by Scott Howard | May 3, 2018 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Do job titles matter? I work for WOWO radio and a few years ago, our parent company, Federated Media began calling their advertising salespeople: Integrated Marketing Managers or Integrated Marketing Specialists or some other variation. The keywords are Integrated Marketing and it’s being used today to describe something that has been going on for a long time.
Integrated Marketing is simply the coordination of multiple marketing messages and outreaches that work together in harmony. For years this was a role of Advertising Agencies. Businesses would pay Ad Agencies to do all the advertising creative, buying advertising schedules and telling business owners what to do to be successful with their advertising.
Sometimes that works. Often the folks in an ad agency have talents and skills that the coffee shop owner, or boat builder, or carpet cleaner lack.
Ad agencies create the ads that we see and hear on a national scale. Some that come to mind are McDonalds, Home Depot, Google, car insurance ads, those are created by advertising agency professionals.
On a local level, most companies don’t have an advertising agency to do that work. Instead they rely on someone at the advertising outlets, like the TV station, the newspaper, the radio station to do the creative work. That might work out, but each of those individuals are only working in their advertising medium.
Or there are some advertising agencies that specialize in only one or two advertising mediums. Online, especially social media marketing has been the kind of boutique agencies that have popped up in the past decade. Some are pretty good, but most are pretty bad. The online world is constantly changing and the changes that Google makes to their algorithm, or Facebook to their news-feed, are out of our control.
But let’s get back to the subject of Integrated Marketing and job titles. The reason the Integrated Marketing Specialist or Integrated Marketing Manager job title has been adopted by several of my co-workers at Federated Media is because we actually do have the ability to work with more than one advertising platform and build marketing campaigns that are integrated across multiple mediums.
Right now, this month, I am running a few campaigns for different advertising partners that I call a Hot Leads program. I am using Email, Facebook, Text messaging, Radio ads on the air with WOWO and ads online. We gather names, contact information and a few specific questions for my advertising partners that will help them connect with people who want to be contacted by these specific advertising partners. This is truly an Integrated Marketing campaign.
However, I don’t recommend this to everyone I meet with. It’s not always appropriate, or the best marketing approach for the objectives we need to accomplish.
So my business card does not say Integrated Marketing Manager or Specialist. Instead I use terms that are very specific to what I do. Advertising Sales and Marketing Consultant.
I took a deep dive into that last week and you can read or listen to what I said if you wish.
My approach is to simply work with you in the way and manner that is most appropriate. I’ve been doing this since my youngest daughter was born and she’s now 32. I can help you sort out the jargon and advertising insider terms that others use to try and convince you to buy their stuff. And if you want an Integrated Marketing Specialist, I’m your dude too.
by Scott Howard | Oct 31, 2017 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Media, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
As many of you prepare your business for 2018 and are wondering about Social Media marketing, here’s some numbers that were shared by Mediapost. Remember that these are just numbers and you really should talk to a professional about what this means for your individual situation. If you are in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, reach out to me.
Social Media Strategy Opportunities by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research
A potpourri of popular social media platforms, and how brands and retailers can implement strategies, better reach, and engage with different audiences.
Facebook
- 2 Billion monthly users
- 75% of users spend 20 minutes on the site every day
- 500 million people watch facebook videos every day
- FacebookLive popularity has risen 330% since launch
- Users watch FacebookLive videos 3X longer than non-live videos
- Strategy: Drive awareness and engagement with videos and live streams
Twitter
- 328 Million active monthly users
- Daily active users have increased 14% each year
- The average user follows 5 businesses
- 80% of users have mentioned a brand in a Tweet
- Companies active on Twitter see a 19% increase in customer satisfaction
- Strategy: Prioritize customer service and engagement
Instagram
- 800 Million monthly users
- Monthly users grew 24% in 2017
- Half of users use Instagram Daily Posts tagged with a location have 79% higher engagement
- Strategy: Post highly visual, geo-targeted content to boost engagement
Pinterest
- 200 Million monthly users
- 50 million more users that October 2016
- 67% of users visit Pinterest on mobile while shopping in-store
- 1/3 of users choose Pinterest over Google search
- Strategy: Link Pinterest to your website to increase traffic and sales
Snapchat
- 375 Million active monthly users
- Growth slowed 82% after instagram stories launched
- 3 Billion snaps are created each day
- 63% use Snapchat as their primary medium for messaging friends
- Users younger that 25 visit more than 20X a day for at least 30 minutes
- Strategy: Leverage geo-filters to create interactive content
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/309125/social-media-strategy-opportunities.html
That’s the latest number’s from the Mediapost article. But what does any of this mean to you the local business person? It’s nearly useless data for deciding how to reach people and invite them to become your customer.
