No Quick Fix

No Quick Fix

by | Apr 8, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

One of the concerns that I sometimes hear when talking to a business owner about investing in an advertising campaign is how long it will take to get results.

Or a variation is the opposite…

Can we handle all the business we get if we start advertising with your radio station?

My friends, there is usually no quick fix.

Advertising is usually not like a faucet that you turn on and customers come rushing out to buy what you have right away.

It takes time.

How much time?

Depends on how many ads you place and how often they air and a few other important factors.

However to the untrained, it might seem like things are closer than they really are.

Last month my wife and I took a trip to Washington DC to see the Cherry Blossoms and sightsee and along with a memorable trip, I’ve also got material for a few blogposts and podcast episodes.

The first day of our arrival, after checking in to our hotel and enjoying dinner at a local Irish pub, we decided to walk over to the Capitol Building which I knew was about 3 or 4 blocks away.  We could see it from the Irish pub.

Then we glanced over towards the Washington Monument and decided to hike thru the National Mall to the Monument where there were more Cherry Trees and it was my intention to continue to the Jefferson Memorial.

However as we started the first part of our journey it was getting dusk and our perception of distance and the time it would take was off.  We did make it to the Washington Monument, but there was no way we were going to continue that night all the way to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial on foot on Friday night.

A couple days later, with some pre-planning, I made arrangements for us to get a tour of the major sites of Washington DC that included transportation and from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the daylight that Sunday, we could see much more clearly the big picture of how far we were from the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.

The lessons we learned about quick fixes:

  1. Plan ahead
  2. Understand the journey
  3. Know when to regroup and find a different method
  4. Dress appropriate for the journey

Those same lessons apply to marketing your business, even the last one about dressing appropriately.

Want help? Contact me.

Narrow Minded Marketing

Narrow Minded Marketing

by | Mar 18, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

The goal of your advertising should be to increase both your sales and your brand identity. But all too often we overly focus on analytics or demographics when creating our media plans.  Narrowly targeting often means you are missing the much larger population of people not in your core demographic.

As the “New Media” (digital and social) emerged, many businesses, large and small, made the move to these platforms believing that laser-focused targeting was the answer to their advertising dreams.

Wrong!  In fact, Tide, the #1 selling laundry detergent, found that while they were focusing on the people who fit their “typical profile”, they were missing the much larger target of those who were not using their product. In other words, they were eroding their brand’s awareness and missing the target of “new and future” users. Ultimately, their sales started to decline.

In a swift move, they moved the majority of their budget back to traditional media, and sales and brand identity rebounded.

In another example, it might not seem unreasonable for a baby-products retailer to target “women 18-49 with infants”, but according to the market research firm Scarborough, nearly half of those who bought infants’ clothing, roughly 47%, were from households without children.

The same research from Scarborough found that nearly a quarter of all women’s cosmetics and perfumes, 23.5%, were bought by men.

In Roy Williams’ Twelve Causes of Advertising Failure, #9 is Overconfidence in Qualitative Data. “In reality, saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people. It is amazing how many people become the ‘Right People’ when you are saying the right thing.”

Being too narrow-minded and focusing on only the core audience is actually eroding your brand. Hundreds and thousands of people are not in the market for your product or service today, or even soon, but someday they will be.

Thinking beyond the traditional demographics your competitors are targeting with their advertising can help you reach untapped markets to increase your sales well into the future.

Click here to read how to reach and influence “purchasers” rather than “demographics”.
 
 
Now I’ve worked in both mass media and niche media.  I’ve done mass appeal and hyper-targeted campaigns.  I would welcome the opportunity to review any advertising proposals that a typical ad salesperson presents to you to see exactly what the focus is and if it’s a good match for what you want to accomplish.
3 Ways To Grow Your Business

3 Ways To Grow Your Business

by | Feb 19, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

Last week subscribers to my SoundADvice email newsletter learned we the advantages of knowing your competitors and finding ways or areas where you can exploit your competitors’ weaknesses and find areas where you can grow your business.

