Set The Bait

Set The Bait

by | May 5, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, Sound ADvice

Whether it’s fishing, hunting, selling, or advertising, setting the bait is key to alluring or attracting that which you are trying to capture.  

Since the beginning of time, it’s been known that you only have one opportunity to make a good first impression and regardless of if it’s a fish, wild game, or humans, you don’t have very long to capture their attention.

Your advertising message faces the same challenge. What your ads say, how they sound, and how they are delivered in the first few seconds, dictates whether your potential prospects will tune in or tune out to your message, or continue to read the message. 

Reporters and authors have long known that the headline and the first sentence are what dictates whether the reader tunes in and continues on with the rest of the story, or tunes out. In an effort to develop the all-important “creative hook” at the top of your ads on websites, many headlines end up with more “creative” than “hook”.  

In order to get the maximum effect out of your ads, we recommend you carefully consider the first few seconds of every ad, blog, text, email, or post that you create. 

Here is a bonus tip.  Oftentimes, you will find that the best line of any ad or letter, or the best words/sentence, is in the middle.  When you find it, move it to the first line, or use it as the headline.  

To read the 8 Power Openings you can use to capture more attention for your marketing efforts, click here. 

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The Voice Of Your Business

The Voice Of Your Business

by | Apr 15, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Today I’m going update a topic that I’ve spoken on previously.

Who is the Spokesperson for your Business?

Yes, it’s the people who answer the phone, who greet the customers, and the ones that interact face to face or online.  But that is different.

I’m referring to your advertising and marketing.

For many of the best-branded businesses in the world, one thing usually stands out and once people hear it, they immediately know what business it is.

Flo and Jamie are two of the fictional character actors that represent Progressive Insurance.  Yet, Progressive uses others too.

There’s Jake from State Farm who is just an actor.

The My Pillow Guy was famous for awhile and then when he became political, he offended a whole bunch of people with his passionate support of Donald Trump and election fraud.  I had to look up his name, Mike Lindell.  He is a classic example of how not to market your company by jumping into the political arena unless you are prepared for the consequences.

But I’m getting off track here.

Some of the most effective marketing successes in history, both locally and nationally, have involved capitalizing on the voices, faces, and personalities of charismatic and humble business owners and corporate leaders.

In decades past, nationally, you may recall Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca or Wendy’s humble founder Dave Thomas. More recently the spokesperson for Quicken Loans was  their President and Chief Marketing Officer Jay Farner.  In these cases, and many more, consumers have responded positively to the credible messages delivered by real people.

However even these three companies have diverted from what was once a successful advertising messaging campaign tactic.  5 years ago Quicken Loans launched Rocket Mortgage and pretty much abandoned what made them unique in their industry, although thru an online search, I found Jay Farner in a one minute video ad talking about what Rocket and Quicken are doing with regards to the economic hardships many faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Locally, you see and hear business owners voice their own ads, some of which are fantastically real and have moved their business from mediocracy to hometown heroes, and from rags to riches.  On my radio station WOWO radio, we have several business owners that voice their own ads.

People buy from people they trust. It’s that simple.  But if you don’t come across as real, trustworthy, and humble, the chances of you going from local to national are slim.

Two of the ten tips for being front and center in your campaigns are:

1.) Check your ego at the door. Only voice your commercials or have quotes and photos of yourself in your advertising if it is strategically correct to do so from a marketing perspective. It’s not about hearing your own voice or having mom see your picture; it’s about bringing believability and memorability to your campaign.

2.) Introduce yourself as the Owner, CEO, or President.  There is NO reason to either voice the ad or be in the video if you don’t introduce yourself.

As the owner or president, you don’t need to be better at voicing the ads than a disc jockey, actor, or actress. You simply need to serve the purpose of you doing the ad, and that is to become the voice or face of the company.  If you cannot add purpose, hire a gecko, create a fictional character, or let someone else do it!

Nothing sells like the human voice and using your own voice and words can make your campaign stand out against a hoard of ads produced by professional, anonymous sources.

Click here to view the rest of our 10 Tips to Being Your Company Spokesperson.  
 
