Many years ago, people couldn’t imagine a Friday night without going to Blockbuster and renting a movie. Today, there are some who may read this and don’t even know what Blockbuster is. 

Are we in that Blockbuster moment? Is traditional advertising being phased out? Will we still be buying commercial ads, radio spots or print advertising in the next 10 to 20 years? 

What need would we have for traditional advertising if more companies shifted to becoming their own online “influencer”? 

Why do we use Traditional Advertising?

First, ask yourself why do we use traditional advertising? We use it because they already have the attention of a targeted demographic that you as a business would like to reach. What if you can reach that same demographic on your own?

Social media has been slowly shifting how companies reach their target demographic and now short form video (TikTok, Reels, & YouTube Shorts) is speeding up the process for those businesses that are realizing how beneficial this can be.

Now, this isn’t an easy everyone can do it moment, where you grab your smartphone record a video and your business is INSTAFAMOUS. 

It does take some understanding of online market trends, creative thinking, video production, editing, copywriting and many other skills that many people forget to mention. 

But it is a moment for businesses to begin NOW to create the content they need that will begin to reap rewards in the next 6 months to 2 years. Now, you may think that it’s too long to wait for a return on your investment. 

The Content You Create is Evergreen

The wait is unavoidable but here’s the thing that developing your own content gives you that traditional marketing doesn’t… the content that you create is evergreen. It lives on online and grows, a video that you make this month may be watched again and again years later. You can grow a following that is with you forever and once you have that following your business will reap the rewards from it. 

Unlike the results of traditional advertising, where the minute you stop paying the leads stop coming in. You instantly lose access to that audience.

It’s difficult for many non-technical owners to see what’s about to happen and many of them will probably get stuck either paying higher rates for traditional advertising or begin to pay more “influencers” to reach their targeted audience. 

The point is, if you’re a business owner, maybe it’s time to stop renting DVDs at Blockbuster and realize that there is a bigger opportunity here. The same way many people didn’t see Netflix becoming the giant that it is today. 

You as the business owner have the rare opportunity to operate differently and use digital marketing to your advantage.

Final Thoughts

It’s time to consider a change in your digital marketing. I invite you to spend two hours with me during a discovery strategy session where we’ll look into how you can use digital marketing more creatively and put your business in a position to be an influencer.