by Scott Howard | Apr 27, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Sometimes I tell people, “No, I am not going to take your money for advertising, yet”.
You see, some people think that the answer to their problems is that they need more money and in order to get more money they need more customers. 
Maybe.
Maybe not.
I have a few questions first.
Like, how many customers did you have last year, last month, last week?
Are they still your customers or are they former customers?
Why are they former customers and spending their money with someone else?
(This is one way to discover or uncover a problem).
Can you/we fix the problem and improve your customer retention rate?
No matter how many new customers you get, if you are screwing something up and losing customers too, then that is the problem you need to fix first.
Let’s try another one…
When was the last time you raised your prices?
Did your suppliers raise their prices on you and did you pass that extra cost to your customer? (If you didn’t, then it is less profitable today for you to do the same work you did last year.)
No matter how afraid you are to raise your prices to keep up with the increased costs of doing business, you need to overcome this fear or you will drive yourself out of business. That’s another significant problem.
How about your online presence? Do you have a mobile friendly website with current info that you are updating regularly? If not, that’s also a problem.
Some of these problems I can help you solve. Most of these need to be taken care of before you invest in advertising to get more business. As I often say in my email signature, “Here to help,”
by Scott Howard | Apr 8, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I was asked this question recently.
“Scott, how long have you been doing this?” 
The problem was I wasn’t sure which “this” he was referring to.
If “this” is working for WOWO & Federated Media, my answer is since 2013.
If “this” is working in the online world, helping businesses market themselves, my answer is since around 2006.
If “this” is helping businesses create an advertising program that follows a strategic marketing plan, my answer is since 1986.
If “this” is working in radio, I can go back to 1976 when I got my first paycheck as a teenage disc-jockey.
Here’s the kicker. I have been a student and teacher of marketing since the 80’s even during the times I didn’t work directly in the business, which I’ve done a couple of times. It never stopped even during the years I wasn’t paid to do this work.
My marketing mindset was developed during my early years working in Detroit for WMUZ. I was reading, studying, learning, and practicing marketing strategy planning. While the tools and mediums have changed over the past 30 years, the principles that work are still the same.
That’s because they are human relationship principles and we simply need to see how to apply them to the various marketing platforms and medias that come along.
I don’t care if we are talking about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… radio, tv, newspapers… online display ads, ppc ads or pre-roll video ads… human relationship principles apply and that’s why I say I’ve been doing this for 30 years.
Need help? Connect with me.
by Scott Howard | Apr 4, 2016 | ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
I’m going to take a second and talk to you about websites and your business marketing.
A dozen years ago, the rage was for your business to hop on the website bandwagon. A marketing friend of mine and I were talking about how having a website was fine and dandy, but how are consumers going to find you online? 
Since my friend and I worked in radio, we began urging our radio advertisers to include their website address in their ads.
Similar things were done in all mass media marketing including print and television ads. Eventually people thought that the key was to be found by Google.
I even left the radio world for awhile a few years ago and worked for a website development company that talked about the reasons for and methods to use to be found online organically with something you’ve probably heard about: S.E.O.
S.E.O. stands for Search Engine Optimization and it’s basically the stuff you do to your website to Optimize it so the Search Engine’s (Google, Yahoo & Bing) can find you. The concept is that if your site is optimized then when people are looking for what you have to sell, your website will show up when people are searching online.
This is not a job for amateurs, and not all professionals are equally skilled at S.E.O.
But before I lose you in all this tech talk, let me use some terminology that you as a business owner understand.
Think of your website as a storefront. It is a capital expense of doing business. You can’t really measure the direct return on investment in your website alone, just like you can’t measure the direct R.O.I. of having buying a truck for your business.
Just because you now have a “storefront online” (website), your business is not going to automatically be found by potential customers. All you have done so far is open your store.
Next you need to do what every business needs to do: Invite People.
There are multiple ways of doing this, and part of my job at WOWO Radio is to offer all kinds of appropriate online marketing solutions through our Federated Digital Solutions division.
I am amazed at the results I have seen several of my advertising partners receive, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
The first step in working with me is to determine what the end result is that needs to be accomplished and that usually takes a meeting or two. Contact me and we can set that up.
But I want you to remember today that just because you now have a website, you still need a strategic marketing plan to invite people to spend money with you. I can help.
by Scott Howard | Mar 25, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Wrapping up a three-parter on mass media and advertising with a smarter way to spend your marketing budget.
First we looked at the changes in mass media and then we explored the idea of mass media marketing today.
Today, I’ll show you how to pick the advertising mediums that make sense for you.
It’s all about targeting. 
If I am selling funeral insurance, I don’t want to spend my advertising money delivering my message to teenagers.
If I am selling orthodontics, I don’t want to spend my advertising money delivering my message to people with dentures.
Mass media has specific information about their individual audiences. I can tell you the age range of all of the Fort Wayne radio station audiences and the number of listeners to each station according to the latest data that I get twice a year. Mix that information with the other sources and I can give you recommendations for what stations to consider based on who you want to reach with your message.
There is one other way to target that is possible due to the advances in technology. I’m talking about online digital ads. Imagine if you could pinpoint your advertising to only be seen by people who are interested in what you have to sell? Would that be of value?
I see you’re nodding your head in agreement.
There are multiple ways I can do this that is independent of what I do with my radio stations, however, it may make sense to do both and have me handle the coordination of everything.
After all, you have a business to run. You have your area of expertise that people are paying you money to provide. I have mine too. My area of expertise is to help you target your advertising messages to invite people to spend their money with you. Contact me for help.
by Scott Howard | Mar 14, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Last year I wrote about the problem with bad websites that are not just ugly and dated, but hurt your business reputation and the ability to be found online by people who want to spend money with you.
I’ve updated it a bit, but the basics are the same:
There are times when I need to walk a fine line.
In the marketing worlds I work in there are times when something is just not good.
The two areas I work in these days are radio broadcasting and digital marketing with WOWO Radio and Federated Digital Solutions. This isn’t a new field for me, I’ve worked in radio for decades and the digital world for 10+ years.
Click on this picture to read the sad story about this “ugly baby”
The past couple of years, I have had to tactfully tell business owners that their baby is ugly. Not their offspring, their website.
It’s hard. I had a former advertiser show me his new website and while it was an improvement on his previous site, it was still lacking many of the elements needed to bring it up to today’s standards.
And I’m not just talking about my standards, I’m talking about industry standards.
I’m going to give you a couple of links that you can use to see if your website measures up or if it needs an overhaul. Be prepared to learn a few things.
First off, there is the mobile-friendly test. Google will now punish your website search ranking if your site is not mobile friendly. Click here and find out if your site passes. Oh, Yahoo and Bing are also penalizing you too.
Another place to check is Hubspot’s Marketing Grader. You’ll get a report with a score and suggestions on what to do.
This is a good starting place but instead of simply relying on these automated tools, you really need a professional evaluation done by a human being (ME) that can sort through these reports, do a few other checks and evaluations and tell you if you have an ugly baby or just need to give her a good cleaning.
We can also talk about the purpose of your website to determine if you need to hire a professional team and create a custom site, hire a smaller developer, or perhaps do it yourself.
Are you prepared to see if you have an ugly baby of a website? Click on those links and then let’s talk.
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
TuneIn
Deezer
CastBox