Electronic Billboards vs Digital Marketing: Where Should I Spend My Advertising Dollars?

Thinking about trying out an electronic billboard to boost your marketing efforts?

Electronic billboards are quickly replacing old-fashioned billboards as the method of choice for getting the attention of commuters. Especially in high-tech markets like San Francisco and Austin, these have become an important part of spreading brand awareness.

Many companies adopt an electronic billboard or two in order to show their connection with the local community. In some rare cases, however, smaller enterprises might find themselves making the choice between beefing up digital marketing or snagging a good billboard.

Before you plunk down big money on an electronic billboard, let’s look at the pros and cons of each.

Electronic Billboard: A New Twist on an Old Classic

An electronic billboard is distinctive because, unlike a conventional billboard, it exclusively uses digital imagery. Digital technology makes the images crisp and vivid so they can be seen at a greater distance and in a variety of lighting conditions. It also gives the billboard’s owner and users greater versatility in how they choose to optimize the space.

PRO: It Gives Your Brand Local Flair

One of the most effective billboards around stands outside the office of Yahoo! at 100 5th Street in San Francisco. Poised just ahead of where the road dips, it reads: “It’s all downhill from here.” Noticing it for the first time, people actually laugh out loud.

An electronic billboard works like nothing else in giving your business a sense of place. And since you can submit a range of messages for different situations, people feel like they’re really interacting with your brand based on what’s going on around them.

This is great for getting attention, especially in desirable, upscale areas.

PRO: It Helps Raise Brand Awareness

Prior to looking at that billboard, most people aren’t thinking much about Yahoo! (except maybe to wonder where it went.) Billboards foster brand awareness, especially among locals who travel the same route to and from work every day.

This leads to some nifty possibilities. Are you recruiting for challenging positions? Consider grabbing time on an electronic billboard on a route to and from competing companies. Over the days and weeks, your message will start to stick.

CON: It Might Not Translate to Sales

Unfortunately, brand awareness doesn’t always translate to sales. After all, look at the major market for billboards today: Lawyers. The law firms who purchase billboards know that 99% of those who see the message won’t have any need for it within the next six months. The bet is that, after seeing the message over and over, they will know who to call when they finally do need it.

Some B2C billboards might get a trickle of immediate sales, but in B2B, it’s awareness only.

CON: It Lacks Transparency

An electronic billboard will let you know when and how long your message was active for, but you’ll have no idea how many people saw it – let alone how many will ultimately act on it in a day, a week, or a month. It can be almost impossible to figure out your ROI.

CON: It Has a Higher Upfront Investment

Renting a billboard is a major expense: It’s not unusual to spend $4,000 or more per month. An electronic billboard can be more granular, since you have the opportunity to share it with other “tenants,” but the combination of cost and unclear return scares off many buyers.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing consists of a wide range of techniques, including content marketing and pay per click (PPC) advertising. Inbound marketing is digital marketing that builds relationships throughout the buyers journey using helpful and informative Web content. In general, it’s the most effective long-term strategy for cultivating an online following that grows the bottom line.

PRO: You Can Turn Traffic Into Qualified Leads

As soon as commuters drive past your billboard, it’s out of sight and out of mind. On the other hand, every aspect of your digital marketing can be aligned with your sales funnel. Once you’ve optimized your digital strategy, a significant portion of visitors will become qualified leads you can contact by email or phone – making it far harder for them to simply slip away.

PRO: You Can Monitor and Improve Results

Digital marketing offers a tremendous amount of visibility into what results you’re getting and when. By taking stock of how visitors behave and convert, you can ensure you are getting every advantage possible from your online presence. No matter how well you do, there are always improvements you can still make – and data points the way to them.

PRO: You Can Control and Focus Investments

Once you’ve leased time on a billboard, the money is gone. The investment might yield no results for a good six months. Even once it does have an effect, you’ll be hard-pressed to trace leads to billboards. On the other hand, modern analytics let you determine the provenance of virtually every online lead, so you can invest your online marketing spend in the platforms that produce results.

CON: There’s a Significant Learning Curve.

The biggest problem with any form of digital marketing is that it takes a while to figure out. Some digital tools, such as paid traffic, can be enormously dangerous to smaller enterprises that go in without the right information, potentially costing them thousands. Most techniques, such as content marketing and SEO, entail little risk but won’t deliver results without the proper knowledge.

Used right, a digital billboard can be an exciting addition to brand awareness and PR. When all is said and done, however, only digital marketing has the potential to attract potential customers at the very moment they express an interest in your products or services.

Companies that are already drawing great business and want to demonstrate their brand values or their local connection can get a lot of traction through billboards. Those that want to draw targeted attention from broader demographics – like enterprise decision-makers distributed nationwide – should make digital marketing their top priority.