As owners or managers of a business, it’s our responsibility to not only figure out how to keep our business functioning properly and effectively but also how to GROW our business.  Staying even or going backward are not options.  Growth is vital!

Growing a business is not nearly as easy as it may appear and it’s certainly more complicated than just increasing sales.  Understanding that there are only three ways to grow a business is a great place to start.

Regardless of what type of business you have, there are only three ways to grow. They are…

  1. Sell more of what you are currently selling.
  2. Sell what you are currently selling for more money.
  3. Add additional product(s) or service(s) to what you are currently selling.

Regardless of how you slice it, nearly everything you can come up with to grow a business will fall under one of these three headings.

We suggest that you look at each area and identify within your business how you might increase your sales.

  1. Selling more this year than you did last year isn’t as easy as it sounds and simply opening up your doors and hanging a “We’re Open” sign isn’t the answer. What can you do to get the same people, or new people, to buy more of your products or services?
  2. Can you increase prices? If not on every product or service, can you increase the pricing on some of them? Which ones? Identify them!
  3. Adding products or services gets tricky. Think within your business category and then think outside of it. Are there products or services that you can add that won’t distract from or replace your current offerings?

Attracting a customer and getting them to open their wallets can be a difficult and costly process.  But once they’re in your showroom and have their wallets open, an accompanying up-sell is relatively easy.  Once the customer has chosen a new outfit, getting them to consider adding a pair of shoes or belt is relatively easy and it can be a big step towards growing your business.

The formula works regardless of whether your business is retail, service, medical, or professional.

If you would like to see a simple worksheet that can help you start the process of utilizing the three ways to grow your business, click here.

Also if you want to start receiving these Sound ADvice emails free every week in your inbox, let me know.

Your Customers ALWAYS Have A Choice

Your Customers ALWAYS Have A Choice

by | Feb 5, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Only fools believe their business has no competition.

There are multiple ways to think about who your competition is, however, I’m going to define it in the simplest terms for businesses and that is customer money.

If I have a need and you could supply that need for a price, but I choose to satisfy that need by spending my money with someone else, that someone else is your competition.

This weeks Sound ADvice newsletter talks about competition and  I’ll share that with you in a second but first I want to broaden your idea of competition.

Today, I ate breakfast.

I had the choice of eating something I already spent money on and was in my kitchen…

Or I could leave my house and spend money somewhere else.

Often, business owners only look at their direct competition.  Today I spent a couple of bucks for a breakfast burrito and a diet Mt. Dew. Yesterday I spent 6 times that for a breakfast sandwich and white mocha from my favorite coffee shop. Tomorrow, I’ll have a bowl of cereal.

See, sometimes the competition isn’t direct, but an alternative, however they all are ways that involve my money and my desire for breakfast.

Now let’s look at the SoundADvice I’m sending out in my weekly newsletter this week. (and if you want a free copy emailed to you every week, just let me know).

Have you ever heard someone say, “We don’t worry about our competitors, we just focus on what we do”?

Sure you have! It sounds nice, but the truth is that most successful business owners have a very keen eye on their competitors and know as much about them as possible. If not, there is no way to know which cards you can or should play or when to play them.

More than likely you know “who” your competitors are, but “how much” do you know about them? It’s not so much about knowing them so you can be like them, but, the more you know them, the more you can make sure you differentiate your business from theirs.

Motivational and self-help speaker Jim Rohn was known for his witty one-liners. One of his best was directed at people and businesses and it encouraged them to be different.

“Walk away from the 97%. Don’t talk like they talk,
don’t act like they act,
don’t go where they go, don’t do what they do,
don’t specialize in what they specialize in”.

In other words, Jim is saying, be yourself, make your own mark. Make sure you and your business are clearly different than your competitors.

Why is it so important to know your competitors?

In any given market, large, medium, or small, there is only so much business. Capturing your fair share and growing your share is the path to success. Only when you know what their strengths and weaknesses are can we know how you can best position your business to compete with them and grow your share of the market.

