by Scott Howard | Mar 10, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
One Small but Powerful Word
…but wait, if you call now, you’ll receive a second set of (fill in the blank) absolutely FREE! Buy two – Get one FREE! Free Delivery – Free Interest. Free this – Free that!
There’s a reason some of the top advertising copywriters in the world lean on the word FREE… It Works!
One of the “prime” reasons Amazon and all online shopping has become so popular so quickly is in large part due to two words, “FREE DELIVERY”. But the appeal of “free” extends far beyond online marketing. Free is a powerful and compelling purchase motivator in virtually every business category.
In his book, Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely tested the word “free” with candy, specifically, Lindt’s Truffle and Hersey’s Kiss. When the Lindt Truffle was priced at 15 cents and the Hersey’s Kiss priced at 1 cent, 73% of participants choose the Lindt Truffle. When a different group was offered the same products each for a penny less, Lindt at 14 cents and Hersey’s for free, 69% chose the Hersey’s Kiss.
But using the word FREE comes with caution; using it too much or without a compelling offer can lead to the risk of customers being suspicious.
In my 23 Free Strategies to Increase Sales, one of the strategies is to offer a free “buyer’s guide” online or at your location. Consumers today are hungry for knowledge and want to reassure themselves they’ve made the best possible buying decision based upon that knowledge. This tactic can attract new prospects and guide them to prefer the features of the products you sell.
Have you considered what free strategies you might employ to increase your sales?
One of my advertising partners, Anthony Realtors offers a Free 151 step buying guide. When I first saw this offer on their web page, I thought it was a typo, but it wasn’t. I never realized that there are so many steps to successfully marketing a home. This buying guide also acted as a measuring stick, a point of comparison because most realtors don’t do most of the 151 items on this list.
To receive a FREE copy of the 23 Free Strategies you can use to increase your sales at little or no cost to you, click here!
I also have another free offer for you. Nearly every week, I have an email newsletter with tips like what you just read that is delivered to your inbox Wednesday mornings. You can add yourself to the mailing list by filling out the form below, for Sound ADvice.
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by Scott Howard | Aug 21, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Maintaining a good relationship with your customers is critical to your lasting success.
Roy H. Williams in his article on Advertising Oversimplified covered this:
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Most customers are repeat customers or referral customers. Mass media is the most efficient way to maintain top-of-mind awareness among these groups. In addition, it will bring you new, first-time customers.
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Your plan to stay in touch with your customers through social media and email blasts is based on the assumption that your customer is willing to open, read, listen to, or watch what you have to say. Is this actually happening? And if not, why not? (HINT: The Subject Line gets people to open it. The content, itself, gets people to share it.)
I get direct mail pieces from a couple realtors and other business people I know and I also get some emails but most of them get deleted or tossed without being read.
I even have a weekly marketing email you can subscribe to free using the form below for Sound ADvice.
As business people we are told that we need to be doing something to maintain that connection, but is what you are doing the right thing for your individual customers?
Even if you are doing the right number of “touches” with your email or direct mail…
Are they meaningful to the people on the receiving end?
I’m not suggesting you drop everything you are currently doing unless you see no value in it at all.
I am suggesting that you also add a personal touch, the kind that is not “mass media”.
Every once in a while, I will contact some of my advertising partners with a note, a phone call or an article that would be of interest to them.
When I did this with a Financial Planner friend of mine, she asked me how I found the article I sent her because it’s from a publication written specifically for people in her field, not the general public. I told her my research secrets and she got a greater understanding of how I am looking out for her interests, not just selling her advertising.
Like I said, I don’t recommend stopping all your mass media advertising and only focusing on personalized one-at-a-time marketing; that proved disastrous for an old friend of mine who thought word of mouth alone would be the way to go. He had to shut his doors after he tried that experiment and his business had a 25 year history.
Do both.
Mass media reaches both your current and future customers. Personalized messaging can be used to retain that relationship.
Want help? Contact me: Scott@WOWO.com
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by Scott Howard | Apr 30, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Core Customers – Keep Them!
Every business owner understands that keeping a current customer is much less expensive than creating a new customer. Or at least you think they would! Let me rephrase this; Every SUCCESSFUL business owner not only understands this, but they do things to ensure that they remain a customer and become a Core Customer.
So what exactly is a Core Customer? A Core Customer is someone that has done business with you in the past “X-period of time” and has the potential to do business with you again.
The “X-period of time” depends upon the purchase cycle or how often purchases are made within each business category. For example, in the automotive category, a typical person purchases a vehicle every 3-½ years. In the plumbing business, less than 20% of the population use a plumber every year and 50% of the population only needs a plumber every 4 to 6 years. In the hardware business, it can be 1 time per month or more.
If your current customers have purchased from you within your “purchase cycle” time frame, these people should be considered a “Core Customer”. As a business owner, you want to connect and reconnect with people between purchases until, at minimum, they are out of the “purchase cycle” period.
The other important question is, how often do you need to keep in contact? It can vary to some degree depending upon the buying cycle, but the rule of thumb is 3 to 5 times a year, with a minimum of two.
The first thing you must do is identify your business’ buying cycle. Then, identify who your current core customers are.
If you do not have a list of your customers and their contact info, start to create one. The only info you need is the name, mailing address, email address, date of purchases, and if possible, what they purchased and the transaction amount.
Having this information is useless unless you USE it!
