Your Baby Is Ugly

by | Jul 13, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

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"

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.

It’s hard.  Recently 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 todays 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 websites 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.

 

Your People Are Also Your Marketing

by | Jul 10, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Do you know how many times your business has lost potential business because they had the wrong person dealing with the public?

the quotable Amber

the quotable Amber

A few years ago, my friend Amber made the following comment on Twitter:

If your receptionist isn’t friendly when I call or visit, I won’t call or visit again.

What Amber stated is not profound, or new.

She simply stated what most everyone feels.

If you are going to skimp on employees, you are probably losing more business than any advertising and marketing program can ever generate, because now with the power of Social Media and online review sites, those bad experiences have an audience.

Fix it today.

Fix it now.

Old Fashioned & New Tech

by | Jul 9, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

A couple days ago my wife and I got to speak with and see a couple of grandkids and their Mom who live a few hundred miles away.  As we spoke with Nora, her brother Oliver and Mom, Rachael, it was effortless.  These little ones think nothing of Google Hangouts, Skype, or Facetime.  The technology makes something like old fashioned face to face conversation real.

"O" and his mommy

“O” and his mommy

For #TBT also know as #ThrowBackThursday, an article I wrote 7 years ago from the ScLoHo archives:

When I first entered the media world I was a 16 year old high school student who was paid to babysit a radio transmitter and take meter readings every two hours.

The Federal Communications Commission required a properly licensed individual to be on site at all times when a radio station was on the air.

This was 1976.

35 years later, due to a combination of rule changes working hand in hand with tech changes, this type of job no longer exists.

Radio stations still exist, however.

The best ones still use human beings talking and sharing local events and information, just like they have for decades.

Now, think about your business.

What are the old fashioned elements that will be required to keep you successful for decades into the future, even with new tech popping up every few years?

The 3 Step Marketing Plan

by | Jul 8, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

People ask me for advice about marketing when they understand that I do more than sell advertising.  Much, much more it seems, compared to other advertising sales people. But that’s a story for another day.

I often hear, “I don’t know much about marketing, can you help?”

Yes, and depending on the situation it can be a short conversation or a much more detailed and strategic plan that can take weeks of meetings and brainstorming.

However it all boils down to 3 steps. e

Here is The 3 Step Marketing Plan nearly every business needs to follow:

  1. Invite people.
  2. Treat them special when they come to spend money with you.
  3. Invite them to come back.

Do this over and over again and don’t stop.

I don’t care how you invite people, but you have to invite enough of them to have some of them say yes.

Number 2 is really hard for some businesses but it is just as important as number 1.

Number 3 is also equally important.

It’s like a three legged stool.  One of the most stable structures as long as all the legs are in place.

But completely worthless when one leg is missing.

Are You Really Looking for the Right Answer?

by | Jun 23, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

A couple weekends ago my wife asked me to vacuum a couple of rooms, which is normally no big deal.  But things got a little complicated when I tried to plug the vacuum in to the first “outlet”.

It was next to a chair in a spare bedroom and even though I couldn’t see it directly, I could reach around and plug in the vacuum, was my thought.

Take a look:

My first view of the outlet

My first view of the outlet

Now when I first attempted to plug in the vacuum, my view was non-existent.

I just knew that there was something there that would probably work.

I’m going to stop a second and apply this to business marketing.

And because I work for WOWO radio, I’ll use radio in this application.

I recall a business owner telling me a few years ago that he tried radio and it didn’t work.

I smiled when I asked him if it was the batteries or the cord.  He smiled back and said his radio worked fine, but when he tried advertising on the radio, on his favorite radio station, he got nothing back.

We talked further and discovered that his favorite station was targeted to teens and 20 year olds, even though he was 40, he was not their typical listener.  His ideal customer was someone age 45+.

As you can imagine, the radio station he advertised on was not a good fit for his business.

Sort of like this mystery outlet in my spare bedroom.  I moved the chair to see what was going on and saw this:

See those two letters?

See those two letters?

See those letters, T.V. ?  Apparently this house we bought last year that was built 40 years ago has wiring behind the walls for a rooftop TV antenna. And sure enough, there is a rooftop TV antenna on top of my house which we don’t use.

Even if I figured out a way to modify the plug on the vacuum or modify the outlet and was able to connect the two, it would not work. And I was smart enough not to try.

Some people will try and force something to work marketing wise that is simply a lost cause.  You can’t run more and more ads to the wrong people to get them to buy your stuff.  Instead, find a better place to run your ads so your target market will hear and respond.

I did just that with the vacuum.  I plugged it into an appropriate electrical outlet and everything worked the way it was supposed to.

Apply this to your business marketing and you’ll discover by looking a little closer what can work to help spread the word about your business.

(Or you can just throw away the vacuum.)

How I Actually Use Social Media Professionally & Personally

by | Jun 16, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Yesterday I mentioned using LinkedIN, Facebook and Twitter as Sales Tools. Do You Facebook?

Today, I’ll share an overview of how I use them.

Things to remember:

  • Each Social Media platform is different.  Don’t auto post the same stuff on each of them.  LinkedIN is a professional networking tool.  You want to present your professional self on LinkedIN, not your weekend at the lake drinking pics.  Fill out your profile completely take some time to tweak and add additional stuff every few months.  You can also add updates and write articles that appear on a LinkedIN newsfeed.  Join a few groups.  Be both professional and social.
  • Facebook is the grand-daddy of social media platforms and I used to avoid it because like some of you I was frustrated by the continuing changes they would make.  Then in 2012 when I worked fulltime in social media, I dug in and studied Facebook for business and began using it more and more personally.
  • Twitter has been my personal favorite social communication tool.  But for business, I give it mixed reviews.

What to post:

  • With my personal LinkedIn account, I will share an update between 2 and 4 days a week.  Sometimes it is something I wrote, other times it is something I found online.  Some of the folks I am connected to are posting multiple times a day and to me that is just annoying.
  • Facebook.  I post once or twice a day. Recently I found a plug-in that allows me to auto share on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms when ever I publish a new article on my own website.  This is not the same as autoposting the same stuff, because I am sharing links, not the entire content.  At least that is my story.  Also I share plenty of personal and fun stuff too so I’m not cramming business self-promotion stuff at my friends all the time in their newsfeeds.
  • Twitter for me is fun.  A few years ago I was in a debate about whether a person needed two twitter accounts, one for personal stuff and one for business.  For me, I’ve only had one and that is because I am my own personal brand, even though I work and get paid by another company as their employee.  I am myself.  And I don’t speak for my employer.  Interestingly however, I have permission to write and share some inside information about my job and employer.  This was not the case when I worked for another media company.

So what about you? Are you being social?  Do you use these 3 platforms I mentioned?  What others are you actively using?  Do you mix business with personal on Facebook and Twitter?

Your comments are always welcome.