Marketing is one of the crucial sectors in an organization, but in the modern business environment, there is mounting pressure from the competition to keep pushing the envelope. Currently, digital marketing has made it easier for upcoming marketers to get a share of the pie. You will only need to know about SEO, SEM, among other rules of digital marketing.
However, there is a flaw to this way of marketing; it is expensive to get the right number of people to buy your products or services and so there must be a better way to go about marketing that will get more people to view and incentivize them to make a purchase.
The use of drones is one of the ways marketers could disrupt the industry, but many have not lurched on to this fact yet. The underlying factor leading to the slow adoption is because amateurs use more than half of the commercial drones and they do not think of it as a professional way of marketing. Commercial drones have been around for a while now, and while they started off as toys, new drones are now tools that could take your marketing campaigns to new heights.
Ushering A New Era in Marketing
Drones are revolutionizing audiovisual marketing by adding value to products and telling stories in new ways that were not possible before. The most significant contribution drones could have in the marketing profession is by creating high-quality visual content. Some of the top drones such as those under the DJI brand come with 4K cameras, with stabilizing precision gimbals. These cameras on flying robots can capture a new perspective and marketers could use them to show how their products could change the lives of their customers.
The potential of drones is unlimited, and with advancing technology, there are more features to come that will enhance your ability to tell stories. Drones have been pitched as a perfect marketing tool and have been in existence for several years now. Here are what marketers have been able to do with drones
Reduce the cost of aerial photography and videos
Some marketers have hit the home run with the angle and perspective they give the audience. Unknown to many people, it takes expensive equipment such as cranes, helicopters, and zip lines to get the shot. However, since the emergence of powerful drones and cameras, marketers have been able to reduce their overhead and they can get the proper footage at a fraction of the cost.
An edge over the competition
Marketing is a very competitive field, and professionals are every day trying to outdo each other. First, it was social media that gave digital marketers an edge over the traditional style of marketing. Today, with a drone and a professional cinematographer, you can bring new ideas to life. You are guaranteed that you will give your customers a broader sense of what they are buying, or destination for guided tours.
Live event streaming
Instagram and Facebook Live among other streaming services have proven to be a way to get more viewers interested in your products or events. While it is common to find marketers using their smartphones and tablets to give their online viewers a sneak peek of their product testing, but drones could increase the reach of their video content. Streaming drone videos provide a real-time aerial view of an event or use of a product and services.
How Can Marketers Leverage on Drone Technology?
Drone technology has come a long way, and it is no longer a surprise to see drone pilots littering parks, beaches, among other places. Drones today come in a wide range of shapes and sizes and have varied technology expertly fitted into compact, sturdy bodies. However, before you integrate drones into your marketing campaigns, you will need to learn the set rules and regulations of drone flying by the FAA. The benefits of using drones in marketing packs various benefits including
Reduced time to market
Drones are readily available, and with same-day delivery from sites such as Amazon, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to get your campaign to the audience. According to Timothy Reuter who founded one of the largest drone clubs in the world, notes that sophisticated drone technology is now available at affordable prices. This reduces the need to set colossal marketing and advertising budgets, but still get similar or better value for your money.
Gather the right team, and win big
Drone flying and taking aerial photography is not the forte of most marketing professionals. To get the best utility from drones, you will need to get a licensed drone pilot, a cinematographer among other personnel to bounce ideas off and ensure that you get the best video for your marketing campaign.
Some forward-thinking marketers are using drones as flying billboards during the hours of a traffic jam snarl-ups, or during events and festivals. For example, Colombian fashion house, Camisaria Colombo, used drones to fly Lifesize mannequins in the Sao Paulo central business district to market its new fashion line to business persons.
10 Ways to Leverage Drone Technology as A Marketer
There are countless opportunities for drone technology in marketing campaigns. Despite the market being in its infancy stages, drones have already made a massive impact on the revenues of the marketers who are bold enough to use them. Here are ten ways that you can leverage on drone technology for your marketing campaigns.
Shooting videos for marketing campaigns
Marketers today need not stick to the advertising playbook anymore. With drone technology, you can shoot a video, edit it, and upload it on YouTube or other site and watch product and service uptake increase significantly. Drone cameras are one piece of technology that has had significant improvements, and today, you can get 4K quality footage from the onboard camera.
However, some drones come with a universal camera mounting and gimbal that allow you to attach your preferred camera for shooting your videos. Currently, drones can carry a large take-off payload, and this gives you leeway to use DSLR and action cameras of your choice.
