Is Traditional Advertising Dead?

During a breakfast meeting last week a colleague told me she heard a speaker who suggested that buyers know what they are looking for and will find a supplier that meets their needs. Therefore, traditional advertising no longer works. She asked what I thought of this premise and I quickly replied, "Never trust generalizations to be 100% correct."

But there is a golden nugget in this thought.

I am planning a rafting trip to the Gauley river in West Virginia next month. It's been ten years since my last visit and the name of the outfitter had escaped me. I Googled 'Gauley river rafting' and clicked on a search match. I did not recognize the name, but the web site was impressive so I called the 800 number and made reservations. I knew what I was looking for and I found it, but the company with a web presence got my order.

On a similar note, we received an inbound call from from Argentina looking for email marketing software. They were using a competitor and were not satisfied with customer service or deliverability. We wrote the order valued in the top 10% of all Delivra clients. They found us on the Internet.

Does traditional advertising have a role to play? Certainly. Brand awareness is still a powerful lead generation tool. And other forms of traditional advertising have no substitute.

But if your organization is neglecting their web presence then I suggest a wake up call is in order.