Building Momentum

Building Momentum

Are you the type of person who jumps out of bed in the morning full of energy and ready to take on the world?

Or are you like the rest of us adults who start a little slower, with a morning routine that perhaps includes a cup of coffee to perk up your senses and as you get moving you build up your energy so you’re ready to take on the new day?

This momentum concept also applies to our businesses and marketing.  When we decide to launch a business, there is a tremendous amount of planning and preparation that goes on before the doors open.

The last space shuttle took off in July of 2011 and since then, we’ve had private companies create outer space flight experiences.  But here’s some interesting data I found out about those space shuttle missions…

For many things, the most energy expelled is in the process of just getting going.  For example, when the space shuttle takes off, fifty percent of the fuel stored in those huge tanks is expended just to get it off the launch pad.

The initial effort to get anything to move is always greater than the effort required once motion has begun. Ever tried to push a car? At first, it seems almost impossible, but once it gets rolling its motion requires less effort and becomes quite predictable.

Advertising, in most cases, uses the same energy. Getting your advertising off the ground also takes a great deal of up-front effort, but once it takes hold, the positive results come with relative ease.

There are several reasons it can take longer than we would wish to get your advertising working for you.

One is the length of your product’s cycle. In the automotive market, for example, there is less than 2% of the population in the market for a car on any given month. No amount of advertising energy can make someone who just bought a car buy another.

In the HVAC business, the average person only has a need for service every 4 to 6 years, meaning less than 1% of the population is in the market for an HVAC repair person every month.

Groceries and gas are the only two things we consistently consume on a weekly basis.

Another notable reason that it takes time to get a return on your advertising investment is that people are creatures of habit. Very often they’ll keep buying where they have always bought until their current supplier lets them down.

In many cases, your advertising is simply positioning you to be the first supplier prospects think of when their current supplier does let them down….. and they will let them down!

There are many other reasons why expecting instant gratification from your advertising can be unrealistic. Like a rocket, it takes a lot of energy to get your marketing ball rolling. But, once it’s launched and gaining traction, it continues to work with much less effort.

Marketing guru, Roy Williams, in his Twelve Causes of Advertising Failure, states that failure cause number one is, “The desire for instant gratification”.

If you want to ensure the success of your advertising, click here to see all Twelve Causes of Advertising Failure to help you avoid these huge mistakes.

Now along with radio advertising, I have some additional ways to help you get leads for your business that work hand in hand with radio.  If you’re in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, reach out to me at Scott@WOWO.com.  As we approach the end of this year, now’s the time to develop a marketing strategy for the new year and that is a free service I provide too.

Some of this article was sent out to subscribers of my free Sound ADvice newsletter.  If you would like a free weekly subscription, just email me at Scott@ScLoHo.net and ask to be included.

Google is the Wrong Answer

Google is the Wrong Answer

I was in a meeting with a business owner this month and as we were doing our usual “Discovery” meeting, one of the questions that was asked was:

Where are your current customers coming from?

He answered, “Google”

Bzzzzzz.  Wrong answer.

Well, perhaps it was really the wrong question.

Google for advertising veterans is the new Yellow Pages.   

For those under the age of 45, before Google was launched last century in 1998 and became the top search engine about 5 years later, consumers would use the Yellow Pages section of a phone book to get the phone number to a business they wanted to call or visit.

Yellow Page ad salespeople trained their business customers to ask new people calling, “How did you get our number?” and a sizeable percent of the answers were the phone book.

I mean it made sense, the phone book is where I got the number, so technically the answer was correct.  This is how the Yellow Page ad salespeople sold ads, by “proving their worth” and getting the business owner to buy a bigger ad each year.  

In the old days of the phone book or today of Google and smart phones, the answer to the question is predictable.  If I’m in front of my laptop, I’ll Google it.  Otherwise, I’ll ask my phone, because I can search with my voice.  Siri, Alexa, and Hey Google are all similar current replacements for the both the phone book and laptop versions of Google.

Here’s why that’s the wrong question to ask if you are attempting to decide where your customers are coming from or where to invest your advertising dollars.

Google is the last step in a long series of steps that your new customer made to connect with you.  We call it the Zero Moment of Truth.  

All they need is the phone number, or if I’m searching from my phone, I don’t even need the actual number, I can call without even knowing the number.

