Marketing Manner

When you’re first starting out in your business, it’s easy to jump at whatever advertising opportunities come your way. Discount magazine ad? Sign me up! Free month of radio ads when you buy one month? Where do I sign?

But you have to research all advertising opportunities. If the medium doesn’t have your target audience or doesn’t have the reach you need and want for the money you’re shelling out, then it’s just a waste of money. Not all advertising is good advertising.

Guidelines When Considering Advertising Opportunities
1. Don’t advertise in a newspaper, magazine or other medium that you haven’t read with your own two eyes. No one knows your product like you do, not even your well-intentioned family member.

2. Ask the advertiser for a complete media kit. If they don’t have a media kit, that’s a huge red flag that you do not want to do business with this advertiser. Ask for a sample copy of the publication and circulation numbers. The media kit should also include articles about the company, published elsewhere than their internal newsletter; a fact sheet on the company; and ideally, testimonials from others who have advertised with the company.

3. Don’t buy radio time in the form of ads or as a special guest unless you listen to the radio station yourself and you know it and its audience. Some people pay for radio time, thinking that they can become a radio talk show expert or add that title to their resume. The cost for all that radio time to become an “expert” is not worth it.

4. When you order a mailing list from a list broker, be sure to stipulate that you require 95 percent accuracy of addresses that are deliverable. Some addresses are naturally going to be old or incorrect, but the majority should be deliverable. Make it a condition of your contract that you’ll get your money back if only 94 percent or less of your direct mail pieces are deliverable. Be sure to get this in writing beforehand so you have a leg to stand on if it happens. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book – a list broker claims to have thousands of names in your target audience, but then only a hundred people actually get your ad. Don’t fall for it!

5. If a product review site asks for your ad, and then promises a review, run away. Your review and ad shouldn’t appear in the same issue, no matter what the salesperson says. People can see right through this and will think that your product was only reviewed because you bought ad space (and essentially, it’s true in this scam).

And finally, make sure to get everything in writing. It’s easy to let a salesperson sweep your thoughts away to a magical land of your product flying off the shelf once people see your new ad, but be sure you read all the fine print before signing your name.

I don’t have anything against Google, per se, but its AdWords program is getting worse. People just aren’t making more than beans off of most of their AdWords ads. When it first started it was easy, but now it’s gotten complicated and people aren’t clicking as much as they used to. And what about those people who don’t even know that they need your product, much less know that they need to search for it? Those people aren’t even aware of your Google ad.

Depending on what kind of business you have, AdWords may just not be right for you. You can do all your homework and research your customer and targeting that customer. You can even make sure that customer needs your product. You can create awesome marketing materials and an eye-catching Web site, but AdWords won’t help if your target customer doesn’t know your product even exists!

Yep, that’s a big problem (understatement of the year, I know!).

If Google AdWords isn’t working for you, then it’s time to get back to basics, or traditional advertising methods. Why? Because Google AdWords targets people who know what they are looking for and many people don’t know what they’re looking for because they don’t realize a solution exists. That’s where traditional advertising comes in – it reaches the people who don’t know there’s a solution for them out there.

Direct mail – this is a great choice when you have a very targeted consumer, especially a targeted regional consumer. Even if people throw away direct mail as junk mail, they at least look at a postcard or brochure to see who sent it. And, the fact is, many people read their “junk mail.” A 2006 U.S. Postal Service survey found that 80 percent of people skim direct mail. A letter may not work in this case, but if you have a solution right out in the open on a postcard, who’s not going to look? And if the consumer doesn’t even know there is a solution, you’re the first one to reach out to them!

TV ads – more people may be watching TV on the Internet, but not everyone is. Many people can’t afford to buy a nice big 30-inch computer monitor to watch “their” shows on. And many people still have “their” shows that they watch every week without fail.

Billboards – who doesn’t drive to work? Not very many people. And even those that work out of their homes or don’t work at all have to drive somewhere eventually. That’s why billboards won’t ever stop working. Until people can zap themselves from place to place, billboards will be a great way to reach thousands of local consumers.

Magazine and newspaper ads – Although the circulation numbers have gone down for each of these mediums, they’re still pretty good. And research has shown that Web site visits go up after advertising the URL in a magazine or newspaper ad. That means people are still reading and these ads still work.

If you aren’t getting the response you want from Google AdWords or any other type of Internet advertising, give it a break and try traditional again. Everything from handing out business cards to hanging flyers counts. It doesn’t have to be expensive or high tech to be effective advertising.

