by Scott Howard | Jan 8, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom
Yesterday I shared an article I wrote on the Human Relationship Factor in Advertising. 
Today I have results from a study shared by Mediapost that goes into deeper detail. I bolded a few items that caught my attention:
Engage With Customers One-To-One
According to SAP Hybris, presenting the findings of a study conducted by Forrester incorporating the evolution of personalization from push messaging to one-to-one personal customer experiences, there is a distinct gap between consumers’ expectations of personalized marketing and what marketers are actually delivering.61% of consumers are less likely to make future purchases following less-than-satisfactory personalized experiences. 91% of marketers are prioritizing personalization but only 16% have the ability to deliver real-time, behavior-based marketing across channels, says the report.
In summary, the study findings reveal:
- While 66% of marketers rate their efforts at personalization as “very good” or “excellent,” just 31% of consumers report companies are consistently delivering personalized, cross-channel experiences
- 40% of consumers say most promotions don’t deliver anything of interest
- 44% of consumers say they receive too many offers and promotions
- 37% of consumers say they delete most email offers and promotions without reading them
- 40% of consumers have unsubscribed or opted-out because they feel overwhelmed
- Among those consumers reporting less-than-satisfactory personalized experiences, 61% said they were “somewhat” or “much less likely” to take advantage of future offers
Because consumers are sharing so much personal data with brands, they expect transactional perks and improved customer experience in return, says the report. While most marketers seek to improve personalized customer experiences from this customer data, their strategies are ineffective.
I’ll touch more on this in the future and as always contact me with questions and comments.
by Scott Howard | Nov 4, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
The past few weeks I have had meetings with business owners and marketing managers about how to use the resources I have available through WOWO radio and our parent company Federated Media that go beyond traditional radio ads.
I thought I’d let you in on some of these ideas because they might be appropriate for you too.
Email marketing. WOWO and our sister stations in Fort Wayne which include the local ESPN Radio stations and music stations K-105, WMEE and The Bear have an email database of over 40,000 people who have asked us to email them offers and promotions from businesses.
We have it broken down into specific categories like Entertainment, Home Improvement, and others so we can target people with different interests. One of the first campaigns I did with an advertising partner was a birthday promotion. In the first 3 months we sent over 10,000 individual personalized emails to people on their birthday offering them a free gift.
I’ve also used this to alert our database about a sale for a client and we have plans to send an email announcing a new store grand opening later this month. I already have a tax consultant that is going to use our email program to promote her business in her communities next year.
Website development. Last week I had to tell a business owner that his baby was ugly. I used those words too. We were talking about his website. Now this guy has been in business for 40 years and it was his Dad’s before he took over. He does not sell to consumers and doesn’t need help reaching potential customers in Fort Wayne.
His business model is what is called B to B. Business to Business. The very first thing he needs to do is get his website cleaned up. It failed Google’s Mobile Friendly test and had a few typos. He didn’t deny his baby was ugly and now I’m going to get some quotes on a new site. He needs a professional looking website with a responsive design so it will load correctly for everyone visiting, no matter what kind of computer or mobile device they are using to check his business out.
That’s just a couple of the Marketing Options with WOWO Radio Besides Commercials that I’m working on right now. See, my job is not to sell you the advertising package of the week that some media salespeople try and do. My job is to help you make smart marketing decisions.
by Scott Howard | Jul 26, 2015 | ScLoHo's Web World
A friend of mine asked how to “stop all those emails from Facebook about his friends stupid status updates.” He may have thrown in a couple of swear words too. I told him I’d look it up and help him out, so here you go…
How to Manage Your Facebook Notifications, complete with pictures and a disclaimer*.
Let’s start with the disclaimer:
*These instructions were current on Sunday afternoon 7/26/15 and subject to change without warning from Facebook, just like everything else that Facebook does.
Step 1. Go to your page and open the privacy shortcuts. Then click on See More Settings.
Step 2. You want to go to the Notifications section.
Step 3. This is where you can customize How you are notified and What you get notified about. My friend wants to stop the emails.
Step 4. Stopping all the emails is not recommended. But you can reduce the volume by selecting the 3rd option.
There you have it. This was done on my laptop. If you want to know how to do this from your phone, Google it.
by Scott Howard | Jan 16, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo Sales Tips
Email marketing can be effective, but it can also be a waste of time and effort. Years ago I switched my own email provider to a Google based account because of their excellent spam filtering algorithms. My Yahoo account was filled with crap and Gmail was soooo much better.
Last week someone sent me an email to my radio station email account that made it past our spam filters. It was pretty bad. Take a look:
Dear Scott,
As a business professional, ReachBase would like to occasionally send you relevant and informative business related offers via email.
Each message will contain a link that will allow you to be immediately removed from this valuable program at any time.
We look forward to providing you with this useful business resource.
If you do not wish to receive these useful business offers, please use the link below.
Thank you,
ReachBase
I had never heard of this company. I don’t know how they got my email address, but the real issue is what this email message is missing.
Who the heck is ReachBase and why do I want their email offers?
They failed to give me a Valid Business Reason for wanting to read their email.
Read it again. It’s all generic babel. 
Most people would ignore this or label it as spam. But I decided to turn it into a lesson. The one you are reading right now.
I Googled ReachBase included the address that was in the fine print and discovered that the company name is really Reach Marketing. That’s a big mistake. If you are going to send me an email, you probably need to have a spot online that is the same as the name you are promoting. At least a landing page telling me who you are with the same name you are promoting, not some off shoot.
But here’s the kicker. I discovered this on their website:
Reach Marketing is the only company that brings together an inter-disciplinary team of IT, software development, marketing, audience development, database marketing, analytics, SEO/SMO and digital experts within one organization to drive the success of its clients.
And:
Email is the single most powerful marketing medium because it generates high response rates at a relatively low cost. Email marketing is immediate, can be tracked real time and remains the preferred method to communicate with professionals and consumers. Despite their benefits, email campaigns can fail to produce maximum results when not properly executed; strong performance depends on skill and expertise.
My B.S. filter just exploded.
First off, to claim you are the only company that has such a team is a lie. I know other companies and worked for one that has all those bases covered.
Maybe they are the best at something? Nope. As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece and you can read for yourself, their own email marketing campaign to me was not “skillfully executed with expertise”.
But it did give me something to write about.
I don’t know all the answers, and I won’t pretend to either. But if you want help with your marketing efforts to attract customers either digitally or on one of my radio stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana…contact me.
by Scott Howard | Mar 8, 2012 | The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Most Stupid Offers are created by marketing and business folks who are looking at things backwards.
Mr/Ms Business owner:
If you run a sale to get rid of stuff you want to sell, for whatever reason you have, you are likely to create a Stupid Offer.
Turn it around.
Run a sale on stuff that your customers want to buy, that’s a Smart Offer.
Today in my email was a Stupid Offer from Radio Shack.
The subject line was Free Flashlight with Radio Purchase.
Two things I am not in the market to buy, but they want to either sell or get rid of.
If you’re really good at marketing, you promote your best selling items and don’t even have to create a special offer, stupid or smart.
You create a desire for people to pay a premium to buy stuff from you.
Think Apple and you’re moving in the right direction.
Today I have results from a study shared by Mediapost that goes into deeper detail. I bolded a few items that caught my attention:
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
TuneIn
Deezer
CastBox