Please STOP Skewing the Figures!

An article from EConsultancy.com  highlighted in one of my online discussion groups proclaims "50% of Businesses Believe That Social Offers Greatest Marketing Opportunities Over Next Year”. The subhead then reads: “Digital marketing offers greater opportunities for businesses over the next year than more traditional channels, according to a new report.” Wow! Makes it sound like you better hurry up and switch your marketing to social media, right away. Gotta keep up!

It sounds that way until you read the full article. Later on, more information clarifies that “[t]he report is based on a survey of nearly 900 Econsultancy subscribers from both companies and agencies, carried out in April and May 2013.”

Seems to me that 900 of a company's subscribers is a far cry from giving a true representation of "50% of all businesses" (emphasis added). This is yet another example of the overemphasis companies may place on their facts and figures to bolster their own viewpoint, philosophy and product line. It would have been more accurate and less misleading to say that 50% of Econsultancy's subscribers believe...

The article itself should be very helpful in supporting the need for greater integration of online/mobile marketing for those who are involved in this approach. But to make it sound as if everybody is, or even should be, flocking that direction is a gross misstatement. 

I know of many businesses who are either barely or not at all involved in social media and they are doing just fine. Their marketing/advertising program nets them a very handsome Return On Investment. I do find it amusing that in the article's chart of marketing channels the print yellow pages are not even represented. I would assume it must comprise part of the 3% of marketing channels referred to as "Other". 

My clients and I, as well as countless other businesses who have experienced continued solid business profit from the non-social marketing world, beg to differ with the article's conclusions. And I actually take a little offense to being excluded.

As always, my advice for most everyday business people is to keep your view open. Continue using the media that works for you until it is demonstrably not working before switching to avenues that have only the self-aggrandizing hype from within their own ranks to support their products and programs.

There is more than one way to build a marketing/advertising program. Build with proven products and products with which you can find a way to track results. If that includes a substantial investment in social media, so be it. But to declare any one channel as the only way to go is not wise.

(You can read the full article at http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/63350-50-of-businesses-believe-that-social-offers-greatest-marketing-opportunities-over-next-year?goback=%2Egde_77625_member_277272550#%21 )

Avoid a Myopic View of Advertising Media

There was a news article on Yahoo today, September 26, 2013, that reveals that 15% of American adults do NOT use the internet!  http://news.yahoo.com/do-not-use-internet-140141223.html

Why is this important to know? Because there is so much hype out there about forsaking what is referred to as "traditional" or "old" or even "dead" media resources in favor of "new media". New, or digital,  media is primarily internet advertising. There are droves of very vocal new media preachers out there whose sole sermon seems to be that businesses only have to advertise on the internet to be successful.

The main reason I think this happens is because most of these new media evangelists are only familiar with their digital market, so they ignore the rest. They can't offer print or outdoor ads or radio, etc. so they choose to write it off and/or discourage clients from investing in those media. And, yes, they can show you stats to seemingly support their contention.

Well, the survey results from the Pew Research Center's Internet Project indicate something different. There is  no industry bias in their results. The results were not just of senior citizens or baby boomers either. Survey participants included ages 18 and up. I recently had a friend ask me to buy something online for them because they had a bad experience trying to order things themselves. I order things all the time, but some people are skittish about doing so. This is just one of the reasons people avoid the internet.

Don't get me wrong. I am not at all discounting the importance or the place of internet advertising. I sell it, along with traditional media.

One of my clients whom I have given a multimedia advertising package recently shared that she knows most of her customers come from the tried-and-true, still effective yellow pages. Print yellow pages! This occurs even though the rest of her program includes local search and major search engine coverage. So all her bases are covered, and as the the advertising scene shifts to internet usage, she is already positioned to maximize her lead generation.

I recently saw a discussion online about beer mat sales. The guy who brought it into the discussion was trying his best to impress the readers with the all-encompassing stand-alone power of beer mats as the be-all, end-all for advertising. The same problem of myopic vision applies in that type of discussion. It is just as ill-advised to only advertise on beer mats as it is to throw your entire advertising budget into the internet. (Possible exceptions: businesses who are e-commerce sites only or who wish to do business online only.)

So again, why is it important to be reminded that not everyone is on the internet, and that on the internet, not everyone is on, say, Facebook (about half the population isn't)? Because if you are wanting to hit the widest potential target for your advertising, you need to find ways to advertise without limiting your audience. 15% of your audience should not be written off or ignored.

