You’re walking down a busy street and stop to look around you. What do you see? Most likely, everyone around you is fixated on their phones. This scene is just a by-product of the digital age we are currently living in. Everything is now online, at the touch of your fingers.  Just last year, adults spent 8 more minutes a day on their phones than they spent watching TV- the first time this has ever happened. On top of that, 24% of the user’s mobile time is taken up by social network apps. Those people pointing their phones at their face aren’t checking their makeup, they are taking Instagram selfies. Those people dancing in the street aren’t practicing for their next performance, they’re making a TikTok. Our world doesn’t look like the game TRON, but it might as well as we use our phones to find what to eat, what to listen to, how to dress, and even to a degree what to think. This is how people live nowadays.

Companies of all sizes are quickly realizing that they can’t keep relying solely on traditional radio, print, and cable channels to market their brand. Living through a pandemic has also exacerbated the tendency to consume content strictly on digital platforms. This is where digital marketing comes in. SurveyMonkey reported that marketers expect to increase their special media spending by 89% by 2022. Per HubSpot, Facebook and Google Search advertising are two paid channels with the highest return on investment (ROI). Businesses reach a greater amount of consumers online and via social media by strategically targeting their consumers and by measuring the results of digital ad campaigns. 

Digital marketing is relatively untapped here in Hawaii (by “mainland standards). We see and hear a lot of ads on KSSK or while watching KHON at 6 (go Joe!), but we don’t really see as many online ads for Hawaii businesses while reading a New York Times article or scouring Facebook or Instagram. It is important for businesses, especially local ones, to leverage the power of digital marketing. Williams Sonoma reportedly saw a 70% increase in mobile sales by using Google Ads for its mobile advertising. Google Analytics is a good first step. Analytics lets businesses and individuals track who is coming to their website, who is viewing their ads, and what led people to their website or ad, among other things. This way, businesses can look at the data to create new targeted campaigns and optimize sales. Pretty powerful stuff, right?

There are an abundance of historic, older companies here in Hawaii. These companies have experienced the power of traditional marketing in the past, but might struggle today to transition their marketing efforts to digital channels. That’s where we come in. Let’s take Kualoa Ranch for example; they’ve been in operation for the past 100+ years. Being such a well-respected company in Hawaii, Kualoa continues to blossom due in part to word of mouth (or word of Hollywood!). You can’t live in Hawaii and not know of Kualoa, but in order to attract visitors and those who might not be aware of them, we ran Facebook and Google ad campaigns to fill their newly created tours. We used retargeting and targeted west coast travelers.  After our digital marketing campaign, Kualoa experienced a 44% increase in revenue compared to the same time the previous year. By just reminding people who had already come to the website (retargeting) and leaning on their already largest visitor segment (west coast visitors) we were able to achieve new revenue growth.  

Tip: Look at where most of your current revenue comes from and see how you can leverage digital to grow it even more.  If you’re not using retargeting in your e-commerce strategy, try it out for a few months and let us know your results.

Nowadays, it simply isn’t enough to get your company name out there. Airing a catchy slogan or buying out a full page ad in the newspaper won’t help optimize sales or help a business get a better understanding of their consumers. Marketing Charts found that 30-40% of TV ad viewing occurred at the same time as mobile device usage. We’ve had clients say they use print to target the older demographic, which is nice, but even tutu has a Facebook now. According to Statista, the average age of a Facebook user in the US is 40.5 years old...GET IT AUNTY!   

You want to know that what you’re spending on marketing will hopefully lead to greater ROI. In this sense, digital marketing is smart marketing. 48% (almost half!) of social media users have bought something after seeing an ad. Transitioning to digital marketing may pose a steep learning curve at first, but it might just be the best decision you’ll make for your company. 

Disclaimer: DAY 33 totally does media buying for our clients on TV, radio, and print sometimes. We measure the results of all those. We’re not saying to not value those channels at all. They all have their specific value and if only running on one medium on wednesday is working for you, then by all means do you bubu. We only want to introduce another avenue for you to use that might even be ROI positive, cheaper, and bring more value to your company.  Email all comments and questions to rob@day33.com

Day 33 is a Honolulu-based, full-service growth agency helping companies both big and small grow revenue and profit through strategic digital marketing. Figuring out how to grow and optimize your business? Check out our services and see how we can help!