So the average number of Web pages Google had available to index in 1998 was about 25 million. As of summer 2008, do you know how many unique Web pages Google had available to index? A record-breaking 1 trillion unique Web pages. That’s right 1 trillion.

Also, 65,000 new videos are added to YouTube on a daily basis.

In 2005 (the most recent year available), almost 40 billion product catalogs were published. That equals 134 catalogs for every person in the United States. Who needs that many catalogs?

The American Association of Advertising Agencies says people are only able to absorb, at most, 100 ads per day out of the 2,000 to 3,000 we are exposed to.

And, people just don’t trust advertisers. In an old Gallup poll from 1998 that rated honesty and ethical standards against a range of professions, advertising pros were near the bottom of the list, between lawyers and car salespeople. Ouch. 

So who do people trust? “‘Word-of-mouth’ [is] the most powerful selling tool…78 percent of consumers say they trust the recommendation of other consumers.” – Nielsen, Trust in Advertising, 2007 Global Consumer Survey Report. This is especially true of the young generation of 14-24 year olds. This age group spends more than 16 hours online (that’s more than they spend watching TV!). They also like to send IMs – 56 percent say they spend more than an hour each day texting or instant messaging. A full 25 percent prefer social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace than actually hanging out in real life with their friends. And, finally, 96 percent use a social networking site every day.

That means their friends mean more to them and have more communication with them than your ads ever could.

What does this mean for you?

You need to get on the social networking sites and fast.

According to a Prospectiv survey conducted in early 2008, 87 percent of those polled (800 users of social networking sites) felt that targeted ads on social networking sites didn’t match their preferences. This means that you actually have to put some thought into the ads you use on social networking sites. Using blogs and reviews might actually work better in the long run than just advertising on these sites. By actually creating a relationship with people, you’ll earn their trust.

The ads that did work on social networking sites were one-off coupons and discount offers from brands and products that users already purchase. Take the time to really target your ads by using technology that lets you read more about the user. Knowing their occupation or interests is key to getting a targeted ad that will get a click-thru.

By getting on social networking sites as a user and an advertiser, you’ll create memorability and trust. By users repeatedly seeing your ads, they’ll be more likely to click on them.

The next big thing in mass media and what will most likely become the most dominant form of media is mobile media, or in other words: cell phones. This is not a “want” to include in your advertising plan; it’s a “need,” a “must-have.”

I get this view from Tomi Ahonen, author of Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media: Cell phone, Cameraphone, iPhone, smartphone. You can download a 30-page excerpt of the book from this site: http://mobilemarketingprofits.com/232/mobile-as-7th-of-the-mass-media-excerpt/. The book has a ton of stats, and here’s a brief and summarized rundown: “Twice as many cell phones as TV sets, three times as many cell phone subscribers as Internet users, four times as many cell phones as PC sets, five times as many cell phones as automobiles. 31 percent of all music dollars spent worldwide already goes to a wide array of cell phone based music services.” Also, 20 percent of video gaming software revenues go toward cell phone services. That’s a mouthful about cell phones if I’ve ever seen one.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t know what the other 6 forms of mass media were, although I could gather TV and radio. The others are print, recordings, cinema and the Internet. Ahonen thinks that “all forms of content will ultimately converge around the cell phone.” The cell phone can do all of the things the previous 6 forms of mass media can do, and it does it within a form that is easy to take with you. And, no one leaves home without their cell phone anymore.

This means that if you aren’t doing any mobile marketing, and if you don’t have a mobile Web site, you need to get one and soon.

Some Numbers on Why You Should Get Into the Mobile Game Now

• Emarketer forecasts that worldwide mobile marketing and advertising will reach $19 billion by 2012.
• Gartner estimates the worldwide mobile advertising market will be worth more than $12 billion by 2011.
• The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) expects the U.S. market for ad funded mobile entertainment will grow to $336.35 million by 2013.
• ABI Research reckons the global mobile marketing industry was worth $1.8 billion in 2007 and is expected to grow to $24 billion by 2013.

