Not All Experts Are Experts

I’ve talked a lot recently about the term Experts.

Expert is not a title you earn by going to school or completing certain training.  Being an expert involves many aspects but generally speaking…

An Expert is someone who has expertise in something beyond the average person. expert1

Often a degree is required, like a Doctor.  Or other credentials for other professions.

But Not All Experts Are Experts.

In the media and marketing world, you can become certified and credentialed, but the question remains can you deliver?  Do you have success stories? Do you have data to back it up?  Do you have positive reviews?  Are you following best practices?

Even if you are a nice person, you may not have earned that expert title, yet.  If you want to be better and grow your expertise, you can do it.

I was researching some information for an advertising partner and was bothered by the level of expertise that an “expert” had.  It was lacking… not up to par with what my advertising partner should be getting for the money spent each month.

I dug further and discovered numerous mistakes online.  These were not invisible to the average person mistakes, but obvious ones to the naked eye.

It made me sad, actually because I really was hopeful that this “expert” was the real deal, but now I can’t recommend them anymore.

It’s not fair for me to publicly tell you who I am referring to. Instead I urge you to do your research.  If you don’t know how to research, or what criteria matters, then ask.  There are plenty of people who have the knowledge to guide you to find the right expert you need for your business.  Lawyer, accountant, social media, advertising, plumbers, you name it, you can find it.

And I’d be glad to help you double check on anyone in the marketing, media, online, advertising world both locally and nationally too.

Just ask me.

Marketing Wisdom from Others

I’m going to tell you a little story.

A story about Collective Wisdom.

ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom

 

Collective Wisdom is the name of the first blog I created in 2004, but Collective Wisdom has a deeper meaning:

The best way to learn something is by learning from others.

If you’re smart, you already knew that.

Thirty years ago, I moved my family from Indiana to Detroit to embark on a new career in a city I had never been to before.

It was my transition from working on the air as a radio personality and program director to the advertising side.  I was 26 years old and had to wear a sports coat and tie everyday.

I learned from the owner of our company, Don Crawford of the Crawford Broadcasting Company; and Frank Franciosi, the General Manager of WMUZ 103.5 FM.  I also learned from Doug Burns, a co-worker who I teamed up with to create some very creative and successful radio advertising campaigns before Doug advanced in the company and transferred to Dallas.

But beyond these people and our in-house training resources, I also sought out wisdom from others.

I became a student of marketing, advertising and sales.  Every week I learned from the business owners and managers I worked with as we created advertising and marketing plans.  Most were successful but we learned from those that weren’t successful too.

I also took responsibility for furthering my education by reading certain books and articles and today I’ll share some of those with you.

Harvey Mackay caught my attention with his book Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and his 2nd book Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt. These two books laid the foundation for me in how to conduct myself in the business world and you should visit his website, subscribe to his weekly column and read all of his books.  You’ll be a better person if you read some of Harvey’s wisdom.

Another book, Positioning, The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout began to open up my thinking about marketing and advertising beyond the idea of how to write a commercial.  Al and Jack have since gone their separate ways, but I urge you to pick up any or all of the books they have authored.  Jack’s website has links to his books and there’s more at Al’s website.

Fast forward a few years (about 15+) and I was introduced to the writings of Roy H. Willams.  Roy is the self proclaimed Wizard of Ads and is extremely knowledgeable about not just the advertising world but also the way to use what I call Human Relationship Principles in your marketing.  I have my own copies of his first 3 books which I need to read again.  Roy also offers them free as downloadable PDF Files. I also subscribe to his weekly newsletter which is also free.

Another author that you may have heard about is Seth Godin.  I’ve read most of his books and although I don’t always agree, I appreciate reading his material and comparing his thoughts with my own.  Seth also has a blog that he posts on daily that you can subscribe to.

In a world where it seems like everyone is trying to sell us on the new bright and shiny marketing tool, platform, or gimmick, I urge you to do what I have been doing for the past 3 decades and learn the basics that can apply to your life and business dealings.

Learn how to learn.

Learn how to think.

Learn how to discover your own thoughts, and formulas on how to do stuff.

Take the knowledge and wisdom from others and see how you might apply it to your life.

That’s what I call Collective Wisdom.

A ScLoHo Marketing & Advertising Preview

I’ve been ruminating about this for awhile.3d small people holds a magnifier

Too often I see others in my profession skip over the “hard work” and just do the easy stuff.

The profession I’m referring to is advertising sales and the easy part is to peddle advertising packages to as many people that you can without doing the hard work.

The hard work is to actually help business people decide what they should do that benefits them the most with their advertising and overall marketing.

That’s what I prefer to do.

I quit a job (twice) that wanted me to be a package pusher because that’s the way they ran their business.

I couldn’t stomach it.  So I left.

The past several years however have been very different.  I get to really dig in and help businesses become successful.

