by Scott Howard | Feb 10, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
If you ever want to find a whole boat of opposing viewpoints, skip politics and just Google “Reinvent the wheel“.
After you read the definition, “wasting time by starting from scratch…”, you’ll find that words and the meaning behind them matters.
For today, my focus is on your business model and marketing.
My radio station, WOWO is now 90 year old. We have made changes as the world made changes. However WOWO began and continues to broadcast on the AM radio band. Originally WOWO was at 1320 AM in 1925. A few changes took place until 1941 when WOWO moved to their permanent home at 1190AM. But these kind of changes are not “reinventing the wheel” changes.
Facebook launched a dozen years ago and became the most successful social media site ever. It was not the first, but it did replace MySpace as the dominate social media site. You can debate whether or not Mark and his Facebook buddies “reinvented the wheel” or just made it “rounder”.
Smartphones “reinvented the wheel” in my opinion, but it was an ongoing process of technology that moved us from just talking to adding text messaging, to email via a Blackberry and finally iPhones.
Back to your business and marketing… Before you decide to throw out the old, “reinvent the wheel” and start with a new business or marketing model, you need to really ask why you are considering this and what you are wanting to accomplish. 
If your business is seeing a decline in sales or revenue or profit, you need to know what needs fixing before you scrap the current “wheel”.
If you believe your advertising is not producing the same results that you believe you were getting in years past, take the time to investigate instead of making quick reactionary moves.
Recently I was meeting with an upcoming advertising partner who wants a new website. I asked him why, and he has a pretty good handle on some things and I will offer assistance on others. The week before, I met with a friend who also wants to scrap his website, but as we talked, I learned that there were some cosmetic changes and function changes he wanted to include. He probably doesn’t need to “reinvent the wheel”, and start over, he just needs to make some adjustments.
Now sometimes you do need to get rid of the old. Updates and Upgrades are a part of life.
I lead off with the question, Do You Need To Reinvent the Wheel?
The answer is: It Depends.
It depends on how well what you offer matches what people want to buy.
It depends on if the methods you are using to invite people to buy from you are still effective methods, given the changes in our world.
Want help figuring this out? Let’s meet.
by Scott Howard | Oct 7, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I mentioned yesterday that I would dig deeper into the 7 Timeless Marketing Rules and so here we go with #1:
- People like it when you talk to them. Better yet, talk with them, not at them. If your advertising is yelling, shouting, screaming, or simply annoying, stop it and get real with people.
The best marketing is word of mouth. But that is also slow and uncontrollable. So you pay money to advertise. Your advertising outreach can mimic and emulate word of mouth. 
In the radio world I work in, live endorsements by trusted air personalities are often the most powerful way to use your 60 seconds of advertising time. I saw this was an excellent way for ads to stand out when I worked in music radio.
With our news/talk format on WOWO radio, it’s even more impactful. This is word of mouth with a bigger mouth because instead of reaching one person at a time, there are thousands who are hearing about you and your business by people they trust. And it is done in a no-hype, conversational manner.
With WOWO we also offer some exclusives for those advertising partners that are buying testimonial style ads. Charly and Pat will only endorse one business in each business category. Not every business automatically qualifies, Charly or Pat have final say on whether or not they will do live endorsements. It’s their reputation on the line along with WOWO’s reputation.
Another way to use word of mouth marketing is in business networking groups. Not all are created equal. I recently rejoined BNI. I was a member for three years between 2004 and 2006 and then was a regular sub for that BNI chapter. My only reason for leaving was my position changed and I was not available to meet every week.
But I saw the value and when I was invited to join a local BNI chapter this summer again, I signed up and made the investment. Our chapter is larger than any of the others in Fort Wayne with over 35 members which is about double the number of members other local chapters have. BNI offers category exclusivity and has high standards that members must meet. BNI is a true word of mouth business networking organization. Interested? Contact me and you can be my guest at our next meeting and see it in action.
Word of Mouth also works on social media but not in the way that companies like Facebook are trying to push. Facebook earns it’s money from advertising. That’s why we see ads in our timeline. But there is also a more trusted form of word of mouth that occurs organically on Facebook. Just update your status with a request for a recommendation for something you need. I saw this in action several years ago when my friend Heather was looking for a dentist. Over 25 of her friends responded with recommendations of who to use and who to avoid.
Back to the concept of talking and not yelling, shouting or screaming in your advertising. There are lots of businesses that will continue to yell, shout, and scream in their radio and tv ads, so when you present a more human, relationship friendly message, it will get attention and stand out. Want help? Contact me. More on this series tomorrow.
by Scott Howard | Sep 23, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
WOWO radio is the radio station I work for, doing advertising and marketing consulting, helping business people make smart advertising and marketing decisions, and selling advertising solutions on WOWO and with our digital options.
But this is not about me, or WOWO directly. It is about the talk radio advantage for advertisers.
This is a conversation I have several times each month. It is about the mental state of people who are exposed to your advertising messages.
