Building Momentum

Building Momentum

by | Nov 13, 2023 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

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.

Is It A Thing or Is It A Fad?

Is It A Thing or Is It A Fad?

by | Jul 11, 2023 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Let’s jump into this topic headfirst with the reason I’m talking about this subject right now.

Around July 5th, a new social media app, Threads was launched and it’s been all over the news because… well.. the news media thinks it’s newsworthy.

Threads is connected to Instagram which is connected to Facebook which actually changed their corporate name to Meta in 2021.  Sort of like when Google changes their corporate name to Alphabet in 2015.

Anyway back to Threads and the news it’s making, mostly because of the number of users or subscribers it’s signed up.  News reports proclaiming it’s breaking records compared to other social media apps are true but with a footnote.

Facebook or Meta or whatever you want to call it is still the worlds largest social media platform when you count the number of accounts or users they have.  However if you look under the hood and ask some reasonable questions like “how many active users?” and “how active does an account need to be to be considered active?” , those numbers will shrink.  More on that in a moment.

The reason Threads has gained so many subscribers so quickly is because of two things:

  1. The Hype.  Free advertising from the media.  Because when Elon Musk took over Twitter and started making changes in 2022 that disrupted the Twitterverse, many Tweeps from the old days were not happy and looking for a Twitter Alternative.
  2. The Facebook/Instagram subscriber database.  If you have an Instagram account, you can sign up for Threads in less than a minute because Threads is currently tied directly to Instagram.  As of March 2023, Instagram has 2 Billion Monthly Average Users. That’s made it easy to pull those people over to Threads.  Twitter only had 233 MAU in March and as I write this just 5 days after the Threads launch, over 100 million have created a Threads account.

Regarding Threads, Is It A Thing or Is It A Fad?

Honestly it’s way too early to tell.

I recall in 2009 when the program director of one of my radio stations proclaimed that Twitter was just a Fad.  This was 3 years after Twitter launched and a year after I hopped on as a Tweep and built my ScLoHo Brand to national recognition with some of my Tweets being quoted by mainstream publications like the Wall Street Journal along with some more niche platforms.

The real test will be as the year unfolds and next year too. Right now people are signing up because they’ve heard about it and it’s easy.  But are they going to be active on Threads?  We have to wait and see over time.

There are some limits to the functionality compared to Twitter and other social platforms and that will evolve with time.  I’ve seen my friend Kevin Mullett and others explain the pros and cons of Threads. Scroll thru the Facebook comments until you find Kevin Mullett  here: https://www.facebook.com/djtrend/posts/pfbid02A7eh8tYxLLhcc1vmhf7xxfzLpzYXyQRU12swiuXTjTsc2JD6cro9V3DBP9ZCE9GVl

Also my friend Anthony Juliano had a very common sense approach that he shared on LinkedIn this week.  Anthony wrote:

My take on Threads, in a nutshell:

1. Yes, it’s a thing
2. A lot of people are joining it
3. But you don’t have to
4. Unless you want to
5. Oh, I understand: new stuff is neat!
6. But it probably won’t change your life, and
7. Do you really need another distraction?
8. It’s okay if you do, though, or see it as something that will move you toward your goals
9. But it’s okay if you don’t
10. And you can always change your mind later. To join or unjoin Threads. Or anything else. These tools aren’t going anywhere, and if they do you didn’t miss anything.

Except that last point #10 .. you can’t unjoin Threads without deleting your Instagram account right now. However, you can decide not to participate and simply keep your account without using it.

If you are an early adopter like I used to be and Kevin still is, go exploring on Threads.

But for marketing your business the way some people have relied solely on Social Media platforms to be the lifeline of revenue for their income… hold off.  At this moment Threads doesn’t have a way to run sponsored content, but they will in order to survive.

Because not all social media platforms last, no matter how much money the parent company has.  Google has failed numerous times including their Google Plus social platform that they simply could not convince enough people to use and it was killed off.

One last thought on the counting process of users or subscribers.  Monthly Average Users seems to be a standard for  many including the social media world. Monthly is also number that is used in the radio broadcasting world. The Radio Advertising Bureau says that over 90% of Americans listen to radio at least once a month.

I can give you real numbers that are much better criteria to look at when deciding where to spend your ad and marketing money.

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Nielsen company does a survey twice a year that gives us weekly numbers, not monthly.  And by taking a deep dive, we can look at specific hours or listener demographics.  Much like the targeting options on Facebook for certain qualitative criteria, we can look at that information for any of the radio stations in Fort Wayne, not just the 5 stations Federated Media operate.

Our oldest station, WOWO is now 99 years old and doing well.  Our other stations which include Sports Talk 1380 the Fan, WMEE, K105, and The Bear are also  doing well with a lot of listeners that want to spend money with businesses they trust.  This is not a Fad, it’s a Thing.  A Real Thing and if you want more information contact me.