Drones as the centerpiece of a campaign
Over 60% of the marketers use a drone in an obvious way; shooting high-quality aerial videos. While this will impress your audience with the perspective and your level of creativity, it is becoming a common occurrence. Drones can still be used as an offline form of marketing. Despite drones being around for a long while, when one flies by, people are tempted to stop what they are doing and look. As a marketer, you can leverage the use of the drone as a physical medium of advertising your product or services.
In 2013, London based restaurants made headlines when they used drones instead of waiters to serve food to their clientele. Later in 2014, the Hungry Boys used drones to carry fliers in Moscow to advertise the special offers at Wokker, a noodle shop. They did this right before lunch, and Wokker received 40% more orders. Drones will attract attention, and when coupled with fliers, billboard, or any other information, you are bound to get more clients for your products and services.
Drones to collect market data
We are in the information age and big data rules. Data will help you understand your target audience and give you a scope of how the market is faring on. However, getting the data from people s becoming harder each day with even fewer people subscribing to newsletters today. This has made it clear to marketers that they need to reform their ways. Unbeknownst to most marketers, they can leverage drone to help on correcting data for marketing purposes.
When they are equipped with special software, drones can fly over a crowd on the streets or at an event and with the software, marketer or data analysts can be able to get data crucial for marketing services. This has made drones a hum of emerging technologies, and when they are used together, they bring about fantastic marketing campaigns.
Get marketing campaigns to the audience faster
Some brands have become obsolete in the eyes of their customers since they take too long n getting new content out. This is due to the logistics involved in coming up with a proper concept, get it approved by senior management, among other bureaucratic logistics. With drones, however, you will significantly reduce the time it takes to roll out a campaign. As a marketer, you can hire a professional to do all the heavy lifting for you, and you can concentrate on the logistics of getting the final result to the end users.
Introduce new products
When Jeff Bezos of Amazon announced that they were experimenting with drone deliveries, no one thought that it could be possible. Almost immediately, videos popped up online showing drones making deliveries.
While Amazon’s Prime Air is still yet to take off from the ground, it did cause a stir around the world, and Amazon recorded increased unique visitors and purchases. With a drone, you can create a buzz around your new product offering and drive your sales through the roof.
Use drones as an advertising platform
With each passing day, drone technology becomes better, and this ensures that professionals and hobbyists alike get the best out of their flying machines. Smart batteries have come to improve the flight time of drones, and they can be used as mobile billboards. While the drone batteries of the recent past required more than two hours of charging to full capacity, modern drones use smart batteries that take as much as one hour to charge. Drones increase the appeal of your campaign, and this will surely get the people to notice your ads. An impressive application of drones as a platform for advertising is by flying around with menus for restaurants, headless mannequins for clothing brands, holding up posters and banners in crowded areas.
Render customer care services
Customer care is one of the biggest headaches a marketer has to contend with on a daily basis. While there are several avenues of getting in touch with a client, many do not provide the necessary appeal and satisfaction. As a marketer, you can use a drone’s ability to fly for longer distances to get customer grievances. You can also attach a significant amount of payload to the drone’s underside and entice the customer with promotional products or a replacement for a product. The camera can give you real-time conversations with the customer, but this is harbored by the fact that drone flight is currently capped at 30 minutes and you will need at least 30% charge to fly back.
Sponsoring drone competitions
As a marketer, you need to stay ahead of the pack whenever you can. One of the sure ways to leverage drone technology is by keeping up with the trends in drone competitions. These are highly anticipated events by both professional drone pilots as well as the audience. If your company is in a sound financial position, you can sponsor the entire event or a couple of drones for the competition. This will give you brand recognition and thus increase your audience.
Identification and understanding client needs
As a marketer, you must identify and evaluate the needs of your target audience. The information you gather will be helpful in creating products and services that your target audience will like. For example, if you are in the agricultural sector, you could use a drone to gather information on crop health, production rates, and more. You will be able to get the best idea of what farmers are going through and when it comes to generating products and services, they will be a solution to their needs.
This does not stop with agriculture; you can use drones to identify the needs of fishers, ranchers, racers, among others groups of people who are part of your target audience.
Push for better brand interaction
Marketing in the modern age requires a simple yet effective technique. Drones can be helpful in helping creative marketers create programs that will make marketing easier for a brand. How a customer interacts with your brand will determine its success, and a drone can help you out. Using a powerful camera, and a high-quality drone, you can get create immersive videos that will change how customers interact with your brand.
Conclusion
The possibilities that drones have for marketers are endless, and it requires that you have a knack for thinking outside the box. Drone technology is still very young, and there is no telling what will come. Brace yourself for drone technology and align your marketing operations accordingly.
Do you have other ways marketers can leverage drone technology in their campaigns? Share your views with us in the comment section below and follow this post for updates on how you can leverage drone technology to everyday marketing activities.