Targeting is fine. You don't want to place your message indiscriminately in the creative (branding) forms of media. If you sell a product that will appeal to only certain types of people, target them the best way you can. But remember that your directional media are meant to place your message in front of anyone who goes searching for your product, at the time of their need and whether they have seen your branding advertising or not.

For the best advertising campaign, maintain a balance of traditional and internet, creative and directional, media. And avoid any advertising sales person who tries to steer you away from forms of advertising that he or she doesn't happen to handle. They may be sincere in their belief that they have the mythical magic bullet, but they are sincerely wrong and they will not be working for your best interest. Go after 100% of your potential market, not just 85%.

Now Available Straight from the Website!

Announcing the arrival of the website for "Sensible Small Business Advertising", the best little book you will find on starting and growing an effective overall advertising campaign. Just go to www.sensiblesmallbusinessadvertising.com and order your copy.

Available in paperback, hardback or eBook, this guide will show you how to plan your advertising. You will find everything from budgeting to determining your return on your advertising investment to dealing with advertising representatives, to assuring you cover all the bases in the most efficient way, and much much more!

Until now, "Sensible Small Business Advertising" has been available online at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.  But now, you can go directly to this site and order your copy in any format of your choice directly from the publisher, iUniverse.

If you have benefited from my blog posts, I would recommend you latch on to my book to gain tons of insight and insider tips and pointers to help build your business with solid, balanced, workable and cost-conscious advertising. 

The information you will find in "Sensible Small Business Advertising" is easy to understand and utilize. It is written specifically for the small business person, so you won't find a lot of technical jargon and tables of confusing (and sometimes contradictory) data.

It's time to make sense of advertising. Get your copy now! Go to www.sensiblesmallbusinessadvertising.com.

Why Are You Even IN Business Anyway?

Last time I talked to you, I had you answer the question, "Why should anyone do business with you?" I think that question is vitally important for you to develop an effective advertising campaign. If you can't give me a good reason why your service is different, distinctive & (hopefully) better in some way than your competitors, then "so long!" I will be on my way to find someone who cares about me and about themselves enough to want to earn my business.

My buying decisions are based on information. Everyone wants to feel that they made the best deal or the best choice when purchasing something. And to do that, you have to convince me that I made that right choice by telling me why I will get that good feeling when I deal with you. Case closed.

This time, I have another crucial question for you: "Why are you in business anyway?" If your response is, "Whaddya mean, 'why?' I wanna make money. Duh!" then you may very well fall into the category of soon-to-fail businesses. Here's why:

What happens when you aren't making the money you projected you would make -- when the bills get harder to pay and the regulations pile up -- when the competition seems to be eating you alive, or when the bypass comes in and your drive-by traffic drops off?  Will you just give up, throw in the towel and call it quits?

If your reason for going into business is only to make money, you might make it, or you might not. But if your reason for going into business is something beyond that, you will have a deeper purpose. You will be more prone to continue on, to find a way to beat the obstacles and stand up to the opposition and the trials.

If you know that your widgets outperform the rest, your roofing technique provides a more long lasting, storm-proof roof, or your childcare's facility and staff are more qualified and better at protecting your clients' kids, or whatever it is, you will have a lot more at stake than just a paycheck or keeping your bottom line in the black. I am not saying money isn't important. You have to eat and pay the bills. But if you don't have more than that going for you, it will be too easy to give up, cut corners or become discouraged. And quite frankly, if that is how you feel, you should go out of business and go to work for someone else who does have that sense of deeper purpose.

I am certain that I have dealt with businesses in the past who went under simply because they were only in business for the money. There was no real love for what they were doing, no sense of providing a better service or product, no driving desire to be the best or to provide the best in what they were doing. Don't be one of them.

Sit yourself and your partners down and have a good session of purpose-searching. If you really can't think of any reason to be in business beyond making money, good luck. I prefer working with well-purposed survivors.

"Why Should I Do Business With You?"

I am constantly amazed by the number of business people who haven't taken the time to answer the simple question, "Why should I do business with you?" How you can go about trying to do business and not have a clear reason for potential customers to use your service or buy your product is a mystery to me.

You may be just one of fifty roofers or dentists or carpet cleaners in a given area. So what reason can you give me for doing business with you in particular? Those of you who know me will be smiling right about now, because you know I tell you that this is the seed of your advertising program.

Let's say you are an auto mechanic. What sets you apart from the auto mechanic down the street, or who has the next biggest ad or the listing ahead of yours? Is there anything you can tell me to convince me to give you the call or the visit to repair my car? Or are you just the same as the next guy? Are you going to leave it to the "luck of the draw" as to whether you get my business or not? What can you tell me that is honest, true and unique about your repair shop?

