How Much Should I Spend On Marketing?

It’s often the question that most business owners dread:

How Much Should I Spend On Marketing?

I have a fresh take on this using the words of Roy H. Williams:

1. One of the most common mistakes in advertising is to spread your ad budget across several different media so that you “don’t leave anyone out.” But persuasion – in most instances – requires repetition and familiarity. Would you rather reach 100% of the people and convince them 10% of the way, or reach 10% of the people and convince them 100% of the way? Don’t spread your money too thinly by chasing the unicorn of “media mix.”

2. Expensive rent = cheap advertising. Intrusive visibility – a landmark location with signage that’s noticed even when people aren’t looking for it – is the cheapest advertising money can buy.  This is true for service businesses, too, not just retail. The extra cost for this kind of location should be taken from the ad budget.

Roy’s first point is one that I’ve said repeatedly and his second one, well I can give you a real life example of it in action.

When I help my advertising partners schedule their ads on my radio station, WOWO radio, I do it the same way I advise people to buy television ads.

And that is to get ownership of an audience.

For people who want to buy TV ads, I tell them to do the opposite of what most TV ad salespeople try and sell.  The TV stations here are notorious for throw ads all over their station with very little frequency. Instead I tell them to concentrate on a couple of popular shows, even if it means they get less ads for their budget.

When it comes to the radio ads on WOWO which is a news/talk station, I employ a similar tactic. Between 5am and 6pm weekdays we have 4 distinct programs.  The day starts with our local Fort Wayne Morning News with Kayla Blakeslee.  Then national talk show host Glenn Beck comes on at 9am followed by Rush Limbaugh at 12noon.  From 3pm to 6pm, it’s all local again with the Pat Miller Program.

Every one of these 4 programs has a weekly audience of 40,000 to 70,000 listeners.  None of my advertising partners can handle half that amount coming to them in a week.  So what I do is take a look at the best 3 hour radio show to place my advertising partner.

What makes a show “the best”?  I look at competitors on the air, I look a little deeper at the personalities of the show and other aspects that I have insight on and we start with about 15 hours a week which is 3 hours a day times 5 days per week to place their ads.

As they build success on one WOWO radio show, we look at expanding to a second or third show, but the idea is to build positive Top Of Mind Awareness with a select group of people first.  I have ways to tweak this too, just ask me.

Now regarding Roy Williams comment about Real Estate being apart of your Marketing…. I say yes and no.  If you can secure a location and the signage at a well known spot in town, good for you.  This was the reason shopping malls used to attract tenants who paid extra high rent.  But now, it’s probably not needed as much.  With technology and smartphones being able to give us driving instructions, as long as you have your online listings current, I tend to disagree.

However there is a drug store chain that saw tremendous growth a few decades ago by taking the location factor as part of their marketing to heart.

I’m talking about Walgreens.  When I returned to Fort Wayne, 20 years ago, all the Walgreens were in a strip mall.  The one closest to me built a free standing store across the street from their old location and shut down the previous store.

You’ll probably notice that most Walgreens are located at an intersection where there is a traffic light.  Most also have an LED electronic message sign that has specials rotating that people see while they are waiting for the light to change from red to green.

This is by design.  This is brillant, but wait, there’s more.

As Walgreens was making this change in the placement and design of their stores, they also incorporated a new advertising slogan that most consumers didn’t overtly notice, but when I tell you, you see too the clever marketing tie-in.

Walgreens, at the corner of Happy & Healthy!

And yes, they are really at a real street corner. Plus everything they sell is designed to make you either healthy of happy or both.

Most businesses don’t have the deep pockets that Walgreens has to do a complete rebrand of that proportion.  However there are plenty of opportunities to use this kind of wisdom with the marketing and advertising of your business.

Want help?

Contact me:  Scott@WOWO.com

You can also review the entire list of 20 points Roy H. Williams made in Advertising Oversimplified by going here.

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