Seth Godin | The Genuine ScLoHo aka Scott Howard

3 Phases of Marketing Outreach

by Scott Howard | Apr 25, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

First, the words of Seth Godin, from his blog:

Marketing outreach (ads, PR, sponsorships, etc.) is not about one thing. It’s about three things.

Awareness is a simple ping: Oh, she’s running for President. Oh, they just opened one in our neighborhood. Oh, they’re having a sale.

Trust is far more complicated. Trust comes from experience, from word of mouth, from actions noted. Trust, amazingly, also seems to come from awareness. “As seen on TV” is a perverse way to claim trust, but in fact, when people are more aware of what you do, it often seeps into a sort of trust.

And action is what happens when someone actually goes and votes, or buys something, or shows up, or talks about it. And action is as complex as trust. Action requires overcoming the status quo, action means that someone has dealt with the many fears that come with change and felt that fear and still done something.

Many people reading this are aware that they can buy a new mattress, and might believe it’s worth the effort, but don’t take action.

Many people reading this are aware that they can buy a tool, get some treatment, visit a foreign land, listen to a new recording… but action is the difficult part.

Action is quite rare. For most people, the story of ‘later’ is seductive enough that it appears better to wait instead of leaping.

As a marketer, then, part of the challenge is figuring out which of the three elements you need the most help with, and then focus on that…

I recall when I entered the marketing and advertising world, we used to build campaigns that were multiple-step campaigns, similar to what Seth mentioned. We actually called the steps:

1. Image-Building

2. General Benefits

3. Specific Benefits

4. Re-creation Benefits

The concept was to take a number of weeks and draw our radio listeners through the process of introducing them to the new business, talking about what the business did overall, then do individual ads on specific reasons for customers to spend money with the business. The 4th step would apply if we were to discover a new way for the business to make money. Like the time we transformed a rental car agency into a nearly new car dealer.

Due to consumer media habits that have changed tremendously in the past dozen years, we need to apply these steps differently. Instead of taking a marketing or advertising campaign through the steps to the masses, we now need to figure out how to do it to the individual.

I may watch a TV series as it is delivered every Sunday night at 9pm. But I have friends who will wait until the season is over and then binge watch the whole season one week this summer.

And while it is important to have structure to your advertising campaign, don’t forget that there are people who need what you are selling right now, while others may not be in the market for another couple years.

How do you market with so many variables? I have fine tuned some of these systems and watched them work successfully in the past couple years. It really needs to be customized for each business and even though the elements are similar, the implementation needs to be tweaked for you.

It’s not as complicated as it sounds if you know what you’re doing, and that’s where I come in.

Want help? Reach out to me.

The Best Marketing Tip from Seth Godin

by Scott Howard | Aug 12, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom

I saw this bit of wisdom on his blog 10 days ago:

Yes!, please and thank you

Don’t jerk people around

Here’s a simple marketing strategy for a smaller company trying to compete in a big-company world: Choose your customers, trust them, treat them well.

Say yes.

Bend the rules.

Show up on time.

Keep your promises.

Don’t exert power merely because you can.

Be human, be kind, pay attention, smile.

Not everyone deserves this sort of treatment, not everyone will do their part to be the kind of customer you can delight and serve. But that’s okay, you don’t need everyone.

When in doubt, be the anti-airline.

An Advertising Guarantee?

by Scott Howard | May 26, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s a curious purchasing decision. Advertising and marketing services.

Recently I was talking with a business owner about the success rate of ad campaigns that we do on WOWO Radio.

You see, I have been very presently surprised at the results some of our advertising partners report they receive. Compared to other radio stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana, WOWO often works better at producing results simply because of the size and quality of the audience.

I worked for stations in the past that had less than 30,000 listeners and we did everything we could to get a return on investment for those businesses. It was successful, sometimes.

The honest truth, and what I will tell you face to face is it is impossible to accurately measure the entire results from any advertising or marketing you spend money on. There are simply too many variables in tracking, which I’ll write about another day.

What kind of Advertising Guarantee do we offer?

We will air the advertising schedule we agree to, or you won’t pay for the parts that didn’t air.