 

The Long Game

The Long Game

by | May 30, 2023 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

When I say the word “Future”, how far off in the future does your mind think?

Is the Future 5 years away?

Is the Future 20 years away?

Is the Future next week or even next month?

Does it hurt your brain to think beyond today?

Here in the United States we live in short time spans, relatively speaking compared to some other countries around the world.

We elect a President every four years which for many countries is very unstable.  And the election cycle has become shorter and shorter.  If you like your President then, you want them to last not just 4 years, but 8 years.  However if you don’t like your President, you start talking about the next election as soon as possible, sometimes within 6 months.

I find it interesting that we elect government representatives who then create laws that outlast their term in office or in some cases, the laws don’t come into effect until after those that wrote them are out of office.

But enough about government and the Future, let’s talk about business and the Future.  In my world of radio broadcasting, I work for a radio station that is now 98 years old. WOWO radio began broadcasting in 1925 and was one of the first AM radio stations.  This year there was big news about the death of AM radio because certain automakers announced that they were not including AM radios in their new vehicles.  Ford was the big one that caught peoples attention.

The National Association of Broadcasters rallied their members and lobbyists to save AM radio and due to the bad press or pressure either publicly or privately, Ford reversed course and their CEO announced: “For any owners of Ford’s EVs without AM broadcast capability, we’ll offer a software update”.  As a broadcaster who knows how radio broadcasting works, the “software update” made me suspicious.  If all it takes is a software update, that means the hardware was built-in all this time.

Anyway, the future of AM radio accessibility in Ford manufactured vehicles is safe for now.

On the other hand, there has been a lot of noise in government regarding the social media app TikTok.  The concern is that users information is being given to the Chinese Communist Party for evil and it endangers all of us.  The app has been banned by one state and the Federal Government is prohibiting it from being downloaded on devices that are connected to government sites.

Changes are coming as the Future continues to move closer and closer.  How prepared are you for the changes that could occur next year?  Forget about 5 years down the road or 20 years into the future… I bet there are changes that are taking place in your industry that are going to impact your business in the next 18 months or sooner and you have not prepared for them yet.

The idea of The Long Game which is what I titled this piece is not that you need to stick with doing everything the same way forever and ever, but to look to the Future and plan for what is coming or could be coming.

As I announced in May, WOWO radio prepared for the future by adding a strong FM signal, 92.3 to our options for listeners to tune in while they are driving in case their vehicle doesn’t have AM radio.  We were prepared and you need to be prepared too in your business.

When it comes to inviting people to spend their money with you and your business, I have tons of options and ideas that you should consider.  Some are nearly 100 years old, while others are in their infancy.  Contact me and let’s play the Long Game together for today and the Future.

Google is the Wrong Answer

Google is the Wrong Answer

by | Mar 21, 2023 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

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.

The Purpose of Your Advertising

The Purpose of Your Advertising

by | Mar 9, 2023 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

The Purpose of Advertising is to let others know about you, your stuff, or your brand in such a manner that it has an impact.

And before I go any further, the other distinction that Advertising has over other forms of communication is that you pay for it.  It’s not free.

Back to my first statement:

The Purpose of Advertising is to let others know about you, your stuff, or your brand in such a manner that it has an impact.

That word Impact.  What does that mean?

Well my friend, that depends on you.

For most advertising, the impact will not be recognized until sometime in the future.

Only a fraction of a percent of the people who hear or see your ad will respond in the moment and buy what you are offering to sell.

The impact however is not wasted just because the results are not instant.

When we are exposed to advertising messages, they are creating a neurological impact on us.

The ads are creating a preference for what they are advertising for and the more you and I are exposed to an ad or series of ads, the stronger that preference will be.

I’ll give you an example from 22 years ago, when I was not working in the advertising or media world.

My wife and I bought our first house together and decided we wanted central air since the house only had old fashioned window units.  I got quotes from two competing companies that were top of mind because of the advertising and marketing they had done over the years.  Never before was I in the market for central air conditioning and yet here I was calling up two companies that were Top Of Mind for me.  One of them got thousands of dollars that year, and a dozen years later the other company got a few thousand dollars of my money when we bought another home.

Think about it for a moment.  If you are watching a show and see an ad for something, nearly none of us are going to stop what we are doing and go buy what we just saw at that moment are we?

Sometimes, and I mean sometimes, not often, the message in the ad is something that can be acted on right away.  We had our local Home and Garden Show at the Coliseum recently and during the show, some advertisers were inviting listeners to visit their booth to win something.. The results were that a few of the people who heard the ads responded and told us so, but those were listeners who were planning on coming to the event anyway and we just enticed them to visit a specific business’s booth while they were there.

The Purpose of Advertising is to let others know about you, your stuff, or your brand in such a manner that it has an Impact. 

And that Impact will depend on what you are wanting to accomplish.

Contact me for more information.  Scott@WOWO.com.