When we are armed with this knowledge, we can communicate our true value to consumers, adapt our brand and communications strategy accordingly, and win market share.

“If you know thy enemy and know thyself,
you need not fear the result of a thousand battles”.
– Sun Tzu

Identifying what differentiates your brand, product, or service from other players in the industry is only one of the benefits of analyzing your competitors. It’s crucial to increasing sales with your current customers, building customer loyalty, and attracting new customers. It will also help you identify the following:

  • Understanding industry standards so that you can meet and exceed them.
  • Discovering untapped niche markets.
  • Fulfilling customers’ desires and solving their problems better than competitors.
  • Distinguishing your brand.
  • Standing out in your marketing.

In today’s multifaceted world, competitions come in many forms. Direct competitors are easy to identify. Indirect competitors are sometimes harder to uncover and can come from anywhere. Grocery stores had no idea they would be competing against Amazon. Tire stores and hearing centers didn’t imagine they would be competing with Costco and Sam’s.

While the process of evaluating and knowing your competition can be taxing, the benefits of knowing can open an array of opportunities for your business.

If you would like to see nine ways to help you understand your competition, click here.

Getting Your Business Priorities Aligned

Getting Your Business Priorities Aligned

by | Jan 15, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

What kind of disconnect in your business model do you need to fix this year?

4 years ago with the Covid-19 Pandemic shutdowns, there was a whole heck of a lot of disruptions as we were exploring the great unknown about a virus that we were told could wipe out a significant percent of our population.

Earlier this month I was at a conference and was reminded of some facts that I’d forgotten from history that occured around a hundred years ago.  Between the Spanish flu and World War One, we lost 10% of our population or more depending on the geographic parameters you look at.  In 2020, our governments and those around the world were looking to prevent a similar catastrophe and as a result we had a combination of business and supply chain shut downs along with increased adoption of emerging tech.

For example, the work from home business model that some companies used on a limited basis soon became mainstream with a lot of organizations.  Video meetings and platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom existed before 2020, but now everyone knows about them.

The use of apps to order food exploded and the adoption of many businesses to still provide products and services with less people pushed emerging tech to faster adoption than if we had not had the Covid Crisis.

I’m not talking about politics, I’m referring to reality which we can see with hindsight.

With the aging of the biggest population demographic, the Baby Boomers, and their retirement rates effectively reducing the working population before the pandemic (10,000 are turning 65 every day) we already had a growing labor shortage in many fields such as trucking and healthcare.  The Covid Crisis, while not as bad as 100 years ago, percentage wise, impacted us in this manner too.

Organization improvement by necessity is what kept most of the pre-pandemic businesses alive today while others never recovered.

There’s still more to do.

MarketingCharts.com released a study of Business to Business priorities that are equally important in the Business to Consumer world too.

The top priority for B2B go-to-market (GTM) teams in the year ahead is to strengthen marketing, sales, and customer success alignment according to the report.

I’ve seen this too many times in businesses and non-profits that there are too many silos.  Or to use a term my parents used, “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”

When I’m working with business owners and we launch an ad campaign, too many don’t tell or share with their teams what we are doing except for some very vague mention like, “we’re going to run some ads to increase sales.”

What is really needed is that everyone in the organization is made aware of just what is going on to promote your business.  From the person that answers the phone, to the front line customer service and tech people, even those mostly behind the scenes need to know what you are doing, what the details are, and why.  When you invest in promoting your business, make sure you have everyone in your organization, “in-the-know.”

When you do this, then most of the other priorities on this list can happen.  That includes:

  • Enhance Customer Experience and Engagement
  • Increase Brand Awareness
  • Increase Internal Process Efficiency

Which can set the stage for the last three on the list pertaining to growth and expansion.

How are you posed to improve and grow this year?  If you are in the area of Fort Wayne, Indiana, contact me and I can help you and your team begin the process outlined here.