Customer Trust Builds Customer Loyalty

Customer Trust Builds Customer Loyalty

by | Oct 26, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, Sound ADvice

In last week’s article and podcast episode which featured material from my SoundADvice newsletter, I mentioned that when all things are equal, the decision we use to determine who we purchase from is based on… perception! And that perception is, who’s better, who’s more “trustworthy”, and who’s more reliable!

The internet has changed the way your customers buy.  Before most purchases, they go online to learn more about you and your competitors. Successful marketers today know the route to higher closing ratios and sales is built upon stronger customer relationships. And those relationships are built upon trust.

“Trust” is defined as, confidence in a person or thing because of the qualities one perceives in them. Your advertising, your website, and your front-line people can create the qualities your prospects perceive in you and cause them to choose you over your competitors when they go online.

If your customer count and page views are not reflected in your sales, you need to examine four key areas:

  1. Does your advertising pre-sell customers and build realistic expectations?
  2. Do the expectations match the actual shopping experience?
  3. Does your website answer the questions your customers are asking?
  4. Are your front-line salespeople competent and confident?

The powerful four-way marketing of credible advertising to pre-sell your prospects, matching expectations with actual experience, combined with helpful websites/Facebook pages and knowledgeable salespeople to improve your closing ratios will increase your sales.

In the Twelve Trust Techniques, Technique Number 3 is Be Real – Turn Weaknesses into Strengths.  Every business has a “perceived weakness”. Don’t be afraid to share the weakness and turn it into a strength. People will trust you more when you share an inadequacy.

Click here to review our Twelve Trust Techniques to create a pre-need trust and preference for your website and your salespeople.

What’s Your Edge?

What’s Your Edge?

by | Oct 19, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

In the world of selling products and services, when all things are equal, the decision we use to determine who we purchase from is based on… perception! And that perception is, who’s better, who’s more trustworthy, and who’s more reliable!

In most cases, many businesses offer the same products or services that you offer. In these cases, standing for “something” and being “different” is what is needed to break the tie.

At this very moment, people have a need or a want to buy the products or services you sell. Their next decision is the all-important one. Where will they choose to buy, and why!

First, let’s be honest.  For a certain percentage of people, price is all that matters, and you may or may not even be in the conversation.  But when price isn’t the only criteria, that’s when you have a shot.  Will it come down to a relationship, an emotional connection created from strong advertising, or a past experience, good or bad?

The key is getting people to know you and your business and know about your business BEFORE they need the products or services you sell.

Developing your tiebreaker, a consistent business strategy you can use to differentiate your business in your advertising and marketing, can be a challenging task but well worth the effort. 

Once you’ve clearly established your competitive difference (strategy), your challenge is to develop a unique and memorable way to consistently highlight that competitive tiebreaker.

Remember, when all things are equal, the “buy” goes to… whoever has something that is perceived to be BETTER or DIFFERENT!

It’s imperative that you have a clear and compelling reason for consumers to choose you over your competitors. 

If you would like help in creating your unique difference, click here to receive our Ten Tiebreaking Strategies as thought-starters for this important exercise. If you would like additional help, contact me and we will help you conduct a creative brainstorming or storyboarding session.

Feelin’ Good

Feelin’ Good

by | Oct 13, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

How are the feeling right now?

Are you:

Happy?

Sad?

Excited?

Scared?

Hopeful?

Hurting?

Melancholy?

Enthused?

No matter what you said you are feeling right now, it’s okay.

I just randomly came up with 8 possible emotions that you could be feeling at this moment and if you were in a room filled with 25 other people, I’m sure you could find someone else who is experiencing the same emotion you identified with.

Some of us have days when we go thru all 8 of those emotions in just a few hours.  Others can experience the same emotion for not just hours, but days, weeks, or even longer.

Emotions are part of our human experience and even if you think you are a facts and logic person, your emotions are actually in the drivers seat of your life.  If you are a facts and logic person and you got a little miffed by what I just said, it simply proves the point.

But I’m not here to play with your emotions today.

No, instead I want to help you understand the importance of our emotional side.

Because I write and talk about media and marketing and offer tips for businesses, I’m going to focus on how our emotions work in that context.

The emotional state of the people you deal with are going to have an influencing factor on how that conversation or interaction occurs, just as your emotional state at the moment will too.

Quite frankly there is a lot of negative news out there, and some peoples emotions are rubbed raw.  I’m not even talking about the political stuff, I’m referring to the challenges we are facing as we wrap up 2021.  Prices are going up.  We have shortages of everything from computer chips to staffing shortages.  A year ago we saw empty shelves instead of toilet paper and sanitizing supplies, and in my visit to the store recently, we seem to have plenty now.

There are other reasons people are having a tough time.  In my circle of friends and acquaintances, I’ve witnessed marital discord and divorce, loss of loved ones, either permanently by death, or because of disagreements that are hopefully temporary.