In the marketing/advertising world, this is called your USP, Unique Selling Proposition. If your ad is only full of bullet points of information (just like the other guys), you are missing the point of effectively advertising. Most repair shops are going to change oil, do brake jobs, tune-ups, engine diagnostics, tire sales, etc. Those are good to list, especially if you do things like wheel alignments, which is something not all shops are equipped to do. But if you want my business, tell me something more that helps me decide to give you my business. (If I need an alignment, then mentioning it is part of what I am talking about, but there is more.) The same principle applies, regardless of the type of business you have.

Make sure you promote your brand, including your logo and slogan. But if you have anything that makes you distinctive, make sure you trumpet it in your advertising. Whether it is lifetime warranties, 24 hour emergency service, mobile service, certifications of some kind, additional services you provide, greater longevity, more inventory, larger service area, more choices -- there should be something that will be attractive to the customers you want.

So examine your ads. Whether it is a commercial, flyer, PPC ad, display ad, billboard, or whatever, make sure you tell your potential customers why, out of all the other people who could do for them what you do, they should give their business to you. That is one important, often neglected, element in assuring you get maximum response to your advertising investment.

The Small Business Person's Dreams Have Come True!

It's finally here! The help you have been looking for to make sense of this thing called "advertising". I have a quote in my book about what John Wanamaker said about a century ago and it goes something like this: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. I just don't know which half!"

Well, my book, "Sensible Small Business Advertising" will help you out of that kind of jam. If you have wondered how to go about choosing the "right" advertising for your business, or if you have had problems getting it to work for you, or if you have never advertised before and are trying to make a go of it without understanding what to do and when, then this book is for you.

It also addresses a lot of issues you won't find mentioned in the more academic books on the subject -- things like how to identify and avoid scams, how to negotiate with ad salespeople, what the two essential types of advertising are, how to balance them, and how to measure the return on your investment.

There is much more information in these easy-to-read pages. You'll learn why it isn't enough to go into business solely to make money, when to consider using an advertising consultant, how to plan your advertising campaign from start-up to business maturity, and why you should not replace traditional media with internet-only advertising. I invite you to order your copy on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online, then pass the word to your business friends who could use a little guidance too.

Avoid "Ho-Hum" Branding

If I were to ask you what company is represented by a gecko lizard, the answer almost anyone would give me is "Geico". Of course. Geico did an excellent job (a long time ago in terms of longevity of ad campaigns) of using the similar sounding lizard name to help brand theirs. And that "hook" is still working today. Geico's commercials and advertising are memorable when tied to the gecko.

But you may not recall a commercial with this scenario:  It is night in the city after a rainfall. A small car rounds a corner and runs through a pothole, blowing a tire in the process. The car stops. The pothole begins to talk, in a female voice with a Southern accent, and says something like this:  "Oh noooo. Yer tire's all flat and junk. Aww, did I do that? Here. Let me get my cellular out, call you a wrecker. Oh, shoot! I got no phone. 'Cuz I'm a pothooole? Sooooo...... "Kay, Bye." The asphalt on the edge of the pothole flapped as it talked. I thought it was hilarious the first time I saw it. But it was shortlived. I only saw it a few times. View it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjMUfIKktWU But before you watch it, tell me this:

What product was it for? And for what company? Did you know it, too, was a Geico commercial? Well, it was. But although it had a humorous story line, it didn't work as well because it didn't brand strongly enough. For many companies and products, humor is great for drawing attention to advertising, but if it falls short of solidifying your brand in the consumer's mind, it could be considered a failure. Even when not using humor, whatever your message is, whatever genre or approach you use, you will know whether you have achieved success or not by measuring how strongly people are able to identify your brand as a result of it.


Think of all the Super Bowl commercials you have seen. The advertisers spent 4 million dollars for a 30 second commercial. Of the commercials you can remember, how many of them do you remember for their humor or for their "warm and fuzzy"-ness? And for how many of those can you name the brand of the company or product?


For each one that you laughed at, but you can't immediately recall the brand, you can consider that the sponsoring company just paid 4 million dollars for a 30 second comedy, just to give you a chuckle. But in terms of advertising, those same commercials were failures.

Remember that lesson when planning your advertising campaign. "Ho-Hum" branding is any branding that fails to make your business or product name the main point of the ad or commercial. Everything else is just the vehicle used to drive that point home.