How to Set Up a Mobile Campaign
There are plenty of Web sites to choose from to set up a mobile campaign. Google (of course), Decktrade and Mo’Jiva are the big three that are showcased in a white paper provided by Bango. It’s called “Mobile Advertising for Newbies” and is a 35-page intro and step-by-step guide to setting up your mobile campaign at the big three sites. The stats listed in this blog were provided by the white paper. You can download the white paper for free from www.bango.com/whitepaper. You have to give your name, phone number and email address, but this guide is very informative and probably the most detailed guide out there for starting in mobile advertising. I’d highly recommend it if you are new to mobile advertising.

Magazine advertising is still a viable vehicle for print advertising, according to the Magazine Publishers of America. The MPA is even currently campaigning in print and online ads to show that “advertising in magazines encourages consumers to consider buying products — a phenomenon known as purchase intent — and stimulates them to go online to shop or to learn more about items they might want to buy.”

The campaign includes ads that show people who have bought too much stuff, being “Under the influence of magazines” (the tagline). The campaign started in early September and is included on Magfacts.org. According to a New York Times story, “The campaign offers “third-party, independent research” on the power of magazine advertising, “none of it commissioned or paid for by us” Nina Link, president and chief executive at the MPA in New York said.

Despite dropping numbers of magazine advertisements, the MPA wants to communicate to people that magazine advertising is still strong – by advertising online and in magazines. Somewhat paradoxical, yes? And no. Magazines ads are used to drive traffic to Web sites, which are precisely what these ads are designed to do – drive traffic to Magfacts.org.

The number of magazine ads fell by 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008 when compared to the same quarter in 2007. These numbers come from the Publishers Information Bureau, an affiliate of the association. The second quarter of 2008 was even worse: numbers fell 8.2 percent compared to the second quarter in 2007.

Of course, the economy is somewhat partly to blame for the low numbers. Ad revenue for newspapers is falling fast (faster than magazines) and even online advertising growth has slowed. Several magazines such as Golf for Women, Quick & Simple, and Stuff all recently closed or announced plans to stop publishing.

Of course, how many Web sites have closed in the same time period due to low or non-existent advertising? A higher number than the magazines that have closed, I would bet. I couldn’t find any stats online, believe it or not.

So, what is the basis for the MPA’s campaign that magazines are still an advertising vehicle of choice? Here are the stats (you can get the research findings by visiting Magfacts.org).

Magazines are:
• #1 in driving search among 18- to 44-year-olds
• #1 in influencing automotive purchase intent. 2/3 more effective than TV. 1 ½ times more effective than online.
• #1 in influencing purchase intent of packaged goods. At nearly 2x the rate of TV and 3x the rate of online.
• #1 in driving word of mouth.
• #1 in driving brand favorability. 2x the impact of TV and 4x the impact of online.

Also,
• People were 2 times as likely to visit a website after seeing a magazine ad.
• Seeing a magazine ad increased web traffic by more than 40 percent.

These sound pretty good for the magazine industry, no? To underline the power of magazine ads, Anne Bologna, chief executive at Toy (the agency who created the ads), said the three brands featured in the first stage of the campaign — Adidas footwear; Häagen-Dazs, owned by Nestlé; and Mini Cooper, part of BMW — “are all winners of Kelly Awards.” (Kelly Awards are given annually by the MPA for best magazine ads.)

I checked out the following post about a bad logo that got corrected within a few weeks’ time: http://www.jay-han.com/2008/04/22/small-changes-big-difference/. But that led me to look for other bad logos. I found a goodie page full of them at a real estate blog of all places! Check out http://blog.sellsiusrealestate.com/logos/when-logos-go-bad/2007/04/19/.

The logo from the first Web page mentioned, found by Jayhan, is not so bad. The logo was for Bank Islam, with the “k” of “bank” used stylistically to try to form a crescent shape around “Islam.” Many people probably didn’t get the fact that the logo was using a “k” as a design element, which is why it was changed. The “k” didn’t look enough like a “k” so the logo at first looked like something for Bani Islam.

The logos in the second Web site mentioned are much funnier. Many of them include something that looks inappropriately sexual, especially for the subject matter. The Arlington Pediatric Center’s logo, in particular, does not look good – it looks like a place that promotes pedophilia! Not good for any business, but especially a pediatric center. Doesn’t anyone look at these logos to see if any negative connotations can be picked up from them? Obviously not.

This leads me to think that these establishments need to know what makes a good logo. Here’s a short list:

1. The logo should not look like a man’s most important body part or any body parts surrounding said important body part. When you design a logo, have other people take a look at it, please! Get some opinions. Ask if anyone sees anything that could be looked at as sexual in the logo. This is generally not a good thing. Revise logo if so.