For example, if we are not able to get all 30 of your ads on this week and only 28 air, you will only pay for 28. That’s pretty straight forward. And it is rare that we can’t air all your ads, but stuff happens that is out of our control. Rarely, but that is the way it goes.

Hang on a second, you say. I don’t want to just pay for you to play some ads, I want to pay you to invite customers to spend their money with me. I understand. I want that too. We just can’t guarantee it. Too many variables.

A friend of mine once said buying ads is like buying a couple pounds of ground beef from the grocery store. You spend your money on the meat and the guarantee is that it is good when you buy it. There is no guarantee from the store that how you use that beef will result in the best burger or meatloaf or whatever you decide to do with it. Too many variables.

However, you do have my solemn pledge to do everything we can to reach our mutually agreed upon goals of success for your business. And right now I’m going to grab a bite to eat. That previous paragraph made me hungry.

Your Fan Base Numbers

by Scott Howard | Feb 5, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom

Sunday, I was cleaning out my unread email messages when I came across the following from Seth Godin:

Almost no one

There’s a huge difference between “no one” and “almost no one”.

Almost no one is going to hire you.

Almost no one is going to become a true fan.

Almost no one is going to tell someone else about your work.

Almost no one is going to push you to make your work ever better.

If only 1% of the US population steps up, that’s 3,000,000 people in the category of “almost no one.”

If only one out of 10,000 internet users engages with you, that’s still hundreds of thousands of people.

The chances that everyone is going to applaud you, never mind even become aware you exist, are virtually nil. Most brands and organizations and individuals that fail fall into the chasm of trying to be all things in order to please everyone, and end up reaching no one.

That’s the wrong thing to focus on. Better to focus on and delight almost no one.

While Seth was talking primarily about online stuff, it applies to all aspects of life.

In a competitive world, it might be nice to be liked by everyone, but it will not happen. As a business, you will only get a fraction of the potential customers you could serve.

Sunday as I was reading the Seth Godin email and writing what you are reading right now, I was sitting at the Firefly Coffee in the 3500 block of North Anthony in Fort Wayne. This place has been around for 15 years or so and is one of a handful of places on this block you can get a cup of coffee including another coffee shop a couple doors down!

The radio station I work for, WOWO, has over 100,000 people who listen every week. Not one of my advertising partners (with the exception of McDonald’s) could handle that many customers in one week.

One final thought.

And this is about attitude. Your Attitude.

Before you get upset that “everyone” doesn’t like you, be sure to cherish those that do like you and let them know that they are important. Be grateful for the customers you have and take good care of them. Then as you gain more and more, continue that grateful attitude with actions.

Marketing Questions from Seth

by Scott Howard | Jan 19, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom

ScLoHo’s Collective Wisdom was a blog site that I curated for several years until I launched this website in 2011. The concept was simple. It was a collection of marketing and media wisdom written by others and republished on my blog.

More about that in a second.

But here’s a sample from Seth Godin that he wrote recently:

Question checklist for reviewing your new marketing materials…

For that new video, or that new brochure, or anything you create that you’re hoping will change minds (and spread):

What’s it for?
When it works, will we be able to tell? What’s it supposed to do?

Who is it for?
What specific group or tribe or worldview is this designed to resonate with?

What does this remind you of?
Who has used this vernacular before? Is it as well done as the previous one was?

What’s the call to action?
Is there a moment when you are clearly asking people to do something?

There’s more:

Show this to ten strangers. Don’t say anything. What do they ask you?
Now, ask them what the material is asking them to do.

What is the urgency?
Why now?

Your job is not to answer every question, your job is not to close the sale. The purpose of this work is to amplify interest, generate interaction and spread your idea to the people who need to hear it, at the same time that you build trust.

You will rarely achieve this with one fell swoop, so be prepared to drip your way through countless swoops until you’ve earned the privilege of engaging with the audience you seek.

My turn again. As we explore the world of marketing, advertising, media and sales, you will do yourself a favor by not reinventing the wheel. Instead, learn from others along with your own experiences. Take the bits and pieces of wisdom from others and see how they apply to your world.