Should You Hire An Advertising Specialist or Generalist?

Should You Hire An Advertising Specialist or Generalist?

This article is for the business owner who is regularly being asked to buy advertising and really needs a little help deciding what to do. (Or perhaps a LOT of help.)

Today, we are going to talk about the pros and cons of advertising agencies, advertising sales people and marketing consultants and what you really need for your business. There was a story in Mediapost that touched on this topic and we’re going to get to the heart of the matter for you.

Should You Hire An Advertising Specialist or Generalist?

You see I’m a bit of both.  I’m a big picture marketing guy who has expertise in several specialties.

Start with the basics:

Why advertise?  To attract and retain customers.  It’s that simple.

Then why is it hard to pick what kind of advertising you and your business should be involved with?

Because there are so many options and all these advertising salespeople who tell you their advertising is the best, whether it’s true or not.

So I sell advertising, what makes me, Scott Howard different?  Let’s start with a quote from one of my online profiles:

This is the Big Picture of Marketing, Advertising, and Media, down to the tiniest detail.

Combining the tools of today with the timeless, proven methods of the past and creating ideas that rely on honest, trustworthy human relationship principles.

This Big Picture concept is what makes me an advertising generalist.  That’s also the term you could apply to most of the advertising agencies that offer a variety of services.  But I’m not an ad agency and I have a unique perspective that’s different than most advertising generalists.

That’s also where the ScLoHo persona comes in.  This unique perspective is that all of your marketing and advertising needs to be based on Human Relationship Principles or if they are not, you better have a very good reason why not.

Human Relationship Principles are the natural, organic ways we communicate with one another that promotes trust, and good positive feelings. You incorporate that into a marketing campaign successfully and your business will grow beyond what you could ever do with coupons and gimmicks.

I know how to do this because I’ve been a student of this for a few decades and there are hundreds of businesses in Metro Fort Wayne and Metro Detroit that were my real-life laboratories.

Along the way I also gathered intensive insider knowledge and wisdom regarding what could be called Advertising Specialties. These include:

  1. Print including newspaper, magazine and direct mail.
  2. Outdoor including the big billboards, the smaller signage, even the ads we see on city buses. Which brings me to …
  3. Vehicle wraps, promotional materials and company branded attire.
  4. Television advertising including cable TV.
  5. Social Media.
  6. Website design and structure.
  7. Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.
  8. Email Marketing.
  9. Blogging, Vlogging and Podcasting
  10. and of course Radio Advertising.

Every one of these specialties I have direct experience in and have served on the board of directors for the local American Advertising Federation to enrich my knowledge and teach others.  I have even taught branding at a local university, won awards from both my peers and from independent, impartial judging panels.  I am not one to blow my own horn and say how great I am, that is out of character for me, but I really want you to know that since I made the transition from being a radio personality to an advertising and marketing specialist over 30 years ago, I have learned a bunch and am continuing to learn.  All I want to do is help you with what I’ve learned.

Some of these Advertising Specialties I continue to do first hand and others I will either outsource, recommend others that I trust or at the very least serve as your marketing coach so that when someone tries to sell you their advertising specialty, you have an experienced professional that knows how it should be done and can help you in the process if it’s really something you should invest it. I, Scott Howard, work for WOWO Radio and we have a whole boatload of advertising and marketing solutions you can buy.  The ScLoHo side of me helps you with the things I can’t sell you but can advise and guide you.

So back to my original question: Should You Hire An Advertising Specialist or Generalist? Why chose one or the other when you can have both in one person?

Let’s talk.

Is There A Better Way of Getting Customers?

In my world of marketing and advertising, I see all kinds of schemes designed to get people to buy stuff.  Sometimes I get unsolicited emails from people who think I want to buy their stuff, but they are paddling up stream and up the wrong creek.

I’m going to show you an example from last week.

I’ve been getting emails from Matt, well okay, I’ll use his real name and show you the exact content.

The subject line was:

First impressions are overrated

That was good.  Here’s what the body of the email said:

Scott,

Something must’ve been wrong with my initial outreach to you because I still haven’t heard back. I think it’s time for a fresh start.