The question you want to know is what are all the other influencing factors that prompted your customer to Google you?  Was it word of mouth from a friend?  Was it a 10 second video ad they had to watch before YouTube played a cat video?  Was it the radio ad, the endorsement from the podcast host?  The highway road sign they drive by daily or even the Pay Per Click Ad they saw when researching the kind of stuff you sell?

That’s what you should measure, and make it multiple choice because odds are it’s a combination of multiple influences that were the steps that lead to that final step of connecting with you because they Googled you.

Google is not the answer to your business success, it’s just the final step that connected them to you.

Trust is the Glue

Trust is the Glue

Trust.

This five letter word is the glue that holds our world together.

Over the years I’ve been writing, publishing and podcasting, the theme I keep coming back to is Human Relationship Principles.  And the key to all human relationships is trust.

Before I dig into the marketing and advertising thoughts regarding Trust, let’s stand back at look around our world.

From the day we are born, we place our trust in an adult to feed us and take care of us.  As we grow older, we become more self-sufficient and those needs change but trust is placed in other things and people.  As simple as putting trust in the chair you are sitting in right now.  Trust that when you are driving down the road that the person driving towards you will stay on their side of the road while you stay on your side.  That’s trust.

Trust in relationships also pertains to agreements between countries.  A level of trust has to come with signing treaties. Agreements between companies always have a trust factor.

In the most personal relationships, we trust.  Trust that the person you lay down to sleep with is not going to harm you.

Trust can be broken and how we deal with broken trust will impact future relations.

Spending money on something involves trust too.  There is a reason some people buy chips from the dollar store and others buy them from the supermarket, but no matter where you buy them, you trust that what’s inside the bag is worth the money you paid.

When we don’t know who to trust, what do we do?

We look around for recommendations.

However not all recommendations are valued equally.

Research firm Ipsos released a survey that talks about who adults trust for recommendations.

The top couple of trusted groups are unchanged from surveys I’ve seen for decades.

7 out of 10 adults trust their family members and 2/3rds trust the recommendations of friends when deciding what or where to spend their money.

This has traditionally been called Word Of Mouth and I’ll get back to it in a second.

All the other sources for recommendations scored poorly,  Under 40% of adults trust casual acquaintances. Someone who works in the store or for the company were only trusted 37% of the time.

All the online resources including company websites, companies on social media, review sites, social media groups, even the social media influencers scored in the 30’s or 20’s out of 100 for being trusted enough to spend money.

Why is this you ask?

It’s all about the Human Connection.  We know our family, we choose our friends and we trust friends and family to have our back.  All those others, they’re just out for themselves, at least that’s our perception, deep down in our gut.

Marketers are looking to create advertising campaigns that will persuade us to buy what they are selling.

Smart marketers include the trust factor in their plans.

9 years ago, I joined Federated Media’s WOWO radio advertising sales team.  I had worked for other media companies and radio stations in Fort Wayne and I even worked for Federated Media earlier in my life on the air for sister station WMEE.

Why did I join WOWO in 2013?

Trust.

Ben Saurer was a young 20 something-year-old whose first real job was working in radio at a group of stations I was with and he left when he was hired by Federated Media to become their General Sales Manager for WOWO.  I knew Ben from our time together and I trusted Ben.

I trusted Ben enough to meet with him on the sly as I was working for an e-commerce company, as hour out of town, to discuss the possibility of us working together again.  Difference was, I would be working for him instead of the other way around like when we first met.

This trust factor along with trust in my own ability led to my taking an initial pay cut without a guarantee that I would earn it back; along with being the 5th person on a five person sales team.  A little background on what it means to be #5 on a 5 person team.  You’re not sitting in the superstar spot.  #5 on a 5 person sales team is a revolving door.

Nothing was promised to me, no established accounts to take over, none of that, just an opportunity that was mine to take advantage of.

All of the accounts from my past were handled by the other 4 members of the WOWO sales team.  Let’s be blunt about this.  #5 on a five person team has about a 10% chance of making it, and that’s optimistic.

During the first year, I ended up winning the Super Goal award for Federated Media’s Fort Wayne stations.  Out of about 20 sales people, I exceeded my budget goals more than anyone else when measuring percentages.  I was not the top salesperson, I was not in the top 5, I don’t know where I was actually in dollars, but I beat expectations.  That 10% chance of survival was overcome and then some.