Reminds me of Mr. Garrison on Southpark, writing a book with all gay themes in it and he doesn’t see the gay themes. When the designer gets so involved in the work, he is blind to obvious themes.

2. If your company does anything internationally, it’s a good idea to check out local taboos or “naughty” words. Some of these funny logos were funny only in our language, in our customs. Ask people from other countries to take a look at your logo for any kind of offensive language or image that is culturally sensitive.

3. Don’t confuse people with your logo. When you show your logo to other people and they don’t get it, don’t write them off as dumb people who don’t know a good logo when they see one. Everyone needs to understand your logo and if people don’t, they might not want to do business with you. They won’t know what you’re about if they are confused by the message being sent in your logo. If your logo isn’t sending a message at all, that’s another problem.

Word-of-mouth marketing can sometimes be better at promoting your company than traditional marketing outlets. Established brands that have loyal fans can create an online presence without actually doing anything company-wise. It’s almost like people paying to wear clothes with a Nike swoosh except people are promoting their fave companies for free on the Internet.

One good example is Empire Today, that’s right, the carpet selling company. Empire Today is actually part of AdAge’s Top 200 Brands list and is becoming known all over the U.S. Empire Today started in Chicago as Empire Carpet and built their brand around an Empire Carpet Guy character and a television jingle that includes their phone number and their name: “800-588-2300 Empire!”

Empire Today’s commercial has been features in the Wayne’s World movies, Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show and Conan O’Brien’s late night talk show. Now fans have uploaded videos paying homage to Empire Today on YouTube. These fans aren’t giving testimonials; they’re just enjoying Empire Today’s jingle and product. The popular YouTube spots featuring Empire Today include one with a little kid dancing to the jingle and another with a dog barking when the jingle plays.

People have even taken pictures of the Empire Today bubblehead dolls that the company gives away as promotional items and posted them on Flickr! That’s something that money can’t buy!

Social media marketing is taking young audiences by storm. Mortgage blogger Brian Brady said about the web: “By using these online tools to connect and generate social capital, we’re leaving little bread crumbs all over the internet that show our passion and knowledge.” All the forms of social media add up to a higher search engine rating, which makes it seem like your brand and your company is everywhere. When people search for your industry or your type of company and you’re name comes up multiple times in the search engine list that builds your credibility. People want to work with businesses that are popular and Google can help make you popular.

So how can you move your customers to do the same for you that Empire Today has done?

Keep doing basic branding activities. Create a logo, slogan and consistent message. Put your phone number, Web site address and company mascot in all of your offline ads. You need to build a consistent look and feel that will be recognized on the Web.

Give out free stuff. Make a connection with customers in your area by contributing to the community and by giving out free stuff. Everyone likes free stuff and free stuff makes people want to tell others what they got. It’s almost like a pride thing “Na na! I got something and you didn’t!” Be sure you give away cool stuff that people will either want to take pictures of and post or that they’ll want to take videos of themselves using.

ROI is a big buzzword these days, and really it has been a buzzword for a long time now. That’s because it’s so important to every business. ROI stands for Return On Investment and it’s basically states how much money you made or lost on an investment. As a simple example, if you invested $1,000 on marketing posters that earned $50 in sales, that’s $50 cash you made and a 5% ROI. If you invested $100 on marketing posters that earned $20, that’s $20 cash you made and a 20% ROI. So the second investment was actually better because you got a bigger percentage back than the first even though the actual cash in your pocket is less. Got it? Simple, right?

To take it a tiny, teeny, step further, there are other factors that go into calculating ROI. These factors are direct expenses and indirect expenses.

Direct Expenses
This includes any money you used to develop, create, and implement your marketing campaign. For example, for a direct mail campaign, you’d have to print your direct mail piece, pay for postage, and pay for the incentive that you’re offering. These are all things that you have to pay for out of your bank account.

Indirect Expenses
This includes money you use that isn’t directly involved in the above noted direct expenses. Examples are rent, electricity, phone bill, and a copywriter’s salary.

The ROI Calculation
The calculation of ROI is the benefit, or return, of an investment divided by the cost of the investment. Here’s the calculation:

ROI = (gain from investment – cost of investment) / cost of investment

Now let’s plug in some numbers to really make it stick:

ROI= (800 – 500) / 500 The ROI = 60% (multiply times 100 for a percentage)

Okay, let’s give your brain a math break.

