by Scott Howard | Sep 18, 2016 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
I hate spam. It’s not a tasty treat and it’s pretty annoying when it fills your email inbox too. 
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 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.
by Scott Howard | Sep 8, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I saw this quote a few times this year,
If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.
And I’ve also heard people react to the way they are being tracked and targeted by “Big Data”.
Big Data is simply the information that is gathered about us electronically and organized online.
Some of it is very specific, other is general.
We have been voluntarily providing this information for years.
Your first email account perhaps was a hotmail, yahoo or aol email address. Or if you are younger, maybe gmail was and is your email service of choice.
These free email accounts were collecting information about me and you and that was just the beginning.
Facebook and every single social media platform is gathering data about you.
Your phone with its built in GPS, knows and tracks where you go.
When I got a new phone last year, I added some apps for gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and a few others to take advantage of “discounts”. You may have some on your phone too.
As the quote says, if you didn’t pay for any of these services, your data is what is being collected and sold to others.
We give our data freely. In return, we are targeted with ads and offers that are customized to what Big Data knows about us.
They even tell us when we absent-mindedly agree to the T.O.S. (Terms Of Service) agreements that we click on without reading when we sign up for the free stuff.
It’s not bad and it’s not good. Data collection is neutral. It’s like money. It can be used for good or evil.
In reality, none of us who do anything online can escape and we really don’t need to.
If you want to use this Big Data to locate and target your future customers, I can do that. 
My company has partnered with the best vendors to offer these online services, more than I can explain today. We call it Opt-In as part of the Federated Digital Solutions and radio divisions of our company. Contact me for details on how we can do this.
In the meantime remember,
If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.
and relax.
by Scott Howard | Feb 10, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
If you ever want to find a whole boat of opposing viewpoints, skip politics and just Google “Reinvent the wheel“.
After you read the definition, “wasting time by starting from scratch…”, you’ll find that words and the meaning behind them matters.
For today, my focus is on your business model and marketing.
My radio station, WOWO is now 90 year old. We have made changes as the world made changes. However WOWO began and continues to broadcast on the AM radio band. Originally WOWO was at 1320 AM in 1925. A few changes took place until 1941 when WOWO moved to their permanent home at 1190AM. But these kind of changes are not “reinventing the wheel” changes.
Facebook launched a dozen years ago and became the most successful social media site ever. It was not the first, but it did replace MySpace as the dominate social media site. You can debate whether or not Mark and his Facebook buddies “reinvented the wheel” or just made it “rounder”.
Smartphones “reinvented the wheel” in my opinion, but it was an ongoing process of technology that moved us from just talking to adding text messaging, to email via a Blackberry and finally iPhones.
Back to your business and marketing… Before you decide to throw out the old, “reinvent the wheel” and start with a new business or marketing model, you need to really ask why you are considering this and what you are wanting to accomplish. 
If your business is seeing a decline in sales or revenue or profit, you need to know what needs fixing before you scrap the current “wheel”.
If you believe your advertising is not producing the same results that you believe you were getting in years past, take the time to investigate instead of making quick reactionary moves.
Recently I was meeting with an upcoming advertising partner who wants a new website. I asked him why, and he has a pretty good handle on some things and I will offer assistance on others. The week before, I met with a friend who also wants to scrap his website, but as we talked, I learned that there were some cosmetic changes and function changes he wanted to include. He probably doesn’t need to “reinvent the wheel”, and start over, he just needs to make some adjustments.
Now sometimes you do need to get rid of the old. Updates and Upgrades are a part of life.
I lead off with the question, Do You Need To Reinvent the Wheel?
The answer is: It Depends.
It depends on how well what you offer matches what people want to buy.
It depends on if the methods you are using to invite people to buy from you are still effective methods, given the changes in our world.
Want help figuring this out? Let’s meet.
by Scott Howard | Dec 30, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
It’s that week when things are either very slow or very busy. However next week will really be busy with the start of 2016 in full swing.
That’s why it is urgent that you do this today.
Google wants to help your business be found and they have a quick and easy tool that you can use even if you are one of those “hunt and peck two fingered typists”.
Click on this and get started.
Just do it, okay?
by Scott Howard | Nov 13, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Tuesday I was meeting with an advertising partner and were we looking at some data I gathered from Google Analytics.
Not sure what Google Analytics is? Take a look at their site. Or I can give you a layman’s overviews.
Google Analytics is a free service from Google that you install on your website that can tell you all kinds of things about people who visit your website. What pages they visit, when they visit, where they came from, and so much more. If you sell stuff on your website, you can track it too. Just take my word for it…install Google Analytics on your website now.
Back to my meeting on Tuesday. This advertising partner has a website but we are not doing any digital online marketing for him, yet. We just helped him set up Google Analytics 2 months ago. That’s when we tripled his radio advertising.
I see you scratching your head. Hang on.
We are actually tracking the response to his radio ads with Google Analytics.
How? The call to action in his radio ads is to visit his website. No phone number, no storefront, just his website.
WOWO radio has been his sole source of advertising since May. He previously did some newspaper and some targeted direct mail and those methods worked for him, but not to the degree that advertising on WOWO has worked this year.
When I showed him some of the findings that I discovered with Google Analytics, he was very happy and wanted to know more. So next month when we meet, I’ll share with him more information about people visiting his website. We both recognize that there are some limitations to any tracking system so he is also asking people how they found him and is tracking those responses as well.
Unlike some people who sell advertising, I want to know as much as possible about the effectiveness. I want to work hand in hand with you to make sure the money you are spending is an investment, not an expense. We’ll talk more about that next week.
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