2014 was my first full year at WOWO.  2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 were mostly growth years. And then 2019 something happened.

It was a year that exceeded expectations and budget goals again and I ended up winning the Super Goal award for Federated Media’s Fort Wayne stations again.  The difference in dollars was tremendous however. 2019 versus 2014 for me was a difference of around $500,000.

Besides winning the Super Goal award, I also won the Account Manager of the Year in 2019 for the entire Federated Media organization.  That was based on dollars.

Trust was the reason behind this success.  Business owners grew to trust me and the radio station, WOWO.  Now WOWO itself has earned respect and trust for it’s legacy that began in 1925 and in a couple of years will be celebrating a century on the air.  WOWO has had legendary radio personalities and our current line-up features two outstanding people who are trusted by their listeners.

Pat Miller hosts the Pat Miller Talk Show, weekday afternoons from 3pm to 6pm and Kayla Blakeslee is the host for Fort Wayne’s Morning News weekday mornings.

When Pat and Kayla talk, people listen.  But it’s more than listening, a relationship develops over time.  This is what happens what a radio personality is allowed to be real and share themselves on the air and as a news and talk formatted station, WOWO listeners have developed a Trust relationship with us.

The most successful campaigns on WOWO have Pat or Kayla as their spokesperson.  Their listeners Trust them,  it’s Word Of Mouth with a Bigger Mouth.

Recently I took over the sales departments at sister stations 1380, The Fan, our Sports Talk station; along with 98.9 The Bear, Federated Media’s Heritage Rock Music Station and BIG 92.3, our Classic Hits Music station.  The trust factor is there too on our music stations and here’s why…

No matter if you’re listening to Brett on the Sports Rush, Pat or Kayla talking about the news, or listening to your favorite tunes on BIG or the Bear, you are not just intellectually involved, you are emotionally involved too with your favorite stations.

Trust is an emotional connection and that is why I have seen so many businesses be successful when they invite listeners who have an emotional bond with their favorite station, also trust the advertisers, especially when the ads tie into that emotional side of us and nurture trust.

Sure, you can create some boring ads that just present the facts and hope they work.  You can create some gimmicky ads to promote what YOU want to sell, but if they leave out the human side and do nothing to build trust, your chances for success are limited.

Want to know more about how to integrate Trust in your marketing outreach?  Contact me.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-scott-howard-genuine-scloho-media-and-marketin/287-scloho-podcast-trust-is-the-glue
Word Of Mouth Advertising With A Bigger Mouth

Word Of Mouth Advertising With A Bigger Mouth

The very best form of marketing is what we call Word Of Mouth.

Why?

Because it is from the heart, from one person to another and it includes implicitly, the Human Relationship factor we all need: Trust.

Several years ago, I wrote about the Word Of Mouth advantage that my radio station has and you can read what I wrote in January 2018 here.

I found that article by Googling the term, “Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth” and only a few articles popped up, both attributed to me.

I honestly don’t think I coined that term despite what the Google gods say.

Here’s the backstory:

From my teen years to age 26, I spent all of my radio life working on the radio.  I was an overnight radio disc jockey.  That’s how I met my first wife and mother of our three kids.

I also did other shifts on the radio and became the Program Director of one of the stations I worked for.  That meant I was the guy in charge of the music, the format, the air personalities, basically anything except for the advertising.

Most radio ads were forgettable.  The ones that I had to voice and produce were usually written by an advertising sales person and most were lousy, in my opinion.  So every once in awhile, I would use my creativity and write ads for local businesses that were different from the usual stuff I was told to read and record.

However in 1986, I moved from the on-air side of radio to the advertising side when I joined Crawford Broadcasting in Detroit as an advertising campaign Master Producer.  I worked hand in hand with a couple of WMUZ advertising sales people and created some pretty successful ad campaigns for our clients.

WMUZ also was very advertiser friendly.  When I was there for about eight years, our live radio hosts would give a 10 second endorsement for every local business on their show.  They were called Rolling Endorsements.  The way it worked is there would always be a 30 second or 1 minute recorded ad that was immediately followed by a brief live endorsement.  Robin Sullivan was one of the most popular afternoon radio hosts at the time I was there and when Robin endorsed Hilton Mortgage, her listeners took her recommendation as seriously as if their best friend had recommended Hilton Mortgage.

