Measuring the Unmeasurable

Measuring the Unmeasurable

by | Jun 2, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

If you are in charge of the advertising for your business, you want to make sure it is effective right?

Of course you do.

But the challenge has always been how to measure the effectiveness of your advertising.

One way that has been around forever is coupons. A few decades ago one of my jobs as a kid was to clip the coupons from the newspaper and sort them for my parents so they could save a nickel on a can of corn or whatever.  When I wanted them to buy something that wasn’t on the grocery list, but I wanted it, they would ask me if I had a coupon for it.  If I did, I often got it!

As a typical middle class family in the midwest, I imagine this was typical pattern and one of the reasons we still get coupons delivered to our house today.  Usually it’s direct mail or as one grocery store chain has been doing, personalized coupons for my wife and I based on what we’ve bought in the past.

The evolution of couponing has changed over the past few years and one change was accelerated with the changes in shopping habits due to the pandemic. Digital coupons are now outpacing traditional paper coupons in redemption rates according to SupermarketNews.com.

Digital coupons saw an increase of 27% last year as a result in large part to the shift to curb-side or parking lot delivery that replaced the shopping in store experience many of us did.  As a result, digital couponing now is more widely used than the old fashioned paper coupons.

What is the reason for using coupons anyway?  For consumers, it’s free money. For the companies that offer coupons, it’s an investment in getting a person to make a purchase.

There is another way too many businesses use coupons that is wrong.  As an accurate tracking devise of your advertising outreach.

Here’s why:

It’s not really accurate.  You are trying to Measure The Unmeasurable.

I visited the online version of one of the local direct mail coupon advertisers and here’s what I discovered.

88 pages of ad, or maybe it was 88 ads.  It wasn’t clear to me.

There are some categories that are hot right now and have multiple ads from different companies competing with each other in one handy place.

At least 10 ads for Landscaping.

9 for Roofing.

8 for Concrete Coating.

7 for Windows.

And some of those above ads for home improvement could be in other categories because they do both windows and roofs.

Others I noticed were:

HVAC with 6 ads.

Carpet Cleaning or Replacement had 5 ads.

Because these ads are offering discounts, the people likely to respond are people who are looking for a deal.  I’m not against looking for a good price or a great deal, but if that is the only reason someone buys from you, your business model is weak at the best.

Coupons do not create loyalty to you or your brand.  Coupon shoppers are loyal to coupons, not you.  If your competition offers a better deal in their coupon, coupon shoppers will buy from them.

Smart consumers don’t use price as the only criteria for deciding who to do business with.

Smart consumers are looking for value.

We want to trust that when we buy something, it is worth the price we pay for it, that is has the value that we are willing to spend our money on.

Earlier this year, my wife needed a tire for her car, but I knew we were going to trade her car in this year, so the value I was looking for was a tire that was priced low and took care of our immediate, short term needs.  We bought the cheap tire and replaced her car a month later.

Last month, I replaced the battery on my car.  I am planning on keeping this car for several years so I bought the higher quality battery because that was the value I was looking for.

There are so many additional factors besides redemption rates that you can use to determine if your advertising is working.  If you want to attract coupon shoppers, you can continue to use them, just understand that is only one segment of the consumers that are looking to buy what you have to sell.

I worked in the digital world, and still do as a consultant.  I can talk to you about click-thru rates as well as any of them. I know how digital marketers pitch the trackability of their advertising tools, but what they can’t measure is what goes in our individual heads and hearts that lead us to buy from you.

If you really want to know if your advertising is working, use antidotal evidence.  Some of my favorite clients do that and they know that each month, they’ve got business from their advertising on WOWO radio because of the stories they hear from our listeners that do business with them.  They don’t know all the WOWO listeners who spend money with them, but they know that there are enough for them to keep spending thousands of dollars month after month, year after year.

Want to know more?  Contact me and I’ll put you in touch with someone from my team.  Email Scott@WOWO.com.

Is It Time To Fall Out Of Love With Digital Ads?

Is It Time To Fall Out Of Love With Digital Ads?

by | Jan 27, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

The whole magical world of digital advertising online.

For the past decade plus, I’ve seen study after study after study that talked about the shift in advertising from traditional ads to digital ads.

As a point of reference, traditional ads refer to radio and television broadcast ads, newspaper and any form of print including direct mail and phone books, also outdoor ads like roadside billboards and even in-store signage, etc.  Digital ads are delivered digitally via the internet someway on webpages, apps, search engine marketing, you can even throw in search engine optimization.

Most of the predictions of double digit percentage increases in digital ad expenditures year over year have come true, just like the decrease in money spent on traditional ads have come true too.

