Interactive Advertising for Atlanta Businesses

Interactive advertising is advertising that invites an immediate response. A person reads a page, taps a link, watches a video, fills in a form, replies to an email or places a call, and each of those actions can be seen and counted. That separates it from broadcast and outdoor media, which reach a large audience at once but leave the response to happen later and somewhere else.

The category takes in the website itself, visibility in search, paid search and social advertising, email, social media, written content and the measurement that holds the rest together. None of these works well alone. A paid ad is only as good as the page it sends people to. A well-built page does little if nobody can find it. Email depends on a list, and a list usually begins with a website visitor or a customer. Analytics shows which of the other pieces is pulling its weight.

People tend to look a company up before they buy from it. They check the website, read reviews, compare a competitor and glance at the map listing before they call or visit. That habit holds however they first learned of the business, whether from a friend, an ad on the radio, a roadside billboard or a social post. For many customers, what a business looks like online is its first real impression.

This is why broadcast and interactive media belong in a single conversation. An ad on the radio or a billboard by the road may be what makes someone curious, and a search, a website visit or a map listing is where that curiosity turns into a decision. The creative presentation online matters for that reason. It has to hold the interest that other media worked to create.

Mason Donovan, of Kirk Donovan Enterprises, is a digital native who grew up surrounded by advertising and marketing. He understands well how traditional media pushes audiences toward digital channels.

That hand-off is the practical question behind any interactive plan. After someone hears a spot, sees a commercial or passes a sign, where do they go next, and what do they find when they get there? Answering well means checking the basics from the audience's side. Does the business name hold up when it is heard once in the car? Does a search for it bring up an accurate listing with a working phone number? Does the website load quickly on a phone and say plainly what the company does? Each gap leaks interest that other advertising paid to create, which is why media buying and interactive work are easiest to judge together.

One customer's path shows how the channels depend on one another. Someone hears about a business from a friend and searches its name. The map listing and the reviews are the first things they see, and they tap through to the website. The page loads quickly on their phone, they read about the service and fill in a short form. A confirmation email arrives within moments. Months later a seasonal email reminds them, and a social post prompts them to leave a review.

Every handoff in that path is a place where the customer can be lost, and each one belongs to a different channel. A paid ad that promises one thing and lands on a page about another wastes the click. A website form that quietly fails wastes the search work behind it. An email list that nobody is ever invited to join wastes the traffic. Planning the channels together catches the weak handoffs, and looking at the whole path from first mention to follow-up shows where the leaks are before more money goes in.

Every interactive channel has a main job, and trouble starts when one is asked to do another's work.

Kirk Donovan Enterprises provides interactive advertising for businesses in the Atlanta area, and the cards below take each service in turn. They all return to a single question: what response does this piece need to produce?

The right first move depends on where the business stands today.

• No website at all, or one that is awkward to use on a phone. Begin with website design, because every other channel sends people there.
• A good website that few people visit. Look at search visibility and the Google Business Profile, and consider paid search for quicker exposure while organic visibility builds.
• Plenty of visitors and few inquiries. Examine the pages people land on, the calls to action and how quickly inquiries are answered before paying for more traffic.
• Customers who buy once and drift away. The natural place to start is email marketing and social follow-up.
• Money going to several channels with no clear picture. Fix the measurement first, then decide where the budget belongs.

Most businesses end up needing several of these in some order, which is where an overall digital marketing plan helps. It sets the order, the budget and the definition of a response before any channel is switched on.

A few basics make every channel work harder, and they cost little compared with the advertising that depends on them.

• Accounts in the business's own name. The domain name, website hosting, Google Business Profile, analytics, ad accounts, email platform and social profiles should belong to the business, with anyone who helps added as a user.
• A written definition of a response. Decide what counts, and confirm that each kind is recorded.
• Someone who sees every inquiry. People often contact more than one business, so a prompt reply matters, and a form that nobody reads defeats the purpose of the traffic.
• Consistent business details. Name, address, phone number and opening hours should read the same on the website, the map listing and the social profiles.
• A realistic budget and a review date. Pick a point at which the effort will be examined, so it is judged on evidence instead of mood.

Interactive media make it easy to count things. The harder part is counting the right things. Before money is spent, settle what a response is for this business, whether a call, a quote request, a sign-up or a sale, and confirm that each kind is actually recorded, because a campaign without tracking can only be judged by feel.

Numbers also need context. A jump in visits that brings no calls is not a win, and a quiet week may only reflect the season. Compare like with like, give each change time to show up, and keep a note of what was changed and when. The page on marketing analytics goes into setting this up and reading it honestly.

• Treating each channel as a separate project. Search, email, social media and the website feed one another, and plans built in isolation tend to repeat the same message in different voices.
• Sending every click to the home page. An ad about one thing should land on a page about that one thing.
• Letting listings go stale. Old hours, an old phone number or a missing category turns interested people away before they reach the website.
• Ignoring the phone experience. A page that looks fine on a desktop monitor can be slow and awkward in a pocket.
• Chasing every new platform. Two channels done carefully beat six done halfway.
• Judging too early. Search visibility, email lists and audiences build over time, and paid campaigns need a stretch of activity before they can be evaluated fairly.

Each of these can be fixed once it is noticed. The common thread is that interactive advertising rewards businesses that look at the whole path a customer takes, from the first mention to the final decision, instead of tuning one stage at a time. For longer reading on these topics, the blog has a section of digital marketing articles.