However here are a couple of considerations…
Facebook has officially moved to a pay model. In other words, it is nearly impossible for a company to get exposure for anything considered advertising or marketing unless you pay. I saw this first hand in 2013 when I worked full time in social media and it continues today.
Instagram is owned by Facebook and many including myself crosspost between the two.
Twitter is still better to use by the customer service department than the marketing department of a business and Snapchat, well it’s demographics are below the ages of people I target for most of my advertising, so I personally don’t care. I even deleted my own Snapchat account this year.
Social Media is still the bright shiny object that marketing people are trying to figure out and tons of businesses are dumping their advertising budgets to online stuff like the platforms mentioned here. However you and I as consumers are not fond of the ads that interrupt our newsfeed when we just want to see what’s going on with friends and family.
This is why we use social media.
One platform mentioned in that Social Media Report is different and if you are in retail, you should give it consideration.
Which one?
Pinterest. It is an online wishlist and shopping list for the heavy users. It takes time and knowledge to build Pinterest Boards that pay off financially as I immersed myself in it a few years ago and saw the largest measurable Return On Investment that was trackable for my social media activity.
Let me leave you with this. Advertising and marketing is best done by those who are professionals and that also includes social media platforms. Don’t be swept away by big numbers like I shared at the beginning of this article and think that you can have instant success. The folks behind the scenes at these social media companies are constantly tweaking and changing the rules of the game and what worked last year may not work next year so you need to be sure the person handling your social media is staying on top of the changes every week.
by Scott Howard | Sep 13, 2017 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
NewsTalk 1190 WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana is going to be 100 years old soon. Despite the most recent doomsday report that AM and FM radio stations would be obsolete before WOWO hits 100, I’m here to present some real reasons that the report is both right and wrong.
Broadcast radio is struggling to remain relevant as consumers embrace streaming platforms, according to a groundbreaking study that examines the disruption to radio caused by digital services.
These trends are crippling radio, which is witnessing historic declines in its audience and its relevance to listeners and advertisers. To survive, radio must innovate, learn from other media, and take control of its path forward into the third decade of this century and beyond.
That’s the intro to a 30 page report that says radio stations like the ones I work for are going the way of the phone book. Here’s a direct link to the entire report if you want to really dig in.
A dozen years ago, I was making the same prediction. Music radio was going to be a thing of the past. At the time I worked with legendary Fort Wayne WXKE Radio Icon Doc West and Doc knew the answer to the problem of music radio stations losing listeners to streaming services and satellite radio stations. Live and Locally Relevant. That was the mantra that Doc used to stay at the top of the heap of radio personalities back then.
WOWO radio used to be a music station when I was a kid and the most listened to radio personality before Doc West was Bob Sievers. His morning program on WOWO had 90% of the available audience tuned in. Farmers for the farm reports, kids like me, waiting to hear the weather, well, actually the school closings and everyone else listened to Bob on WOWO to know what was going on. Bob and WOWO were Live and Locally Relevant.
My reason for predicting the demise of AM & FM radio back then was the digital age as auto manufacturers were adding internet to their vehicles. More options for drivers to listen to their favorite music. I knew it would be an evolving change, simply because it would take time for these internet connected cars to replace the older vehicles.
Your Car, a “radio on wheels”
But then something else has kicked in that I didn’t foresee. The Internet of Things.
The IoT as it is called is the interconnection of stuff via the web that we didn’t need to have connected to the web previously.
The ability for your phone to respond to voice commands was a preview of what we have now with Alexa and the other digital personal assistant devices that are becoming common place.
But back to my headline for this story:
Why WOWO Radio Will Outlast The Naysayers
WOWO radio and our sister stations at Federated Media are embracing the digital age. They were the first in Fort Wayne to jump in and offer the radio programming to listeners on what ever digital platform the listeners wanted. Then they went a step further and began producing content that goes beyond what you can get by listening to the AM & FM radio signals. Podcasts, Videos, and plenty of on-demand content that you and I can read, watch or listen to when we want, where we want.
Listen to what you want, when you want
Our music stations, in Fort Wayne including WMEE, K-105 and 98.9 The Bear have been Live and Locally Relevant for decades! WOWO Radio with our News and Talk format for the past 20 years has a couple of national talk shows in the middle of the day, but every 30 minutes, we have Live and Locally Relevant news updates. Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher starts the weekday and afternoons with the Pat Miller Program, bookend each weekday with Live and Locally Relevant programming.