Calculating Your Indirect Expenses
A good shortcut that is pretty accurate for calculating your indirect expenses is to multiply your direct expenses by 25%. That’s it! Just assume that about one-fourth of your expenses go toward indirect expenses.

What the Heck Do I Use ROI For?
Your reward for all that math is that you can compare ROI of one marketing campaign versus another to see which is bringing you more money. Or, in other words, which marketing campaign you’re losing money on. People usually monitor ROI for a year, but you can pick any length of time you want.

If you use Google Adwords, you’ve been exposed to ROI. Google uses ROI to calculate how much money you make off of your ads. ROI is used everywhere!

Basically, ROI is a way for you to tell if your marketing strategies are working. If you are losing money on postcard mailings, then there’s no reason to continue them. If you’re making more money on brochures than billboards, that realization can save you a ton of money. Basically use ROI numbers to save your company some money.

The benefits of some products or services don’t easily lend themselves to persuasive copy and brilliant photographs. If you’re finding it’s hard to use words and images to convey the usefulness and benefits of your product, consider using free trial periods or free samples to let people know for themselves.

For example, it’s hard to tell if a dry cleaner can really get business shirts bright white and comfortably stiff with starch unless you experience it for yourself by seeing and feeling one. A picture and words can’t quite fully convince people of a dry cleaners’ worth. So one of the best ways for new dry cleaners to get customers is to offer a free sample – one free dry cleaned and pressed shirt can be all it takes to get a new customer.

Many shampoos, laundry detergents and perfume companies employ free samples by including an enclosed packet of their product in catalogs. This is another option if you can make your product in a small enough quantity to be placed in a catalog. This makes your advertising much more interactive.

How to Create a Successful Free Trial Program

The fundamental element of a successful free trial program is to make it simple for people to access and keep it risk free. Don’t make people fill out forms to take part in a free trial. Make it easy for them to participate and only ask for a few pieces of information – like their names and email addresses. Those elements are really all you need to track a free trial.

The Most Popular Free Trial Offer

You have infinite possibilities of how to present a free trial or free product offer. The most popular, though, is the “30-day Free Trial.”

This works well for many reasons. It takes about 21 days for a new habit to form, so by using this kind of trial for something like subscribing to an online database or offering a 30-day free gym membership gives people the chance to establish a new habit. Once customers have gotten used to having something available, it’s hard for them to let go.

If you aren’t sure whether your product or service would work with a free offer, look at your competitors and other businesses with similar products. Do they offer some kind of free service or product for a limited time? If they can do it, you can too. Just brainstorm with colleagues, friends and family – someone is bound to come up with a great idea!

A Semi-Free Trial

A semi-free trial can be considered a “buy one, get one” type of offer. If a customer buys one item, he gets another free. This works especially well for introducing new products to returning customers. This technique is appealing because it lowers the risk for you and for your customer. You get some kind of revenue by requiring a purchase, and the customer gets something that they would have bought anyway along with a free new product that they might have not tried otherwise.

Obviously, free trials and free sample offers work. Companies wouldn’t use them repeatedly if they didn’t. Take the time to calculate how much the free trial will cost you and how many customers you need to buy the product to make the free trial worth it. Then, market your free trial to the number of customers needed and calculate your return on investment. If you made a profit, do it again and again! You’ll get many customers you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten, and your current customers will appreciate getting something, however small, for free.

Every business owner has dreams. Unfortunately, most of these are vague dreams like to become wealthy or have a great business. If one desires these dreams to actually come true, then it becomes necessary to attach tangible real world targets which can be measured objectively.

Assume you owned a postcard printing company. Creating a goal to “increase sales” is great but worthless in terms of action. One needs to break down the goal into requisite components. The first might relate to your direct mail clients. Growing sales supporting those engaging in postcard marketing campaigns by 30% over the next year is a specific and traceable goal. Sales staff now has a defined target which must be hit.

This thought applies to any business, not just postcard printing. Every business needs to establish goals relating both to revenue and profits as well as other more intangible aspects of their business. An example would be customer complaints. A goal to reduce customer complaints by 50% over the next year can’t be measured in money, but one knows eventually there will be increased profits should this target be hit. Happier customers translate to more future sales.

Dreaming is great. However, dreaming without creation of specific goals won’t help your business. Translate your dreams to specific targets and action plans.