That’s because of the relationship Robin built with her audience on WMUZ, they trusted Robin as best friends trust each other.

That Trust Factor in both the radio station and the radio host is what becomes as powerful as Word Of Mouth Advertising.  Except with the size of the radio audience, it’s not just a one to one Word Of Mouth, but Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth.

Fast forward to 2003.  I’m returning to radio in the advertising world but in a different city than I did it previously.  In the 80’s and 90’s I was in Detroit and now I was back in my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Interestingly the Fort Wayne radio stations I joined two decades ago don’t exist anymore.  All have changed formats.  At the end of 2013 however I joined WOWO Radio which is nearly a century old and has been a news and talk station for more than a couple decades.

With the history of WOWO and the longevity of WOWO as a news and talk station with live and local radio hosts and news personalities, the Trust Factor is alive and thriving.

First off, WOWO itself is trusted by our core listeners.  Over 100,000 weekly listeners make it one of the most listened to stations in Fort Wayne.

Next is the implied endorsement that any local advertiser has simply by being on WOWO.

We can take it a step further with a couple of options that really fit the  “Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth” model.  Similar to when I first learned it at WMUZ ind Detroit in the 80’s but unique to Fort Wayne.

We have live 10 second embedded sponsorship mentions read by the show hosts or newscasters available during live programming.  Since WOWO has live and local newscasts 13 hours daily, Monday thru Friday, twice an hour, that is one option.

The other is a step up from what I saw at WMUZ.  Live Testimonial Endorsement Ads with our morning show host, Kayla or our afternoon host Pat.  Instead of a recorded ad followed by a brief live endorsement, the entire ad by Kayla or Pat is live. This is our Platinum Level of Advertising that is also limited to only a few Trusted Businesses.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll divulge even more details about this Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth on WOWO radio and how we use Human Relationship Marketing Principles to create the Trust Factor including the emotional connection that includes transfer of credibility.

Human Relationship Marketing in a Nutshell

Human Relationship Marketing in a Nutshell

All of us are exposed to a variety of advertising and marketing messages every single day.  But there is one method that trumps all the others combined and it’s built on what I refer to as Human Relationship Marketing.

Human Relationship Marketing is a different approach than most advertising professionals talk about, but the goal is similar.

Human Relationship Marketing and all the other approaches have the ultimate goal of selling stuff.  But how it’s done is what separates Human Relationship Marketing from the others.

As Humans we have a primary need to Trust.

For us to feel confident about anything, we need to Trust it.  

I Trust the chair I am sitting in to hold me.

I Trust the cook at the restaurant not to poison me.

I Trust the drivers heading towards me on the road at 40 miles per hour to stay on their side of the yellow line.

See how important Trust is to our Human activities?

This Trust Factor is essential to be our Human experience.

As a side note, it goes beyond humans.  Over the years my wife and I have had a cat or two. Our current feline is a little skittish compared to our previous critter who would sleep thru anything.  If you are also a pet owner, you understand the Trust Factor between pets and people too.

So how does this Trust Factor apply to Human Relationship Marketing and what is Human Relationship Marketing in a Nutshell?

It’s pretty simple.  

Human Relationship Marketing includes or mimics the Human Relationship Principles that build Trust and uses those as the foundation for the advertising and marketing.

I’ll give you two examples.

The first is for a car dealer in town that uses all kinds of gimmicks and cliches to sell cars. Every month it’s a new sale.  So far this year, they’ve had their Nickle Pickle sale; Hole In One sale; Swimming In Savings sale; and Shamrock Your Ride. These campaigns are filled with cute word plays and clever puns but do they build Trust?  Not with me or most other Humans I know.

The other example is from my own radio station where our afternoon talk show host talks about how he and his wife have bought or leased 8 cars from his favorite dealership.  Even before they were advertising on WOWO radio, Pat Miller and his wife were getting their cars from this dealership.  My friends, this is the very best form of Human Relationship Marketing using the Trust Factor.  It’s what I call Word of Mouth Advertising with a Bigger Mouth.

Speaking of which, next time I’ll give you my background story on that phrase, Word of Mouth Advertising with a Bigger Mouth.