Do You Provide Meaningful Touches?

Do You Provide Meaningful Touches?

by | Aug 21, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Maintaining a good relationship with your customers is critical to your lasting success.

Roy H. Williams in his article on Advertising Oversimplified covered this:

  1. Most customers are repeat customers or referral customers. Mass media is the most efficient way to maintain top-of-mind awareness among these groups. In addition, it will bring you new, first-time customers.

  2. Your plan to stay in touch with your customers through social media and email blasts is based on the assumption that your customer is willing to open, read, listen to, or watch what you have to say. Is this actually happening? And if not, why not? (HINT: The Subject Line gets people to open it. The content, itself, gets people to share it.)

I get direct mail pieces from a couple realtors and other business people I know and I also get some emails but most of them get deleted or tossed without being read.

I even have a weekly marketing email you can subscribe to free using the form below for Sound ADvice.  

As business people we are told that we need to be doing something to maintain that connection, but is what you are doing the right thing for your individual customers?

Even if you are doing the right number of “touches” with your email or direct mail…

Are they meaningful to the people on the receiving end?

I’m not suggesting you drop everything you are currently doing unless you see no value in it at all.

I am suggesting that you also add a personal touch, the kind that is not “mass media”.

Every once in a while, I will contact some of my advertising partners with a note, a phone call or an article that would be of interest to them.

When I did this with a Financial Planner friend of mine, she asked me how I found the article I sent her because it’s from a publication written specifically for people in her field, not the general public.  I told her my research secrets and she got a greater understanding of how I am looking out for her interests, not just selling her advertising.

Like I said, I don’t recommend stopping all your mass media advertising and only focusing on personalized one-at-a-time marketing; that proved disastrous for an old friend of mine who thought word of mouth alone would be the way to go.  He had to shut his doors after he tried that experiment and his business had a 25 year history.

Do both.

Mass media reaches both your current and future customers.  Personalized messaging can be used to retain that relationship.

Want help? Contact me: Scott@WOWO.com

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Are Your Employees REALLY Working?

Are Your Employees REALLY Working?

by | Jul 6, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

An old business owner joke goes like this; a reporter one day asked the CEO of a major company, “So, how many employees are working in your company?”  The CEO replied, “approximately half of them”.

 

It’s funny, but the problem is, it’s not necessarily a joke!  Today with the ever-expanding network of digital and social capabilities, the problem is getting worse, not better.

 

A fortune.com article stated that the average worker spends a full day of the work week doing things other than, work!  Paying an employee for 8 hours and getting only 6 hours of quality time is troubling, at the least.

 

According to an article posted by thebalancecareers.com, the most significant reasons why workers waste time were:

 

35% were not challenged enough

32% felt that there was no incentive to work harder

30% got no satisfaction from what they do, and

23% were just downright bored.

 

It’s no surprise that motivated employees with clear expectations get more done than those that simply show up and do what they “think” should be done.  The trick is, how do you keep them motivated?

 

I have a list of  “10 Leadership Tasks to Inspire Performance”  that suggests it starts with hiring. Hire on attitude and effort, you can train them on the skills required. Task #4  on the list suggests you have “clear expectations”.  Most people appreciate clear direction and boundaries and will “respect only what you inspect”.  Make sure they understand that doing non-work-related tasks are not tolerated, and you can bet the time wasted will be far less.

Now there is a fine line or grey area between wasting time on the job and taking a break.  It really depends on the requirements of the job and clear expectations set at the beginning.  Most employees don’t want to be micro-managed but they may need some help and guidance at first. 

In our company, we strive to use a coaching instead of managing set-up.  Because of the different roles people play, some have more flexibility while others need to follow procedures to the T.  Our on-air staff at the radio stations have to be on time.  As a former radio personality who sometimes worked non-traditional hours, I know how important punctuality is.  Same with meetings.  Time is a valuable resource for everyone.

Yet sometimes brainstorming, research and creativity can’t be easily measured or monitored by a time clock.  The coaching model of employee management takes into consideration the individuals work style along with the requirements of the job and finds a way to make it work. 

You may wonder what does any of this have to do with media, marketing and advertising that I usually write about.

