For several decades television has been one of the most coveted, and expensive, advertising mediums. One of the primary reasons for this has been the notion that putting an ad on TV would represent the height of prestige for any company or brand. When the internet burst onto the scene, the banner ad began to compete with TV, and this kind of ad gained its own prestige in the internet world. But both of these kinds of advertising would fail the small business by “broadcasting” the company’s message to too wide an audience. In contrast, there is a school of thought which says that the average small business owner should look to “narrowcast” instead of broadcast. They should look to target their prospects, and deliver the advertising message to those prospects only. Here we will take a look at some of the benefits of narrowcasting.
Narrowcasting Costs Less and Allows Greater Customization
Though your business will need to spend time and money on conducting and purchasing research regarding your prospects, you will more than make up for the costs by marketing only to the demographic which is most likely to purchase your product or service. For example, if your company offered floral arrangements, would you rather send an email blast to 50,000 businesses in the state, or send a targeted informational newsletter to just the funeral homes, realtors, and gift shops in the area? This example highlights the principle of narrowcasting succinctly. It saves money and allows greater message customization.
Narrowcasting Increases Response Percentage
One of the most important aspects of a marketing campaign is response. Response can be considered the percentage of people who received your marketing message and opened themselves to hearing more about your offering. Response can be quantified in calls, email captures, or other metrics. Narrowcasting effectively circumvents those who are unlikely to be interested in your offering, focusing on those who would be the most likely. Receiving a hundred calls from “shoppers,” or people who are just curious about your offer but don’t want anything, could be very demoralizing. Narrowcasting helps you target buyers.
Narrowcasting Increases Conversions
In addition to giving you an increased response percentage, narrowcasting your advertising message is likely to increase conversions. This is because not only are the prospects who reply to your ad more likely to be interested in buying, but those who are not willing or able to buy now are great prospects for follow-up sales efforts in the future. Narrowcasting effectively helps your company build a base of current customers, and a pipeline for future conversion.
Narrowcasting Applies to Every Advertising Medium
Years ago a TV ad would have had to conform to a very limited number of TV channels and programs. Then, the advent of the internet and the banner ad improved on this weakness somewhat, but still casted too wide a net. Now, with millions of niche webpages and online productions, advertisers can narrowcast by running their ads on the specific websites that their target demographic is using, and during the exact time they are most likely to be paying attention. The same goes for the proliferation of radio and television channels and programs. When mailing, purchasing an accurate mailing list allows direct mail marketers to narrowcast to their target demographic, and email marketers may do the same by purchasing highly targeted opt-in email lists.
