The Online and On-The-Air Marketing Mix

The Online and On-The-Air Marketing Mix

by | Jun 19, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

If you are a business owner or in charge of handling the marketing and advertising, a wise thing to do is to pay close attention to what the BIG GUYS are doing.

The “Big Guys”, the likes of GEICO, Home Depot, Proctor & Gamble and others, have huge budgets to track what works and what does not work in advertising. And they have marketing experts to think strategically in all of their planning.

There’s a strategic reason why GEICO and Home Depot remain strong radio advertisers and why Proctor & Gamble, after a short but strong run with digital, has come back to radio. These successful marketers understand something about their customers that most of their customers don’t even understand about themselves.

They understand the difference between HOW people buy, and WHY people buy.

The internet is where people do their due diligence and research, just before they purchase. They are trying to justify what they already believe based on Pre-Need Branding advertising that helped you decide WHAT you wanted to buy. They search online to learn more about the prices, warranties, policies, and technical specs of what they are about to buy.

But the smart advertisers understand that their digital media is typically not why people choose to buy from a particular business. The “why” is the pre-need preference and feelings great marketers create before their prospects search online.

Broadcast INSPIRES – Internet INFORMS!

It’s okay for you to steal proven marketing strategies from the big advertisers. Proctor & Gamble, GEICO, and Home Depot have already made a considerable investment to determine the most successful media strategies, and they use “radio to inspire, internet to inform”.

What I just shared with you is from my free email marketing newsletter, Sound ADvice that you can sign up for below.  

I’ve got a couple more tips to share with you right now…

Because you probably aren’t the size of the big advertisers I just mentioned, your advertising budget probably isn’t as large as theirs either.

It’s going to take more than a scaled down copy cat strategy, we really need to dig in an do our best to make the most of the ad dollars you have to get the best return on investment and help your business grow.  I can help.

I have several WOWO radio advertising partners that are doing both online and on-the-air advertising and marketing and I help them with the messaging on both.

Contact me and we’ll get started on what is appropriate for you. 

 

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What Does Reach Mean in Advertising and Marketing?

What Does Reach Mean in Advertising and Marketing?

by | May 30, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

If I were to ask a dozen people what REACH means, I am sure I would get at least 4 or 5 different answers, all depending on each persons life experience.

You take the basketball player and they know that reach is important in being able to grab a loose ball and that if you have longer arms than your opponent, you have a better shot at getting the ball because you have greater reach.

But in the advertising and marketing world, reach has a different application.

Reach often refers to the size of the audience that you can reach for the dollars you spend.

I was reading one of Seth Godin’s daily blog updates recently and he inspired me today.

Seth said:

Reach is overrated

It might be the biggest misconception in all of advertising.

The Super Bowl has reach.

Google has reach.

Radio has reach.

So?

Why do you care if you can, for more money, reach more people?

Why wouldn’t it make more sense to reach the right people instead?

Seth continues his article with some valid points and wraps it up with this question:

Perhaps it makes sense to pay extra to reach precisely the right people. It never makes sense to pay extra to reach more people.

So I mostly agree with what Seth says, but there are a few items he leaves out.

Both Reach and the Right People are important.

It’s not a pick one and only one choice.

It is really important to make sure the Right People are reached by your advertising and marketing messages.

I started a conversation with a gentleman named Kyle who started a company that converts old video tapes into digital media.  He can put your old videos that are currently stored on a video tape on a flash drive, a DVD, or store it in the cloud.  Initially he contacted me because he listens to our rock radio station, The Bear and thought that would be a great place to advertise.

However as I heard his story and what he needs to do, the rock station, The Bear is not filled with the Right People.  They may have a great reach of over 50,000 weekly listeners, but considering their age, it’s not the best place to find radio listeners that have old video tapes to convert.

So I am going to offer as the best option, another of out radio stations, WOWO.  WOWO is a news talk radio station with the majority of our listeners age 50 and older.  I will also offer a campaign on our ESPN Sports station targeted to parents and coaches that have videos of family and players that need to be preserved.

Granted WOWO overall has a greater reach with over 100,000 weekly listeners but we are only going to focus our ads on a smaller percentage of them and not try and reach everyone.  I can create an ad campaign that scales for the right audience and the right number of people to make it both affordable and profitable.

What about using the internet?  Maybe.  That is where we are going to send our radio listeners, to their website.  But attempting to use online ads is a gamble.  I’ve seen only a couple of business people do it successfully this year and with my insider knowledge, I’ve even backed away from recommending many of the online options.

Bottom line is that you need to reach the right people who want what you have to sell, and do it in a manner and with a message that is profitable.

Reaching a lot of people who aren’t really your potential customers isn’t usually a good idea.

Reaching a lot of people but with not enough frequency is also not a good idea, but I’ll save that topic for another day.

Want my help?  Let’s talk. Drop me a note. Scott@WOWO.com is my email.

You can also get my free media and marketing tips email by signing up for Sound ADvice on my website at Scott Howard.me

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Why Some Businesses Fail

Why Some Businesses Fail

by | Feb 26, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

You may have heard the myth that half of all businesses fail within the first year, and only 5% make it through four years. According to recent figures from the Small Business Administration, a government agency created to help small businesses start and succeed, nearly two-thirds of new businesses survive past two years and only slightly over half (56%) of businesses fail in the first four years.

No matter how long you have been in business, there are valuable lessons to be learned from the successes and failures of these new business start-ups.

One of the most surprising critical success factors we can learn from businesses which succeed is, not to go into business to get rich.

