TimHere's a question about how to market small business in a privacy-preserving way, cunningly disguised as a blog post. I would LOVE comments and suggestions!
https://hodzilla.com/2023/07/11/marketing-that-respects-privacy/
Laura Ritchie 🌸@mindshoot if it's a local audience, is radio any good?
@lauraritchie hadn't really considered that, interesting thought. I should check if there are any really local radio stations - I'm thinking town level really, eg within a ten minute drive. Thanks, interesting!
wuerglerGood thoughts.
We should remember that with marketing, esp. advertising, it was never easy to determine "which half" was (not) wasted 😄
cf. https://staff.washington.edu/gray/misc/which-half.html
Advertising with #GAFAM may seem cheap, no effectiveness questions asked. And getting a message across is vastly different from triggering a buying decision ...
Btw, I still think the 10 years old eBay study has many enlightening aspects when it comes to paid ads.
@wuerglerit @lauraritchie I haven't come across the eBay study, would you happen to have a link to it? Sounds like it would be worth a read!
@mindshoot @lauraritchie
Here is a popularized, somewhat funny story about this, I think relating to a 2013 paper (I know I have a PDF, trying to find it and the original URL).
Its on Prof Tadelis' page: https://haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/tadelis-steven/
"Consumer Heterogeneity and Paid Search Effectiveness: A Large Scale Field Experiment. Econometrica. 2015"
Well, a paper, technical language etc. ... for me almost sufficient (from my 2013 preliminary PDF):
"Our findings suggest, however, that even incremental clicks do not translate into incremental sales."
"Nonetheless, the majority of these clicks did not result in incremental sales."
Steven Tadelis - Berkeley Haas
Steve Tadelis is a Professor of Economics and Sarin Chair in Leadership and Strategy at Berkeley Haas. His research primarily revolves around e-commerce and the economics of the internet. During the 2016-2017 academic year he was on leave at Amazon, where he applied economic research tools to a variety of […]
@wuerglerit @lauraritchie thanks, I'll dig in!
This reference to "incremental clicks" is interesting and highlights the "brand awareness" vs "we exist" distinction - we are still at the point where we are trying to create any awareness to create some initial clicks..!
@wuerglerit @lauraritchie that was a good read, thanks! Definitely thought-provoking.
The kind of marketing I'm thinking about is seeking people who know they like something (eg takeaways, Zumba or whatever) but don't know about my particular offering. Each purchase / action must have come from something specific like word of mouth, finding a website, seeing a social media post or whatever. In a local market where 99% of people have never heard of you, inefficiency isn't such a big deal.
I think you are right. Even this or other papers seem to differentiate. As long as we don't blindly believe marketing promises or focus solely on one thing.
I find it very difficult to get the message across. For me, keep friends updated without getting too intrusive is moderately helpful, as are any personal contacts. But also make customers return -> superb product/service. Often against many others who strive to be best, too.
Good luck!