We are going to look at the big picture and include many of the places you can spend money to advertise.
Start with television. When you and I sit down to watch a show, we are paying attention to the show. When commercials come on, most of us stop paying attention, at least not the same level of attentiveness that we have during the show.
Newspapers and magazines. Unless it’s a fashion magazine that is chocked full of 50+ pages of ads before the articles start, we are not really interested in the ads. We bought the paper to read the stories, get the scores, or see if someone died.
Social Media. Facebook for example is a place to go to find out what’s happening with friends and family. They have managed to work ads and sponsored posts into out timelines so we can’t help but seem them but we are not on Facebook to check out the ads.
Radio. Not all radio stations are created equal. For this discussion, let’s look at the difference between music based stations and talk based stations. The reason we tune in to a station that plays music, any music for that matter, is to hear music that we like. In Fort Wayne we have country music stations, rock music stations, pop music stations and plenty of variations.
Every listener to a music radio station selects that particular station because they want to hear that particular style of music. Anytime the music stops for any length of time, say 2 minutes, we pay less attention. If the station plays 5 or 7 minutes of commercials in a row, we really tune out and pay less attention. Some may even change stations. The reason we listen to music radio stations is to hear music. It’s to escape. Anything other than music on a music station is an irritant.
Talk based radio stations are a different animal. Stations like WOWO which are a combination of News and Talk have listeners who tune in for information. The programming on talk radio stations is brain food, not escapism like the music on a music radio station. When the newscaster or program host is talking, listeners are paying attention to the words. It’s the information that people want to hear.
So what happens when your commercial airs on a talk radio station like WOWO? 1st off, it’s not interrupting music, taking the place of your favorite song, so it is less of an irritant. Next, if your ad is a live endorsement from the radio personality, that is the very best kind of commercial because you have the credibility of the radio personality combined with the credibility of WOWO and a receptive audience that is listening to hear the talk, whether it is about politics or your business, it doesn’t matter.
If you air regular recorded commercials on a talk radio station like WOWO, you still get a receptive audience that is not turned off by talking on the radio and you are on WOWO which adds credibility to your business.
Last year I discovered another way to use WOWO’s talk radio format to help your business and that is with our live 10 second sponsorship messages of news, weather, traffic and sports. These are done live by the newscasters and program hosts and are embedded in the program and carry almost as much weight as a full endorsement.
This relationship between the WOWO listeners and the WOWO air staff with our news and talk radio format is one of trust. For many it’s as strong a bond of trust as a trusted friend. You don’t get that with a newspaper ad. You don’t get that with a TV commercial, You don’t get that with nearly any other form of advertising you can spend your money on.
This is the Talk Radio Advantage WOWO advertisers receive. Want more info? Let’s talk.
by Scott Howard | Jul 31, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World
Last week I saw a new furniture store in Fort Wayne pop up on Twitter. They did about 4 tweets including pictures of some one-of-a-kind pieces that caught my attention. They mentioned their hours in another tweet and invited people to stop in.
One thing was missing however.
Their location was not listed in their twitter profile. No one is going to come to your store if you don’t tell them where you are. I sent them a tweet and they fixed it along with adding a link to their website.
I realize that there are people who are still new to using social media and I see a lot of the same mistakes over and over again. With that introduction, here are 3 Social Media Marketing Musts you need to do right now:
- Fill out your profile completely. Every social media channel gives you opportunities to help others find out more about you. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, all of them offer a combination of important items that your followers want to know so they can check you out. Address, especially if you have a physical location. Website, phone number, email address, fill them all out. Include appropriate pictures too.
- Post updates regularly. Update Facebook every day you are open. Tweet a few times a day. If you are on LinkedIn, share some articles or updates at least once a week.
- Listen and respond. Social media is a two way conversation. When someone comments on something you posted, set up an alert so you can answer and reply back. The worst thing you can do is ignore them. You can create negative perceptions of you and your business by ignoring those who say something to you via Social Media.
Earlier this week I shared this link on How To Create A Social Media Marketing Plan From Scratch which is filled with lots of helpful info and details.
Want help? Ask me.
by Scott Howard | Jul 26, 2015 | ScLoHo's Web World
A friend of mine asked how to “stop all those emails from Facebook about his friends stupid status updates.” He may have thrown in a couple of swear words too. I told him I’d look it up and help him out, so here you go…
How to Manage Your Facebook Notifications, complete with pictures and a disclaimer*.
Let’s start with the disclaimer:
*These instructions were current on Sunday afternoon 7/26/15 and subject to change without warning from Facebook, just like everything else that Facebook does.
Step 1. Go to your page and open the privacy shortcuts. Then click on See More Settings.
Step 2. You want to go to the Notifications section.
Step 3. This is where you can customize How you are notified and What you get notified about. My friend wants to stop the emails.
Step 4. Stopping all the emails is not recommended. But you can reduce the volume by selecting the 3rd option.
There you have it. This was done on my laptop. If you want to know how to do this from your phone, Google it.
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