But, has this shift in where companies advertise paid off?

According to a recent article in Forbes, the answer is either no, or not anymore, or no one knows.

There’s a lot of no’s in that last sentence.  And that should concern you.

When Big Brands Stopped Spending On Digital Ads, Nothing Happened. Why?

That’s the tile and here are some of the details from Forbes:

Proctor and Gamble was spending $200 million on digital advertising and turned it off.  Result = no change in business outcome.

Chase Bank was serving their ads on 400,000 sites and cut it 99% to just 5,000 and saw no negative impact.

Uber was spending $120 million and stopped and saw no change too.

The Forbes article lists other examples big and small of businesses that either stopped their paid digital ads completely or shrunk the budget significantly and actually improved their business.  They mention Facebook ads and Google Adwords along with other digital marketing activity and I believe I know the reason for this.

There’s a phrase called the “Zero Moment of Truth”.  It’s the time when a consumer decides to make the purchase.  The digital world likes to say they deliver buyers at that Zero Moment.  Maybe or maybe not.

What if you need to buy a new hot water heater?  That’s a purchase most people don’t plan for but when you wake up and need one, you don’t wait for days or weeks to decide to buy.  You are suddenly at the Zero Moment of Truth when you are in the ice cold shower.

Your brain is going to immediately start by telling you the names of companies that you already know that could be your problem solver.  Then your heart will kick in and screen out the companies you know but don’t trust.

How does your heart and brain know these things?  Ideally it’s because you have been exposed to advertising and marketing way before your hot water heater died.  And this is where certain forms of traditional media shine.

I call it intrusive media.  Over 90% of the American population still listen to the radio every week.  For my wife and I, we listen to the radio every time we are in the car which is at least 5 to 7 days a week.  The radio stations we listen to have ads.  Our brains hear those ads thru our ears and that reputation of hearing about a local business builds trust so our hearts are also impacted.

My parents never picked up the phone book as part of their casual reading routine, it was the Zero Moment of Truth when they grabbed the phone book if they didn’t know who to call, they’d flip open the Yellow Pages to search by business classification and see the ads for water heaters.  Or if they already knew who they wanted to call, they would open the White Pages which was the alphabetical listing of people and businesses and get the number that way.

The digital revolution has replaced the phone book in multiple ways, hasn’t it…

So why are the digital ads that I mentioned at the beginning of this article not needed anymore?  It’s because the impact has diminished.  The brands that are using digital to get the sale at the Zero Moment of Truth already have Top of Mind Awareness and consumers would buy from them anyway.

That Top of Mind Awareness came from traditional media over the years, and has continued as those brands keep showing up on TV and radio.

I’ve got one more quote from the Forbes piece:

Digital marketing works; but the vast majority of impressions and clicks are from bot activity currently.

I’ve worked in the digital world and I’ve done some deep dives into the Google Analytics and unfortunately, it’s true.  I can make you a promise that when you are listening to my radio station, WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana and we share with you the number of weekly listeners, those are real live people, like you and me, not bots.

Contact me for more info. Scott@WOWO.com.

 

Out with the Old, In with the New

Out with the Old, In with the New

by | Nov 3, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

In the old media world, 86% of advertising budgets went towards production and delivery costs that are totally unnecessary in the new electronic media age.

This archaic mode of communication came at the cost of harvesting trees, operating expensive pulp and paper mills, the printing process, and the entire delivery system, from beginning to end.

In the new electronic media age, none of those costs are necessary.

The perfect, and much more cost-effective, media mix today is the combination of internet, including websites, email, and social media, plus broadcast, which includes radio, TV, and mobile.

In this new media world, your media strategy is simplified and more effective. The strategy of many of the best marketers today use broadcast to inspire and internet to inform.

The “inform” side of the strategy is much more cost-effective than old, printed platforms. The internet is available at your customers’ fingertips 24/7.  It’s interactive, and it’s 86% cheaper because it eliminates the massive cost of harvesting trees and the process of creating, printing, and delivering the printed pieces.

Remember when you had to pay for color in old media? On the internet, color is free and there are no “deadlines”…you can change your message whenever it suits you.

On the “inspire” side of the new electronic media scale, broadcast is there to create an awareness and preference for your brand or business. It’s that preference you create in the minds of your prospects for your business that is the most effective S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimization) on the planet!

Research has proven your customers will go to the first name they recognize or are familiar with on a search engine page rather than click on one at the top of the page they have never heard of.

Better yet is to create such a strong identity with the broadcast half of your electronic media mix that your prospects Google your business name rather than what you sell. Googling what you sell reveals a list of your competitors while searching your name takes prospects directly to your website.