Here’s the answer:

Your staff are a huge part of your marketing.  The customer experience can turn a first time caller or visitor into a life long customer, or it can create such a negative experience that you lose their business forever.

Even if I can bring you enough leads and potential customers through an advertising program to make you a millionaire, unless you treat them right, you will go broke.  And when I say you, I mean your entire team.

If you would like a copy of the “10 Leadership Tactics to Inspire Performance”, click here. 

I also invite you to subscribe to my Sound ADvice marketing newsletter for tips on running a better business, you can subscribe in the box below.

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Boomers Still Have The Money

Boomers Still Have The Money

by | Jun 13, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Last month when my wife and I were on vacation, the publication Mediapost shared a story that I was living at the moment.

My wife and I are Baby Boomers.

Our kids are Millennials.

The business world, or more specifically the advertising world, is focused on convincing our kids to spend their money with them, which is great except…

Except they are ignoring the Boomers.

And guess who really has the money to spend on stuff.

Boomers.

Boomers Still Have The Money.

Our kids are having kids.  5 kids and their partners have created 9 grandkids.

When you have 2 or 3 kids to support, life as a 30 year old is expensive, no matter how much you make.

But when you are an empty nester, you have more choices on what to spend your paycheck on.  

And usually that paycheck is just as big or bigger in your 50’s than it was in your 20’s and 30’s.

The Mediapost article asks:

Why do advertisers ignore boomers to focus on the “it” demos: millennials and Gen Z?

Although millennials officially outnumber boomers, let’s not forget the spending power wielded by boomers.

Age is just a number to boomers, who aren’t sitting at home wondering how to connect to the WiFi and counting the minutes until they take their next round of pills. Instead, they are traveling, spend time outdoors — and, according to U.S. News & World Report, control 70% of the country’s disposable income and spend $3.2 trillion a year.

You see, that’s what we were doing.  I had 11 days off counting the Memorial Day holiday and a couple of weekends, so my wife and I traveled to Philadelphia and New York City.  We saw a Broadway musical, took time sight seeing and exploring some historic landmarks.  We hiked in the woods, ate what we wanted, stayed in nice hotels, treated our friends and had a great time.  We really didn’t need to save up for this trip, and we didn’t go into debt.

Meanwhile my younger coworkers, whose incomes are similar to mine enjoyed their 3 day Memorial Day weekends and had to spend a larger percent of their take home pay on regular living expenses for their families.

Are you getting the picture?

Here’s another quote from Mediapost:

Millennials and hot on their tail Gen Z may have some money to spend now — but boomers have it yesterday, today and tomorrow. Targeting boomers might not be as Instagrammable as a millennial demo, but it is instantly gratifying.

Advertisers, for years, were targeting the youth.  I was one of the Pepsi Generation of the 1960’s and 70’s. The sought after age demographic, when I started in the radio business was 18 to 34 year olds.

Then as that group of people who we now refer to as Baby Boomers got a little older, the desirable demographic for advertisers was 25 to 54 year olds.  That worked for awhile, when Baby Boomers were still in the age group, but now the boomers have aged out.  Boomers are now 55 and older.

The so called wise-ones in the advertising world have it wrong.

A mere 10% of marketing budgets is allocated to the boomer audience, while 50% goes to marketing to millennials.

and

Baby Boomers outspend every other generation by $400 billion annually, providing over 50 percent of U.S. consumption.

So, how can you, as a business owner or advertising marketing director, get some of this Boomer Money?

Simple.

Invite Boomers to spend money with you.

Set aside an appropriate amount of your advertising to reach the Boomers.

I currently work with three radio stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I have a rock music station, a sports talk station and a news talk station.

The news talk station, WOWO is king.  It is the station that Baby Boomers grew up listening to back when they played music and it was a personality radio station.  WOWO still is a personality driven radio station with our news and talk format, it is the leading station for all grown-ups and the most listened to by Boomers.

The advertisers that are using WOWO to invite Boomers to spend money are doing very well these days.  

