing page. But even on this television ad, there was a QR code that sent them to the landing page. So you could see it right there at the gym. It’s standard. You didn’t have to type in. And the URLs get to that page with a one-in-a-time offer. Yeah, that’s right. And then this client that we’re working with, they also supported that campaign with PPC. Those are paid search ads. They supported it with social media posts that were all on the same topic, consistent messaging, and follow-up email series. And they even retargeted people who visited their site after seeing the ads but didn’t convert. So they are really blanketing the zone you know, with, with this message and this promo offer across multiple channels. Absolutely. I mean, and honestly, like to no surprise, the result was a huge spike in website traffic. Um, a noticeable, a noticeable fault in both consultation. So like they had more and more appointments and it all worked because it worked out. And dude, I think we’re like, we’re be, be, remiss to not tell the story about a dear friend who always referenced that triangle. Yes. Yes. Like the online offline showroom triangle. Yes. I think like that’s also another part of this integrated digital strategy is we have, you know, let’s use yours for you. Yeah. So honestly, I always like to give credit where credit’s due, you know, Fat Cat has been in business almost 25 years. We weren’t always totally focused on home improvement. In the early days, we just served small to medium sized businesses here in our local market. And then we met an amazing human being that was running a one day bath company that grew from one location to seven locations and 185 employees across three states. He ended up selling his business to a very well known name in this industry that is become a dominant player. And I personally learned so much from working with that client who is now also a friend as his business skyrocketed. And he always talked about this triangle and the triangle is online, offline. And with baths, you know, you’ve got a showroom. I know not a lot of roofers, they may not have a showroom. So some of you may not have showrooms, but the point was you’ve got your traditional showroom TV and radio. Then you’ve got online, which is everything that we talk about on this podcast. And then that third level, that third leg of the triangle could either be a showroom or it could be your canvassing. It could be your event game. It’s your human to human in-person contact. And the idea of this triangle is that you just devote time. Right. Right. Adam, because maybe somebody saw your television commercial five times and then they walked by your booth at a home show before they decided to fill out a form on the website. And when they did fill out that form on the website, our tracking software attributed it to a PPC ad. That is a multi-channel campaign. You’ve built exposure and then you finally converted them. So I think I’m done talking about this. I was sitting here thinking like, you know, that is truly amazing. the multi-channel market. Like, that is, like, yes, that’s multi-channel marketing. If you’re driving people through Routini, through print postcards, through canvassing paid ads to come to your showroom and see your product in person, I mean, that’s multi-channel. Yes. So, um… I think there’s a lot of great takeaways. I would say the more light your lesson, the more that you’re going to see. And if you want help, Figured out how to make it all work. We’re here. That’s what we’re here. We have an awesome opportunity for you guys. We have a reactivation campaign. Perfect for all the agreement contractors who want to generate new projects for enhanced customers without having to chase these cold leads. So you’ve done this long feature already. You’ve spent $100,000 on the LPC campaigns and you’ve generated a bunch of leads. Let’s reactivate them. So if you go to fatcatchstrungies.com backslash reactivate, you can learn more about this awesome campaign for our listeners. Yeah, we’re super excited about it. So next week, what are we talking about? We are going to continue this conversation about traditional media and how it’s evolving because it is. Yes. And now when people talk about TV… A lot of times they’re talking about streaming. And for you contractors out there that want to get in front of homeowners, streaming is daily. Daily. Daily. We’ve got a two-year age gap, but we’re both streaming. Oh, yeah. Everybody’s streaming. Ain’t nobody got rabbit ears anymore. Let’s see when you’re old. Okay, fine. Your mom wins. But then she’s going to search on Facebook. Yeah. Here. So next week, what we’re talking about is this evolution of television as it pertains to advertising. And we’re going to be talking about streaming platforms and how you can get your message on those platforms. It’s called OTT or over the top advertising, and it can be integrated easily and seamlessly into your digital strategy to maximize your reach, boost credibility and convert more leads. Yes. Thank you so much again for joining us for another episode. If you are loving it, Don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review. Until then, keep building smarter and working smarter.