In case you still need another antidote as to the importance of local media, during tragic events like Hurricane Harvey, it was the local Texas radio stations that were the dominate source of information. Television isn’t portable but radio is.
But what about the radio audience overall? Is it shrinking?
After the report from the naysayer, two more reports came out to counter his claims. You can read them here and here.
But what I care about and so do the businesses I work with who use WOWO Radio to advertise by inviting our listeners to become their customers, is what is the state of radio listenership in Fort Wayne Indiana?
I researched it for this story. I have access to the Eastlan radio surveys from 2013 thru today that measures radio listener habits every 6 months in Fort Wayne.
Between 2013 and 2017, the total number of people age 12 and older who listen to a radio station in Metro Fort Wayne has grown by 25,000.
Boom.
Mic Drop.
396,000 weekly listeners in the spring of 2013.
421,000 weekly listeners in the spring of 2017.
How’s WOWO doing? Every survey that I have access to (including before 2013) show that WOWO radio continues to lead the pack with over 100,000 listeners every week, and 98%+ are grown ups.
In about 8 or 9 years WOWO will be celebrating a century of service. Now is the right time to join the other advertising partners who benefit from being on WOWO. Contact me to find out how.
by Scott Howard | Feb 15, 2017 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Man, am I going to catch some heat on this one.
Unless you read all the way through this piece.
But if you are all about the tech and ignore the rest, you may win for a moment, but not forever.
What am I talking about?
My usual stuff, marketing, media, advertising and wait for it…
Human Relationships.
The question I get asked either directly or it’s implied is, “What is the best way for my business to spend money to get new customers?”
That’s not a bad question, but it’s usually the wrong question when it’s asked.
It’s 2017, the smartphone revolution isn’t going away. The idea that we would walk around with a phone attached was a crazy idea a years ago.
Fortunately having a phone strapped to your head isn’t really like this,
But now we are a few years into the mobile revolution and the small screens have taken over. Nearly anything you want to know or do is available with an app on your phone or tablet.
If you were to try and reach new customers by chasing after the latest and greatest technology, you’d likely be losing money and frustrated.
I am going to date myself here, but I remember when my father in law had a dial-up phone connection to get online with his Gateway computer that had less tech power than my last couple of phones.
Recently I was at the Fort Wayne Social Media and Marketing Breakfast and the topic was Snapchat. How to use it and not abuse it.
As I looked around the room, I saw a whole bunch of business people who were frustrated because now here’s another platform they have to start using to get customers.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
I just told an advertising partner of mine that it was okay to stop tweeting.
You really don’t need to follow the crowd and do everything.
You need to pick and decide what ways you are going to market your business.
Those choices should not be based on the hottest trends.
They should be geared to how is the best way to reach out to your current and potential customers, and how to engage with them both online and offline. In person and over the phone.
Before you decide to jump on the next new thing, talk to someone who can help you look at the big picture and do some long range planning. (When I do it, I become your marketing coach.)
Now I’m not saying ignore technology, but you need to have your priorities in order.
Let me leave you with a simple, “starter” technology checklist.
- Do you have a professional website that is current?
- When I say current, I mean mobile friendly. Is yours?
- Finally, here’s a place you can go to see if Google thinks your site is up to snuff: https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/
If your business doesn’t pass, then forget about anything else, and get on it. Need help? Ask me.
by Scott Howard | Jul 31, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World
Last week I saw a new furniture store in Fort Wayne pop up on Twitter. They did about 4 tweets including pictures of some one-of-a-kind pieces that caught my attention. They mentioned their hours in another tweet and invited people to stop in.
One thing was missing however.
Their location was not listed in their twitter profile. No one is going to come to your store if you don’t tell them where you are. I sent them a tweet and they fixed it along with adding a link to their website.
I realize that there are people who are still new to using social media and I see a lot of the same mistakes over and over again. With that introduction, here are 3 Social Media Marketing Musts you need to do right now:
- Fill out your profile completely. Every social media channel gives you opportunities to help others find out more about you. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, all of them offer a combination of important items that your followers want to know so they can check you out. Address, especially if you have a physical location. Website, phone number, email address, fill them all out. Include appropriate pictures too.
- Post updates regularly. Update Facebook every day you are open. Tweet a few times a day. If you are on LinkedIn, share some articles or updates at least once a week.
- Listen and respond. Social media is a two way conversation. When someone comments on something you posted, set up an alert so you can answer and reply back. The worst thing you can do is ignore them. You can create negative perceptions of you and your business by ignoring those who say something to you via Social Media.
Earlier this week I shared this link on How To Create A Social Media Marketing Plan From Scratch which is filled with lots of helpful info and details.
Want help? Ask me.
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