Keeping your current customers is one key to success, but we must understand that regardless of what you do, you stand to lose 20% of your customers each year due to attrition in one form or another. Therefore, it’s paramount that you continue to attract new customers that turn into Core Customers. Once you’ve created the relationship, do everything you can to keep them!
I have 8 helpful tips on how to stay connected with your Core Customers and protect them from predators (your competition). Just email send me an email to Scott@WOWO.com with the subject Core Customers. I also have a weekly marketing tips newsletter that I will send to you free when you fill out the form below.
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by Scott Howard | Nov 20, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo Sales Tips, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
The Holi-daze are upon on and this is a weird and wonderful time of year. I’ve created a few items that you as a business person or marketing person, or what ever kind of person you are, you can take a look at and use to help you navigate the last few weeks of this year.
If this is make it or break it time for your retail business, it’s time to suck it up. Just because you are having to work long hours and cover for the employees that are sick or you just are short handed because all the good people have jobs elsewhere due, remember your customers.
The customers who actually drove to your store really want to buy something that you sell. Otherwise, we would have ordered it online. Just the other day, my wife was working on a project and after making a couple trips to the store, she asked me to order a tool online. It took me less than 10 minutes on a Saturday afternoon and it arrived at our house Monday. While that was convenient for my family, we are also a shop local family. Of the $200 we spent on this project, $185 went to a local store and $15 went to Amazon.
That’s because we are consciously looking to support our friends and neighbors. Locally owned coffee shops and restaurants get most of my food and beverage money every month.
The point is, the people who come to your store, have a choice to buy from you or someone else. Super-serve them and keep them coming back. Create a positive shopping experience for them and they will come back. Make it a bad experience, and you may have lost them forever.
Advertising is the part of marketing that functions as the invitation to your company. But advertising can’t fix problems that go on inside your company.
Last week I was meeting with someone who wanted to hire me to train his staff on how to upsell his customers in a manner that is not annoying, but instead is genuine.
Speaking of advertising, you really need to invite people to your store right now. People are spending for themselves and for others. They are overspending, maxing out credit cards this time of year. While I don’t believe that is a good thing to do, I’m not their mom and they are grown ups right?
Advertising this time of year might be challenging if you haven’t planned ahead.
Using television ads means you need to get a fresh ad produced and that takes time and money. Also the television viewing is different this time of year due to the holiday specials on TV and combined with the changes in TV viewing habits, I recommend you stay away from TV unless you already have it planned out.
Print ads might be available in the daily newspaper, but with the dwindling number of readers, just say no.
Social Media including Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest might work, but you better have a professional managing it, or else you can waste time and money.
I offer some online advertising options through the Federated Digital Solutions division of my company, but again, it’s kind of late to plan for this Holi-daze season. If you want to talk about it, let’s plan a campaign for the new year.
My suggestion is using radio advertising to capture customers right now for the Holi-daze season.
Within a couple of days, I can get your message in front of thousands of people right here in our city who are shopping. WOWO radio continues to be one of the most listened to radio stations in Fort Wayne and it’s a hot time right now. Our annual Penny Pitch drive is underway with money being raised for two local non-profits. Weekly events that you and your business can be associated with provide a feel-good connection.
I also can create room for advertising for a special event. Earlier this month, I put together a radio advertising campaign for an event that was less than a week away. I wrote the ads, we produced the campaign and in the 5 days leading up and including the sale days, over 50 ad invitations were heard by over 75,000 WOWO listeners.
If this is crunch time for you, let’s talk now.
Or if this is a slow time of the year for you because you are not part of the retail Holi-daze season, this is an excellent time to plan for the new year. I can make time to help you with your planning, reach out and we’ll get started.
By the way, I have a couple of ideas for retailers that you can do right now for this Holi-daze season:
- This first one was inspired by Amazon. I use Amazon to buy gifts for my relatives that are hundreds of miles away. I often spend a little extra to have Amazon gift wrap those presents. What if you offered to gift wrap purchases as an upsell to people who are in your store? Make it easy and just have a stock of gift bags and tissue paper, and charge them your cost plus an extra buck or two. You can even partner up with a local charity and give the proceeds to them.
- This other idea also was inspired by something Amazon does not do. Sometimes I buy a gift ahead of time and I don’t want it to arrive before hand. What if you offered a Santa’s Closet for people who want to buy presents now, but wait a few days or weeks to take them home?
- My last idea is something you need to start and continue forever. Collect email addresses and text numbers and offer a program to customers who sign up to be notified of special events. Most major retailers do this and you should too.
by Scott Howard | Sep 7, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Just a quick FYI. The Genuine ScLoHo Media & Marketing Podcast is moving our weekly release date to the beginning instead of the end of the week and so this is a teaser to the next episode titled, Don’t Be Social Media Stupid With Your Business.
I really, really, really, yes REALLY want you to make a change in your business that will cost you less than $100 a year.
Get a professional email address.
I’ve had one for years. It is Scott@ScLoHo.net.
Mine is part of Google Suites, so it looks like a Gmail account to me, but to anyone sending me an email, with my own domain, it is a step or two or three above Gmail.
The past couple of months, I have seen businesses with email accounts from HotMail, Yahoo, Gmail, and even AOL.
What this tells me is that these folks either don’t take their business seriously, or they are really, really behind the times.
And having one of these old email domains for your business hurts your credibility and the trust factor we want to have in you.
But I’ve had my hotmail email address for years, all my customers use that, how will they reach me if I change?
Easy. You can have your current email addresses forwarded to your new email address.
While you are at it, your website probably needs an update too, but that’s a subject for another day.
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