Yes, I sell advertising.

No, it’s not a one-size-fits-all package.

In the near future I’ll lay out the different considerations you should make before you say yes to an advertising sales person.

But in the meantime I’ve got some work to do to help a few really good people make smart decisions about spending their money for marketing and advertising.

I can help you too if you want my insight.  My contact info is listed below.

 

Should You Go For Shock & Awful In Your Ads?

First, the back story of this article is from an exchange last week with friends on Twitter that began when I retweeted a link about profanity being good for you.

I will not use the F word online.  It’s also one of the words that broadcasters are not supposed to utter over the public airwaves (broadcast radio and television).ScloHobookgs

The standards have loosened over the decades.  The Wall Street Journal announced that they are now going to print words that were forbidden previously.

But what about your advertising? No, you don’t need to adult language to capture the attention of potential customers.

You may capture their attention, but will it convert them to becoming a paying customer?  Usually not.

Forget about the idea that Sex Sells.  It may get out attention, but sell?  Nope not unless there is a real tie-in between the product/service and the sexuality in the ad.

There are oodles of ways to capture attention and perhaps shock potential customers but you don’t have to reduce yourself by lowering your standards.

Want help?  Ask me.

Advertise for Results Today and Influence Tomorrow

Word of Mouth Advertising with a Bigger Mouth.6e94e554b7b7e39ef803042aff61a90fe2196b0c9b95b4027f8dc795

That’s the way I’ve described effective radio ads for decades that are taking advantage of the power of the influence of a radio station and the station personalities as a trust conduit.

On my station, WOWO radio in Fort Wayne, Charly and Pat do live endorsement ads for some of our advertising partners and it is very effective.

Why?

Charly and Pat have earned the trust of their listeners and when they speak highly of the companies they endorse, it simple becomes Word of Mouth Advertising with a Bigger Mouth.

That trust factor applies to our live embedded news sponsorship messages too because WOWO radio has been around longer than most of our listeners, (over 90 years and 20 as a news talk station.)

The trust factor between WOWO and our listeners actually goes beyond our listeners because of this same Word of Mouth influence.

If my friend who does not listen to WOWO asks me for a recommendation for fixing ______ or buying _________ and I’ve heard about a business that advertises on WOWO, I’m going to pass along that business even if I never used them myself because of the Word of Mouth Trust Factor.

This goes beyond any measurable Return On Investment that a business can keep track of.  Your advertising with me on WOWO is an investment in results today and influence tomorrow.

Want to know more?  Let’s talk.

How to Convert $1 into $10 with your Marketing

I just finished reading an article on Medium about Influencer Marketing that claims, For Every $1 Spent on Influencer Marketing, A Brand Makes $6.50.

But they are wrong.

I’m not doubting the facts and figures they present, but I doubt that the return is what they say it is.

It’s too low.

But it’s impossible to accurately measure despite the rise in data collection and technology that links our lives and behaviors, there is still a missing link and that missing link is the human factor which makes it impossible to accurately tell us which piece of the marketing puzzle was the final one that inspired us to buy.

Truth be told, there are countless influences on each individual buying choice we make.

So instead of telling you which is the best form of advertising and marketing, I’m going to challenge you in a different direction with the purpose of  converting $1 into $10 with your marketing.

It boils down to what you do with a potential customer after they’ve heard/seen your ad. connecting-people

It’s about making the right connection with the follow through.

I’ll use an advertising partner of mine who will remain nameless today, but they are aware of what I’m going to share and I’m going to help them fix the problem.

This service oriented business was getting several phone calls from people that could have become customers but didn’t.

(I have access to some of their incoming phone calls and listened to a couple dozen of them recently.)

The service manager talked to a potential customer for 5 minutes without offering to schedule a service call to send a tech to diagnose the problem.  Instead he gave the person calling advice on what the problem could be and left it hanging…

Another call from a potential customer who was ready to book a service call but the scheduler led her down a different. complex path and again it was a lost sale.

That’s just two calls that I heard where the professionals in the business had potential customers call them and the result was not good.

It wasn’t good for the people who called because when they hung up the phone there was no plan to fix the problem they called about.

It wasn’t good for my advertising partner because they spent time on the phone and lost money (for the time) instead of earning money (by converting the call into a customer.)

This is not an isolated incident.

I dropped my insurance agent a few years ago, because he didn’t offer a solution to a problem.

Even the fast food minimum wagers are trained to ask if you want to make that burger a full meal.

Your job as a business is to offer a solution to people who are asking for help.

Most people will pay you for that solution.

You spend money to invite those folks to contact you.

Now you need to follow through and with those people who walk in your store, call your office or connect online.  Solve their problem, and they will pay you. They will also tell others about how well you took care of them.

You’ve already spent the money to get them to connect.  Earn that money back and you can start seeing a 10 to 1 return on your advertising and marketing.