IMPRESSIONS VS ENGAGEMENTS

Once upon a marketing plan, there lived a term. This term was often the center of attention and almost always part of conversations about marketing strategies and objectives. People would fantasize about this term, hoping and dreaming for it in great quantities. And, for the longest time, many people were even willing to pay good money to get it. Its sheer presence instilled confidence in the hearts of those in charge of media dollars. And, in the right amount it was a perfectly acceptable ROI.

Can you guess the term? Here’s a hint: It’s a term that came about in the late 14th century. Back then it meant “an image produced in the mind.” The old French meaning, however, is a bit more forceful—”a pressing, crushing, a pressing on the mind.”

If you’re still at a loss, that’s probably a good thing. Because these days it’s probably better for marketers to forget the term ever existed and ignore it altogether. But, for the sake of clarity, the term is “impressions.” And here’s the thing about impressions. Money can buy them. But they may or may not be real.

A billboard on the side of the road can theoretically generate as many impressions as the number of cars that pass it on a daily basis. A television ad that runs on a TV station with a reported 1,000,000 viewers during any given time slot could theoretically generate an equal number of impressions. A newspaper with a distribution of 40,000 and a readership of 2.5 people per copy could theoretically generate 100,000 impressions.

In reality, not everyone who drives by a billboard reads it, pays attention to the ad on TV or reads every ad in a newspaper. So, buying impressions is kind of like putting money in a slot machine. You know it’s going to pay off at some point. But when and with whom?

By now, you’ve probably heard that the true measure of marketing success isn’t how many people you reach with your message. It’s how many people interact with your company outside of the commercial transaction.

A recent Harvard study strongly suggests that people who are deeply involved in ongoing two-way interaction with a brand tend to generate more positive word-of-mouth and visit more often than those who are less engaged. Put simply, customers who are engaged are more valuable.

Many a blog post out there can tell you how to tally up the number of engaged customers and prospects. No need to do that here. Here is where those who look no further than impressions (reach & frequency) to measure the performance of their marketing dollar will hopefully start looking at things anew.

It’s a new day. And the measure of marketing success has a new name—engagement.

Posted via email from Music Business Information