Ironically, the businesses which do get rich today are the businesses which start with a passion for filling a customer need…the “getting rich” appears to follow those businesses that have a passion for serving customers. Henry Ford’s higher purpose was to make the automobile affordable for the average consumer. His assembly line brought down costs and achieved his goal.  Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs began with the sole purpose of creating a more user-friendly computer. The rest is history.

The second lesson in today’s economy is you must have a website. A well-designed website makes it easy for users to discover what you offer or do, and why you are their best choice. Do not rely on prospects finding your site by searching for what you sell. Promote your name and website so that prospects search your business name rather than searching what you sell. Inputting what you sell into a search engine will invariably reveal all of your competitors as well. Your advertising needs to create a preference for your business, your name, and your website.

What I just shared with you is from my Sound ADvice weekly marketing tips newsletter that was emailed to subscribers a few weeks ago.  You can get a free subscription by filling out the form below and soon you’ll get it once a week too.  Plus the news letter has a link to additional tips pertaining to each weeks subject.

Right now I have another tip for you that relates to what I just shared about Why Businesses Fail.

The third lesson is this. You need a marketing strategy that goes beyond the internet.  You need to invite people to visit you.  Something that builds Top Of Mind Awareness so when they have a need for what you are selling and they look online for your website, they look for your business, not your competitors. 

I have just the answer for that if you are looking for customers in metro Fort Wayne, Indiana and your ideal customers are adults, not kids. My radio station, WOWO radio of course.  Every month I work with businesses that are decades old and also start ups.  Contact me and let’s start a conversation.

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How To Decide Where To Advertise in 2019

How To Decide Where To Advertise in 2019

by | Feb 19, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Despite all the talk about the internet and digital media being the place to be with your advertising, it’s not time to dump traditional media.

That’s a one line summary of a report issued recently that summarizes where the advertisers and advertising agencies are choosing to spend their advertising dollars.

I’m looking at a chart that lists the factors that are most important in the media mix decision.

In plain english, what are the factors that these businesses and media buyers use to choose one advertising option over another.

At the top of the list, in a tie at 73% we have:

  1. Channels that have been successful in the past, based on research 
  2. Channels that are preferred by our target audience, based on research 

A little over half gave the following three factors for picking an advertising channel:

  • Channels that are appropriate for a specific campaign
  • Channels where our target consumers are most receptive to content from brands
  • Costs and Budget

So far, the two of the most talked about factors for choosing one advertising media channel over another hasn’t been mentioned.  But I’m about to.

Being able to measure Return on Investment only got a 44% rating while New Marketing Channels scored a measly 32%.

Those last two items, are the hallmarks of digital marketing and yet they are the two least important factors.

Let’s look at those top two factors again.

Channels that have been successful in the past.  That sounds like a safe bet. But you also need to know if those channels are still the best choice and that’s where the other top factor comes in. Channels that are preferred by our target audience.

The good news is if you want to consider using WOWO radio, I have dozens of advertising partners that have been using WOWO radio for years, even decades successfully.  I also have details on who listens to WOWO and all the other local radio stations so when we meet we can see what advertising channels your target audience is listening to.

Reach out to meet to set up a meeting and in the meantime, sign up for my free Sound ADvice marketing tips newsletter using the form below or send an email to Scott@ WOWO.com.

 

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Radio Advertising is Still A Great Deal in 2019

Radio Advertising is Still A Great Deal in 2019

by | Feb 5, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

At the end of last year, I saw a few reports on the state of media and marketing for 2019 and want to share some insight from others again.  Because, I can tell you plenty about the success of WOWO advertisers, but how about what others are using radio and other media to bring in business?

People are spending more time with media than ever before, says MarketingCharts’ newly-released 5th annual “US Media Audience Demographics” report, a data-driven resource that can aid marketers in their strategic decision-making. The study sizes up the media landscape, then delves into the age, income, and racial/ethnic composition of several media types across 3 sections: traditional; digital; and social media.

Starting with Traditional Media:

  1. The broadcast TV audience is slowly graying, but it’s the cable TV audience that may be getting there more quickly, says the report.

  2. Terrestrial radio stands apart from other traditional media in its appeal to middle-aged adults and to those in the mid-to-high income range.

  3. For the first time, fewer than half of US adults read a print newspaper on a weekly basis.

Regarding Digital Media which I take includes internet based media including video and websites:

  1. Almost half of online TV program viewers are ages 18-34.

  2. Although digital media types tend to attract younger audiences, people ages 55-64 are actually above the online average in visits to magazine and newspaper websites.

Social Media gets it’s own category in this report with these observations:

  1. Snapchat may be thought of primarily as a youth-oriented platform, but its appeal with higher-income adults is also notable.

  2. Closely following Snapchat in a tilt towards youth, is Instagram.

While this kind of data is interesting and for folks like me who work in and study these medias, I urge you to not try and figure out how to apply this on your own to your business.

Another study I was reading regarding TV viewing from Nielsen, the television ratings and research company.  They listed the top network TV shows and one of my favorites, NCIS was in the top 10, # 4 actually last year with over 16 million viewers.  But of those 16 million, nearly 7 million are not watching it when it airs on Tuesdays on CBS.  They are time shifting, watching on demand.  This means that if you were to advertise on your local broadcast station, over 40% of the regular NCIS fans are not going to see your ad on Tuesday night.

These are just consumer behaviors, not marketing effectiveness which isn’t the same thing.  I am here to help, just ask.

And have you signed up for a new newsletter that I am offering,  called Sound ADvice?  Once a week, it will arrive in your email and be filled with  30 seconds of marketing Sound ADvice on how to make this year your best yet.

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