And to get more Sound ADvice business tips like this, sign up for my weekly newsletter, free from me to your inbox, using the form below.

Radio Listenership As The Pandemic Winds Down

Radio Listenership As The Pandemic Winds Down

by | Apr 7, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

What’s going on in the media and marketing world now that we’ve gone through the first year of a worldwide pandemic?

As an insider to information that you don’t have access to, I have some answers.

And let me preface this by stating, no the pandemic is not over, the virus did not disappear and the battle is still on.  I lost a very good friend last month to complications that included Covid.

However, with the millions of vaccines being injected every week we are in a much better place than we were 6 months ago.  Here in Indiana anyone age 16 and older is now eligible for the vaccine as long as the supplies are there.

Even before I dig into the media habits, a couple of observations regarding consumer habits.

My local stores no longer have shortages of toilet paper and disinfecting wipes.  We have an abundance of hand sanitizer at my office, and the face mask business is preparing for a slow down, now that everyone has learned how to wear one, although too many people pretend they are just political statements or refuse to cover their nose.

What else?

I’ve got some quotes from Insider Radio to share:

One year after the coronavirus outbreak tuned the world upside down, the latest in an ongoing series of Nielsen Audio Consumer Sentiment surveys shows several key metrics are pointing in radio’s favor. Among them, 64% of Americans 18 and older said they agreed that it is safer than it was a month ago. .

That’s a comparison of March 2021 to February 2021.  Here’s more:

Among the employed, two-thirds now work outside the home. That’s up nearly 70% since April. In addition, workers at home due to COVID-19 declined by more than half since April 2020.

There is the perception that most people are holed up, not going out, working out of their basement and it’s simply not true. And they are listening to their favorite radio stations.  

The initial virus outbreak one year ago caused a rapid downturn in the number of people using public transportation. One year later Nielsen’s survey shows all groups are still using less public transportation due to COVID. What’s more, those spending an hour or more in vehicles shot up 150% since April, and heavy radio listeners are more likely to spend an hour or more in the car.

Yes, radio is still an effective way to reach people and invite them to spend money with your business.

Heavy radio listeners are more likely to make major purchases within a year, and are 18% more likely to purchase or lease a new or used vehicle, and 64% more likely to buy a new house.

My radio station, NewsTalk 1190 WOWO 107.5 continues to have the largest adult audience in our market of over 25 stations.  We are one of two stations that consistently has well over 100,000 weekly listeners.

And I have a team of advertising and marketing specialists that can design and create the messaging and media campaign to help you convert our listeners to become your customers and clients.  Contact me, Scott@WOWO.com and I’ll hook you up.

 

Are You Using Your Coop Funds?

Are You Using Your Coop Funds?

by | Mar 9, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Your suppliers or vendors have a vested interest in your success, and most of them have access to extraordinary marketing funds and resources beyond traditional co-op to help you sell more of their products.

The problem is, seldom does anyone ask for these funds! If you don’t access those funds, you are literally throwing money away, or worse yet, your competitors will scoop those funds and use them against you.

In our How to Leverage Your Suppliers’ Marketing Muscle, tactic number one is “Tender your Next Ad Campaign”. Present a written proposal for submissions for marketing support to all of your suppliers outlining your proposed advertising schedule and investment, along with any special displays, promotions, demonstrations, or other exposure the winning bidder will receive.

Many business owners believe their hands are tied to rigid manufacturers’ restrictions if they use manufacturers’ co-op advertising funds, but seldom is this the case.  The squeaky wheel oftentimes gets the grease!

If you are an appliance dealer, for example, and you sell GE and Whirlpool, your GE representative has a vested interest in you featuring GE versus Whirlpool in your ad.

If you make a presentation outlining the kind of campaign you propose to sell more GE without using the standard GE script or ad copy that the manufacturer supplies, it will generally be approved by their office because they don’t want your campaign to feature their competitor.

Nearly every business that offers products has a supplier, and these manufacturers and suppliers want to sell more products. Give them an idea of how you can sell more and they just might come up with some money. But you have to ask for it!

