Digital Marketing Services in Kenya
If you are a marketer or sell products and services, you have heard the terms “Above the Line” and “Below the Line.” ATL and BTL were introduced in the 1950s to separate direct marketing approaches and wider advertising campaigns. While ATL and BTL are still common today, the line is smudged by digital marketing. Most digital marketing strategies take what they need from both sides, which works great. So, should your strategy go with ATL or BTL?
If you are interested in growing your brand and promoting awareness of your business, consider using ATL marketing strategies. Above-the-line advertising is an amalgamation of marketing methods and campaigns launched without a target audience. Your objectives are to promote your business to a mass audience, improve brand recognition and reach new clients. The message delivered in the marketing campaign revolves around the company’s mission, competitive differentials and a highlight of product lines. Most ATL is usually offline marketing tactics like TV adverts, billboards, radio commercials and magazines.
In the age of digitisation, a brand needs to make its presence felt online. Some ATL techniques in digital marketing include search engine optimisation, which improves the visibility of your website on search engine results pages. If your business isn’t leveraging search engine traffic, seek SEO services in Kenya to increase brand awareness. Social media optimisation also improves your audience outreach on social media pages. Targeted social media optimisation leverages your ATL campaign by growing your customer base and prospects through followers to get more digital traction.
ATL marketing techniques are wonderful instruments for promoting your brand recognition and introducing a new company to the market. ATL is great for growing your target audience or introducing a new product line if you are an established business. An ATL campaign covers a wide spectrum of audiences since the campaign’s focus is not to facilitate an immediate conversion. Repeat campaigns usually reinstate the brand’s image; even if the customer doesn’t buy from you, your brand will linger in their minds.
Despite its benefits, ATL has a few drawbacks compared to digital marketing. For instance, mass offline promotions are more expensive compared to online campaigns. Using above-the-line marketing doesn’t have a specific target audience and isn’t a measurable investment. You cannot calculate the return on investment from TV viewership or print publications. Hence, creating a marketing budget or a long-term strategy is challenging.
In BTL advertising, you implement targeted promotions for a particular audience. The aim is to grow your relationship with your customers through direct marketing. When you build an emotional connection with prospective customers, you improve a buyer’s perception and guide them through the decision-making process to purchase your product. Some of the tactics of below-the-line marketing include direct email marketing and industry trade shows. The strategies rely on heavy research and managing the content of the adverts to ensure it resonates with various customers.
Unlike ATL, where you cannot create a TV or newspaper advert for different readers, BTL provides a personalised marketing approach. You can customise your marketing processes for every customer through email marketing, exhibitions, and trade fairs. The personalised approach allows you to build healthy relationships with your customers. With most BTL techniques, you obtain immediate feedback from the customer. Since below-the-line marketing focuses on making conversions, it provides you with a favourable return on investment.
BTL also has limitations starting with the tedious research for proper targeting. You may need specialised resources for your research. The reach is limited since you can personalise adverts to a small audience. BTL is not the best alternative if you want more people to know about your brand. The success of BTL is short-lived, and there is a low recall value. With immense competition in the market, several brands offer short-term incentives to boost sales, and customers will only engage brands for the incentives.
While ATL has numerous benefits in the digital age, it is unwise to focus on one approach only. Combining BTL and ATL helps you reach a vast audience while improving your bond with your customer. For instance, ATL can increase brand awareness and attract customers to your site, and you can use BTL to increase conversion rates.