 

Hi, I’m Matt, a Founder at CONSENSUS™. Our software powers personalized, interactive, video demos to drive ridiculous revenue and I think it’s a great fit for you.

Don’t take my word for it, see for yourself.
I clicked on the Watch Demo Button and started down a rabbit trail to see how bad this would be.  It was an interactive video and I realized it wasn’t going to get any better than my first impression.
Here’s how he wrapped up the email to me:
 We can show you how we’ve helped companies 2x their close rate in a 30 minute meeting. Are you available sometime early next week?
Here’s what I wrote back to Matt:
You have not created a valid business reason for me to respond.  As such, I am very unimpressed with what your service could provide.
Unless you can create a personalized V.B.R. your success in email prospecting is limited.
I am not the person who can say yes and with this experience I am the person who can say no to recommending your services for our company and the clients I serve.
Get better, be better.
Good  luck.
Let this be a warning to you if you send me an email like his, you may be the subject of an article like this.
I decided to use his email as a lesson.
A lesson for him, for you and for me.
I spent the time to respond and share a lesson with him.
Sharing this online right here is a lesson for you.
And all of this is a reminder lesson for me not to get lazy.
But really, there is a Better Way of Getting Customers than what this guy did.
If you want some ideas for your business, contact me and I promise not to send you a form letter.

Eliminate Spam From Your Inbox

I hate spam.  It’s not a tasty treat and it’s pretty annoying when it fills your email inbox too. email-marketing

So today, I’m going to reach out to those of you who are still using Yahoo!, Hotmail, or heaven-forbid, AOL as your main email account.

I used to be one of you and it was so annoying to see all the junk that was making it past the spam filters on those platforms.

Here’s how to Eliminate Spam From Your Inbox.

I hope you’ve heard of Gmail.  Google introduced it in 2004 by invitation only and I jumped on the waiting list.  By 2007, it was available to anyone. Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google.

What caught my attention at the time was how effective Gmail was at filtering spam.  It was virtually fool-proof. Still is, although there are a few that slip into my inbox each month.

But I receive up to 150 emails each day, not counting the spam emails which alone can top 100 each day.  Do the math and you’ll see why I’m impressed.

Here’s a screenshot from my gmail spam folder the other day:

A sample of the spam email I recieve

A sample of the spam email I receive

Those emails are automatically routed into a spam filter in my gmail account.  Also if I get some spam that makes it into my inbox, I just press a button and it will automatically be filtered in the future. You can also tell gmail to NOT filter certain emails to spam.

Also, see all those spam emails with attachments?  Those could be very dangerous.  Do NOT open unless you want to risk infecting your computer and companies systems.

I highly recommend you switch to a gmail powered email address, just to save yourself time of sorting through spam.  And here’s a few ways to do it.  Google each of these:

  • You can set up your old email account to start forwarding all new incoming email to your gmail account.
  • You can even export your old emails from your other accounts and import them to your new gmail account.
  • You might want to simply send a “here’s my new email address” to all your contacts, but I would still recommend doing the other two steps.
  • Import your email contacts into your gmail account and then stop sending emails from those old accounts.  Your contacts will get the message, except for your 95 year old Aunt Agnes.

Google’s gmail service is also available for businesses and you can keep your old business account name. For 10+ years, my email address  @ScLoHo.net is really a professional gmail account.   It’s because of this spam filtering feature that I splash my email address all over the web.

Questions?  Ask.  Or just Google it.

 

Please Don’t Send Lazy & Stupid Emails

A co-worker asked me recently what I do to prospect.  In other words, what do I do to find new advertising partners.

My answer is different than what I would recommend others do because each of us have different connections and personalities and there is no “one-size-fits-all”.

One thing all of us have in common, is we need to be inviting people to do business with us, and the methods we use should be relevant to us and our potential customers.

Last week I received an email that was both lazy and stupid.

Lazy because the person did absolutely nothing to qualify me for his service.  And Stupid because, I now have a negative opinion of him and his company.  Here, take a look:

2016-06-10

I use email as a communication tool.  I use it as a prospecting tool.  I never would send an email like Brian sent, and neither should you.  I’d like your feedback on why this email is lazy and stupid, or perhaps you think it’s okay. Either way, leave a comment, I’d like to know your thoughts.