Still, other businesses opt not to leverage their suppliers’ marketing muscle because it takes time and effort. In today’s competitive environment, you need to take advantage of every competitive edge you can. 

At WOWO Radio, me and my team have helped our advertising partners find and use hundreds of thousands of coop advertising dollars that our advertising partners use to get the the word out about their business to invite our listeners to spend money with them over the past few years.

Click here to retrieve our FREE How to Leverage Your Suppliers’ Marketing Muscle. 
 
And reach out to me directly at Scott@WOWO.com for help.

Creating Success with WOWO Radio in 2021

Creating Success with WOWO Radio in 2021

by | Jan 5, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

As much as we want to kiss the year 2020 good-bye and move forward as if it never happened, we can’t. And we shouldn’t.

12 months ago all of us were planning on a very different year than what unfolded in 2020.  The economy seemed to be moving forward after a market correction at the end of 2019, but unemployment was at record low numbers and it seemed like we were going to have a boom of a year.

It boomed alright, just not with confetti.  More like a nuclear explosion.

Here in Fort Wayne Indiana, that boom hit around Friday March 13th, 2020.  The Governor of Indiana was mandating restrictions on businesses that would take place the next week and suddenly we all had to determine what was essential and why.   Many of my clients and advertising partners on WOWO radio were essential but some had to shut down for awhile.  It didn’t seem fair that the small local business retailers were not allowed to stay open while the bigger national big box stores were still able to allow customers inside.

At WOWO radio and our parent company, Federated Media, we instituted a Work From Home Policy that was designed to keep everyone safe and healthy. In Fort Wayne, we operate out of two separate buildings.  The south building is where the studios for WOWO, WMEE, K-105, The Bear, Big and the Fan are located.  Our engineer was able to modify studios and set up equipment so our on-air talent was able to minimize the risk including broadcasting from home in several instances.

On the north side of town, Federated Media Fort Wayne Sales and Executive offices were also affected but differently.  Our usual weekly in-person sales team meetings for WOWO were suspended.  Federated Media had already instituted a work from home policy for their local sales teams over a decade ago, which meant instead of having an office or cubicle at the Fed Med office to report to everyday, if you were on the sales team for one of our local stations, you only had to come to the office occasionally.

When people asked me about my job, I would tell them most weeks I have two hours that I show up to the office, the rest of the week is mine to use as I see fit to do what I needed to accomplish.  As a result, I spent between 10 and 25 hours a week in coffee shops.

Something else that was new in 2020 were some management changes at Federated Media in Fort Wayne.

At the end of 2019, our former market manager Jim Allgeier left Federated Media. After a nationwide search was conducted, they promoted from within.  Ben Saurer, General Sales Manager for WOWO, WKJG & WBYR took over to lead Federated Media in Fort Wayne as our Vice-President and General Manager.  For those of us who had been working directly under Ben at WOWO, it was a mixed blessing.  We had a tremendous amount of respect for Ben and believed that he was the right person to step up and lead all of Fort Wayne.  Yet we also knew that if he was promoted, someone else would take over the General Sales Manager position for the 3 stations he was taking care of.

So with the announcement  of Ben’s promotion, came another nationwide search that Ben conducted to hire his General Sales Manager replacements.  Initially Kassie Taksey was hired to become the Sales Manger of two of our smaller stations, WFWI & WKJG and shortly afterwards also became the General Sales Manger of the Bear.  All three of these stations had great potential and Kassie was brought in to create a local sales team that would live up to that potential and she has done an excellent job with that in her first year especially with Covid and the ramifications.  She took over our sports station when live sports were being cancelled and two of our music stations when concerts and events were being postponed or eliminated in 2020.  Hat’s off to Kassie on her teams accomplishments!

The WOWO General Sales Manager position was (in Ben’s words) “The Most Important Hire I Make”.  Here’s why:

Back in 2013, when I joined Federated Media, WOWO was one of the top 3 or 4 stations out of a dozen in Federated Media which operates stations in South Bend/Elkhart and Fort Wayne Indiana.  The past few years, WOWO  (under Ben’s leadership) became the top station in the company with a local sales budget that is nearly double (or more) than any of the other stations in our company.

