Call me cliché, but February is giving me, and my team the feels…for old school media.
Okay, I get it. Some of you may be a little taken aback that we consider TV, newspapers and radio old school, but the numbers don’t lie.
The rise of cord-cutters and cord-nevers is reaching unheard-of levels, and predictions have those individuals totaling 48 million in 2020. The numbers are more staggering for newspapers. One study in 2018 found only two percent of teenagers read a newspaper on a regular basis. Yikes. Just yikes.
Given all that, why do these traditional forms of media still deserve your love in your marketing mix? Excellent question. We’ve got three reasons why you shouldn’t count traditional media out.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Smart marketing is about showing up and showing out. Local news coverage, whether it’s broadcast, a newspaper website, blog or a social media shout-out is more valuable to your brand than ever before thanks to SEO. To ensure people are driven to credible content, Google started giving more preference to original reporting, not only making it more prominent, but also making sure these stories stay at the top of news searches longer. Hello page one!
- Maximizing Exposure
- Local media outlets (and national media outlets, for that matter) no longer have to rely on one platform to effectively reach their audiences. Now, local TV, radio and newspapers rely on highly trafficked websites, social media, YouTube, newsletters and more to maximize the content they put out – I mean really what will they think of next (TikTok). Yes, I follow thanks to one of my valuable trend-setter team members.
- Return on Investment
- Telling your story to local media and getting it covered results in major return on investment. Why? It’s a miniscule fraction of the cost of paid media, and it means so much more. That’s right. When we talk traditional media and telling your story, we’re talking about earned media coverage. This type of coverage creates like and trust with customers and brand awareness. Absolutely priceless. We’re not selling people, we’re telling a story, your story. And it’s an important story that people need to hear.
If you’re having trouble figuring out how to cut through the clutter with your story or don’t know where to start when it comes to contacting local media, reach out to your McKeeman team. We absolutely LOVE a good story. And that good story loves your business, thanks to SEO.