Click here if you would like to see our Ten Ways to Profit from Your Website in the new electronic media age.
 
 
What you just read is from this weeks Sound ADvice email newsletters that can be yours, absolutely free by signing up.
 
I want to expand and tell you how we have been adapting and moving away from the old and embracing the new at WOWO radio where I lead a team of advertising sales and marketing consultants.
 
1st off in the radio ads themselves, we are encouraging our clients to stop using phone numbers.  We don’t need them anymore.  Our smartphones will make the call for us without us ever needing to know the number.
 
Also stop with the WWW dot your website dot com.  It’s not needed.  Or if it is, then you need to get your tech support to clean up your website.
 
One more thing that I am entirely impressed with is how our morning show host has embraced social media for not just her own use but also for her advertising partners when appropriate.  If Kayla is your spokesperson and she has used your company, she’s going to share on her Facebook and Instagram accounts to all of her followers the wonderful your company has done for her.
 
 
Want to know more about using WOWO to draw people to your website and online activity?  Contact me, Scott@WOWO.com.

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The Danger of OverTargetting

The Danger of OverTargetting

by | Sep 22, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights

The goal of your advertising should be to increase both your sales and your brand identity. But all too often we get hung up on targeting analytics or demographics when creating our media plans.  Narrowly targeting oftentimes means you are missing the much larger population of people not in your “bullseye”.

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 that fit their “typical profile”, they were missing the much larger target of those that were not using their product. In other words, they were eroding the awareness of their brand and they were 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, 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.”

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

Click here to read how to reach and influence “purchasers” rather than “demographics”.
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Radio versus Social Media

Radio versus Social Media

by | Sep 9, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

For the past few years, President Donald Trump has called the major news media Fake News. Meanwhile the commentators on the networks and news organization he calls Fake, call the Presidents favorite channel Fake News.  I’m not about to dive into a political rabbit hole but this is just one example of how we as consumers have been losing trust in the long standing traditional news media, no matter what side you are on, there’s someone on the other side that will say, you’re wrong and they are right.

What led to this widespread division is not just what the news organizations are doing, but the availability for anyone and everyone to become their own “media”.  I’m talking about Social Media.

We can forget about Tom and MySpace which was the forerunner to Facebook.  MySpace is still around but Tom skipped town.

Facebook is attempting to take over the world, still but in light of what they have been doing with data collection and arguing over their legal liabilities, Facebook is losing ground when it comes to Trust. 

I just read a story that summarized findings of a survey taken this summer by Engagement Labs that points out how badly the trust factor in Social Media has fallen this year.  How bad is it?  “Facebook down 56%, Instagram down 38% and Twitter down 140%”

Yikes.

Now before I go any further with sharing the results from this story, I want you to know where I am coming from.  Since 2003 I have worked exclusively in the marketing world.  8 years at a group of radio stations, followed by some shorter positions working for a website development company that specialized in marketing solutions, another several months back in radio, followed by nearly a year as the “Social Media Magician” at an ecommerce company before I returned to radio again in 2013.  

The ScLoHo brand came about due to my online activity I was doing 15 years ago.  I have lived in both social and online media along with traditional media for a long time and I know the strengths and weaknesses of all of it.  The company I work for has a digital division and I can probably out debate anyone on the pros and cons of all this. 

Back to this story and survey from this summer…

A new survey of radio listeners finds their trust in radio and its personalities continues to grow as social media has become far less trustworthy during the past year. Conducted by data and analytics firm Engagement Labs and commissioned by iHeartMedia, the study shows listeners ages 18-69 place higher trust in radio than in television or social media and that 79% of respondents said radio is more or just as trustworthy compared to a year ago while social media is 50% less trustworthy during the same time period.

Here’s more specific numbers:

Among radio listeners 18-69, the survey found 75% trust radio, 66% trust television, 57% trust websites, 38% trust Twitter and 37% trust Facebook.

My radio station, WOWO Radio is a news/talk formated station and I just received data relating to our listenership and the trust factor that I’ll share in a few weeks.

One more quote from this story:

The survey also found that an overwhelming majority of respondents indicated that radio improves their mood, helps them feel less isolated and more connected to their community. More than three-fourth of respondents (77%) trust the information they receive from their favorite on-air hosts. In addition, heavy radio listeners were found to wield robust word of mouth power for advertisers, having more brand conversations and more influence than heavy internet users and TV viewers.

It’s that last part, the robust word of mouth power for advertisers that I’ll gladly talk to you about specifically with regards to WOWO radio if you reach out to me and I’ll also be including that information in an upcoming article and podcast.

 

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