The new WOWO General Sales Manager would be tasked with… Don’t Screw It Up.

Federated Media General Sales Managers have many roles but carrying their own list of accounts is not one of them.  Only during certain circumstances does that happen and usually for a short period of time.

Coaching is the most important role I believe because if the GSM isn’t selling, then his/her team is and they need a coach to help them be their best.

Let’s look at the 2020 calendar again.

Right before Christmas 2019, Ben is told by the Chief Operating Officer of Federated Media that he will be promoted to VP/GM of Federated Media in Fort Wayne, leading the entire management team in the sales, programming, engineering, and special teams support staff effective in January 2020 which is when the announcement is made company wide.

In January 2020 Ben begins his nationwide search for his General Sales Manager replacements and brings back Kassie to take over three of the four stations that need a leader.

It takes 6 weeks and multiple interviews with candidates across the country before Ben pulls the trigger and promotes from within his WOWO local sales team and I am offered the WOWO General Sales Manager position the week after Valentines Day 2020.

Earlier in 2020, Federated Media had our annual awards ceremony called the “Feddy’s” and I had won a couple of awards for being the top salesperson in our entire company in 2019.  Which presented a dilemma… does Ben take his companies top salesperson out of a sales role since that would not be my job anymore?

Throw in a couple more circumstances that I was not initially aware of in January 2020.

WOWO’s legendary salesperson and former air personality, Art Saltsberg was going to go into full retirement.  A few years ago, Art scaled back his work load and was now only taking care of about 6 or 7 of his favorite clients.  Art was now going to walk away completely in the first quarter of 2020. I remember listening to Art on WOWO when I was a kid in the 1970’s.

At the end of 2019 one of WOWO’s other top sellers decided to leave to take care of some personal matters.  This lead to Ben recruiting two brand new salespeople to the WOWO Local Sales Team, a process that takes a couple of months before the decision is made.

The same week I was offered and accepted the General Sales Manager position for WOWO was the same week Ben added Andrew and Blake to the team to join the rest of us on WOWO.

A month later COVID hit and we all had to scramble to figure out what to do for the best interests of our advertising partners, our company and everyone involved.  As weeks became months, most of us learned new ways of doing things.  One member of the WOWO sales team who didn’t, left after 4 years.  Meanwhile the WOWO sales person who has been with us the longest, had her best year ever due to learning how to adapt to circumstances.

As all of us reflect on 2020 and put together lessons to implement in 2021 there are a few items I want to share with you pertaining to working with WOWO radio to create success for you this year.

  1. We want to help your business be successful. Every member of my WOWO local sales team will focus on your success. 
  2. We don’t just sell advertising schedules.  This relates to #1.  We want to partner with you and learn & understand your marketing, advertising and overall business needs and goals to craft a plan that we all agree on for the long run.
  3. You are experts in your business.  We are the experts in ours.  It’s how we became the number one radio station in not just Federated Media, but in all of Fort Wayne with over two dozen radio stations.
  4. We work as a team.  This is one of the things I am most proud of regarding the WOWO local sales team. Tracy, Rob and myself have made ourselves available and are lending ideas, experience and expertise to Andrew and Blake who are completing their freshman year with WOWO.  Now that Chris is back, he too is contributing to the collaboration that goes into the planning process for our advertising partners.  We also have learned some ideas from Blake and Andrew too!
  5. We will be honest with you and only make recommendations we believe are in the best interest for you.  Want to sell Jordon’s on WOWO? We’ll connect you with one of our other stations unless you are a vintage collectors store that sells stuff our listeners would buy.
  6. Advertising Partnerships.  That is our goal. We want to create a bond between you and our listeners and it takes a commitment from you and us to make that work.  If you want to “test the WOWO waters” with just a short term advertising schedule, you are not likely our ideal advertising client.
  7. Flexibility. Or as I said last year, Pivot.  Doing business in 2021 requires that we all do things differently than we were at the beginning of 2020.  Yes, we can do Zoom meetings. Yes, we can change your message when circumstances change.  Yes, we can… was our motto last year and it still is.

Ready for our help?  Contact me: Scott@WOWO.com