Recently one of our Mastermind Members, George Sink, from Charleston, South Carolina sent me an article explaining that digital advertising is superseding print and TV this year.
Of course, this revelation did not come as a surprise to me; I have been predicting this was going to happen for the last 3 years. Based on what I have observed in terms of the social media boom and the resulting consumer practices in the last few years, this seems a foregone conclusion. According to the article, eMarketer estimates that U.S. advertisers spent more than 125 billion on digital advertising in 2018 vs. only 109 billion on traditional TV and print advertising!
This marks the first time ever that U.S. digital ad business made up more than 50 percent of the market. The article goes on to talk about how the digital ad industry has been growing steadily for years primarily thanks to two behemoths: Facebook and Google.
One thing the article did not talk about is the reason for Facebook and Google’s success in this area. These guys are changing the market that we’re living in and it’s important to understand what’s happening so that you can stay ON TOP of the trends and take advantage of that leverage!
From my vantage point, it seems that Baby boomers like me are dying out and buying less merchandise. Consequently, millennials and the other young people in the world are stepping up to the proverbial plate; they are fast becoming the largest part of the purchasing power for the markets in the United States. And, if you have been studying this critical demographic, or listening to all the Summit presentations, webinar/teleseminar content we at PILMMA have been putting out regarding millennials in recent years, then you already know that millennials hate TV advertising. In fact, they rarely watch traditional TV, opting instead for live-streaming and YouTube videos. Similarly, they don’t read print newspapers, opting instead for digital news feeds they can access readily on their iPhones/ iPad and Android phones.
This latest data creates a great opportunity for progressive law firms that know how to maximize their social media advertising. There’s never been a better opportunity for smart marketers to take advantage of these market trends and dominate their competitors over the next 5 years. Expensive TV advertising is going the way of the Dinosaur for many lawyers, who now realize much more and greater ROI. With savvy digital marketing, they will be able to level the playing field against the big dogs in their market.
Smart law firms are the ones that will now really drill deep and use this consumer knowledge to their advantage!
PILMMA has always taught the importance of educational based marketing as the surefire winner with millennials who hate being sold to with cheesy ads. Now more than ever, it makes sense to embrace this trend and create a marketing plan that contains a lot of social media and strategies that use online marketing as a cornerstone.
EMarketer also estimates that by the year 2020 the discrepancy will be even more pronounced, with 107 billion being spent on print and TV and a whopping 151 billion being spent on digital advertising. These estimates continue to show a steadily increasing disproportion, rising to $68 billion by 2021, as digital advertising is anticipated to be at approximately $172 billion in the United States and print and TV down to $104 billion per year.
One thing to really pay attention to is that Amazon is emerging as a strong third competitor in the market. Amazon claimed just 1.2 percent of the digital ad market in 2015. In 2019 eMarketer believes Amazon will own 8.8 percent of the market, setting them up to be by far the third largest player outside of Facebook and Google.
So why should the growing Amazon market trend matter to you? I think it’s very clear that having books on Amazon and other reports and things that you can sell and have on Kindle will be very advantageous for not only giving credibility but also for reaching the millennials and the new emerging market who are going to be hiring lawyers in the next 2 to 5 years.
The bottom line is this: The smart entrepreneur lawyer is always watching for trends and posturing his or her law practice accordingly. The power to dominate your market is within your reach, but it takes a willingness to adjust and change to the consumer trends and demographics around you.
