By Brittany O’Connor, Digital Marketing Manager, Bad-Adz Inc.

For those of you who still rely on printed mailers to tell your story, we’ve got news for you: the majority of those mailers are going to directly in the trash instead of your customers’ hands.

Now, I know that statement is quite disheartening but the goal here is to try and save you from wasting your hard-earned dollars. Put your money where your ROI is! And on that note, welcome to digital marketing and advertising!

For many of you, you’ve probably started dabbling in digital marketing and advertising in some way. You may have an email program, social media program and/or interactive website – all great starts! To make them work to their fullest potential, you need to be strategic with how you use them.

Where do you start? Know your market. Based on your industry and demographic, focus your efforts on where you will see the best engagement. Specific industries perform better on certain platforms. For example, Twitter is not where it’s at for engagements if you’re a retailer. People aren’t shopping on Twitter. But, if you’re a news outlet or a public figure, you’re sure to get the engagements.

Now, for those of who you say, “I have an older customer base and they don’t use technology”, we’ve got more news for you: they are more tech savvy than you think. A January, 2017 study, Social Media Fact Sheet, done by Pew Research Center, reports that 61% of 50-61 year olds and 36% of 65+ year olds use Facebook. That data increases year over year which tells us one thing: the older demographic is becoming more tech savvy. What’s more? 7 in 10 Americans are already using social media and digital platforms – why miss out on them while trying to cater to only a portion of your customers?

Pro tip: Educate your customers on this digital transition. Begin announcing your digital initiatives in-store, on your current printed mailers, and more. Start the awareness now so that they are ready for the future. Begin reducing the amount of print and amping up your digital but don’t abandon the print altogether. Give your customers time to adjust but impress upon them that you are growing and changing – for their benefit and for yours.

Another reason to substitute digital for print? Analytics. When you distribute a printed mailer, how do you know who opened it? How do you know who even received it? You don’t. When you deploy digital advertisements, you can see your engagement rates in black and white. Through analytics, you are able to make educated decisions on how to create your content based off of performance of past deployments. Knowing what your audience likes and as importantly, what they don’t like, grows your brand, industry position and ultimately, your success.

There are so many ways and reasons to jump on the digital bandwagon and there’s no time like now to do it. The most important thing? Know your audience. Knowing your audience is half the battle because once you do, then comes the fun part – creating content.