I have a couple of travel agencies that each promoted special vacations to Ireland and Alaska. (Those were two separate trips.) I saw over 50 WOWO listeners and their friends pony up the bucks to go on these exclusive trips and we in the planning stages for next year.  That’s just one example I bring up because of my vacation travels last month.

What else are WOWO radio’s Baby Boomer listeners spending money on?

Health care.

Financial Planning.

Home improvements and new homes.

Nielsen established that boomers spend almost $90 billion a year on cars — nearly 30% more than other age groups. 

and remember those grandkids and their parents?  

We spend money on them too!

Honestly, if you want to grow your business over the next few years, contact me about inviting Boomers who Still Have Money to spend it with you.  Drop me a note to Scott@WOWO.com 

Also for more marketing tips and insight, you can subscribe to my free weekly newsletter titled Sound ADvice in the box below.

 

 

 

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Radio Advertising with WOWO or Local TV

Radio Advertising with WOWO or Local TV

by | Apr 2, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Are all advertising options equal?

Of course not.

Is a burger off the dollar menu at your favorite fast food joint equal to the $20 burger you can order for lunch at your local restaurant?

Of course not.

Today, I am going to do a comparison of advertising on WOWO radio in Fort Wayne with advertising on a local TV station.

Along with the insider details I have because I work for WOWO radio, I also have information that I saw from a local TV station and data from a research study comparing TV and radio audiences.

Here’s a spoiler alert.  Advertising on WOWO Radio, with my guidance will generate superior results compared to what the TV people are trying to sell you.

First, some of the figures from the research study:

When you advertise on television, about 20 percent of the viewers are heavy users of TV.  The other 80 percent of people who watch TV each week, consume way less TV per person. Given the way we watch TV in 2019, this makes a lot of sense because we have some many viewing options that are not local broadcast TV, television viewership of any particular show has been declining for years.

We will look at these heavy users of TV, the ones that your advertising messages are reaching.

First  we’ll look at the age demographic using a scale of 100 being average.  That means anything below 100 is below average and above 100 is that many percentage points above average.

A25-34: 21
A35-44: 40
A45-54: 95
A55-64: 165
A65+: 226

What this means is that the average TV viewer is above the age of 55.  The person seeing your TV commercial is twice as likely to be over the age of 65.  Trying to reach a 30 year old, 40 year old, or even 50 year old with your TV commercial? It’s not very likely.

Using that same 100 point scale, here’s the numbers for household income of heavy users or viewers of TV:

Under $25K: 158
$25K-$35K: 152
$35K-$50K: 118
$50K-$75K: 113
$75K-$100K: 74
$100K+: 70

The less money they earn, the more time they are watching TV.  Families with an income of $35,000 or less are more than 50% more likely to see your TV commercial.

One more statistic from this study deals with education:

Less than 12th grade: 169
High School: 132
Some College: 108
College+: 64

The heaviest TV viewer is 69% more likely to have less than a high school education than the average.

In summary, the people most likely to see your television commercial are the least educated, have the least available income to buy what you are selling and are definitely not the 25 to 54 year olds that TV advertising salespeople try and convince you that you will reach when you advertise on their TV station.

I know what the TV salespeople are doing because I have known a few and have seen some of the information they use to try and persuade my WOWO Radio clients to drop their ads and switch to TV instead.  It just doesn’t add up.

Now in case you are unfamiliar with the specifics of WOWO Radio, here’s a brief rundown…

WOWO has been a news and talk station for 20 years and altogether has been on the air over 90 years.  WOWO has consistently been one of the only stations in Fort Wayne to average over 100,000 listeners every week for years.  As a talk radio station, our listeners are upper income, better educated adults who place a lot of trust in the WOWO radio local and national talk show hosts and newscasters, as evidenced by the antidotal information we get from both listeners and advertisers.

WOWO News/Talk Listeners scored:

194 for advanced college degree (nearly twice as likely than the average) compared to the 64 for the TV audience.

140 in income over $100,000 compared to 70 for the TV audience.  In other words, WOWO Radio listeners are twice as likely to have money to spend to buy your stuff versus the person sitting at home watching TV.

There’s more I could share with you but that’s enough for the moment.  Want to know more?  Let’s connect.

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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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