If you own or run a business, realize that your team wants to be the best versions of themselves, but there are other things going on that could be preventing that, at least temporarily.

If you work for someone, what I just said also applies to your boss.

Customers and clients, they are going through the wide range of emotions too, and we just don’t know the full story of what is going on in their lives do we?

I titled this piece, Feelin’ Good, because ultimately that is what we all want.

We want to feel good about our lives, our jobs, our family and friends.

We want to feel good when we spend our money.  

My wife recently spent money on two very different experiences, one was a gift box that included some fun things she picked out to send to out of town family members.  The other was spending money on getting her car repaired.

Two very vastly different reasons to spend, and yet both times she wanted to feel good when she punched in her pin number as she paid for her purchases.

It might be easy to make someone feel good when they are buying gifts, and more challenging to make them feel good when they are spending it on a repair.  But no matter what your business, please do your best to help your customers and staff feel good.

That’s the best kind of marketing you can create, an experience for all that leaves them Feelin’ Good because of what you did for them.

One more tip and this may not be earth shattering but after living in a world where we couldn’t see peoples smiles because of being masked up, please smile purposefully.  Even behind a mask, we can see a smiling face.

 

The Right Way to Use Radio Advertising

The Right Way to Use Radio Advertising

by | May 12, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Most businesses don’t know how to use radio advertising to increase their business.

I know, that’s a pretty “out there” declaration coming from the guy who has spent a few decades in radio advertising and currently leads the most successful local advertising sales team in our city.

But it’s because of my background that I have the experience to know that Most businesses don’t know how to use radio advertising to increase their business.

It’s not just my experience but because of my background, training and research, because I know others who have been involved in radio longer than me that don’t understand what I’m going to tell you today.

Most advertising sales people are taught how to sell advertising.

That’s important but do you know what’s more important?

Knowing how to use advertising to help a business market themselves to reach their goals.

This month I reviewed with my sales team the difference between Brand Building Advertising Campaigns versus Event Oriented Advertising Campaigns.  I’ve discovered that at least 80% of the people who are wanting to sell you advertising, are clueless about this so you are about to become smarter than them.

Too many advertising campaigns wrongly focus on short term sales when they really should building  brands.

For example, how often do you buy a car?  A quick Google search told me that the average person keeps a car for 6 years.  My wife and I each have a car so on average, you could say we are likely to buy a car every three years.

Most car dealerships advertise sales.  They are usually annoying ads, stereotypical sleazy used car guys come to mind when I think of most of the ads I’ve seen or heard.

Since 2013 my wife and I have bought 4 cars, which puts us above average.  Three of those 4 cars were to replace a car we’d worn out. Only one was because I wanted to upgrade my transportation.  But no matter what the reason for buying another car, it never was because of a sale that I heard in an advertisement.

I used to buy all my cars from a friend who had an impeccable reputation.  The two cars my wife and I had in 2013 were from him.  Then he retired from the business and it was time to do some true car shopping the way most people do.

We did our research online to see which used vehicles would fit our needs.  All four cars I bought passed three criteria:

  1. The car was recommended on all the review sites we researched.
  2. The price was appropriate, not too low or too high
  3. I either trusted the dealership and/or the salesperson.

I passed on some that cost less because of the lack of trust.  Even the last car I bought this year was from a dealership that I was unsure of, but I trusted the salesperson, a friend that I’ve known for more than a dozen years and his “brand” is excellent.

Most radio advertising campaigns, heck probably most advertising campaigns on any media, should be brand building, not event oriented sales campaigns.

When I was talking with my sales team about this in a recent meeting, I shared with them a five minute video featuring this guy with a funny accent.  He had the research that showed over time businesses that focused on Brand Building instead of the short term sales event advertising messages multiplied their investment.  Those that did it the other way never built a trusted reputation and the sad part is that when they had competition that was trusted, they usually lost.

In reality, you need both.  The last line in the video says, “Aim for Fame”.  The very best ad campaigns use a formula that I learned when I first went from the being on the radio to developing advertising campaigns and it was a four step process that I learned in Detroit at WMUZ and Crawford Broadcasting.

  1. Image Building
  2. General Benefits
  3. Specific Benefits
  4. ReCreation Benefits

I’ll do another article and podcast focused on this formula but the basics is before you make a sales push with your advertising, you need to spend time introducing the company or product.

I’ll wrap this up with a quote from Jeff Schmidt, Senior VP with RAB:

Radio works to create awareness of a brand BEFORE people need it. That is the very purpose of advertising:To help a business become known before they are needed. People don’t respond to ads; they respond to needs. When the guests at a restaurant discover they are hungry and want to go out, that’s when they search their minds for brands they already know. They know them because of the strength of the long-term advertising that is and has been done.

These are the concepts my Local Advertising Sales Team at WOWO Radio have been trained on and we continue to review and tweak our skills.  Want our help?  Contact me.  Scott@WOWO.com

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.  
 
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