Last Friday was a great day for me. I had the opportunity to meet with a client (since I did not ask his permission, I will protect his identity)who truly "gets it."
He has a grasp on his industry and what is going to be happening in the next ten years. His beautiful new building is a great example of how he has been preparing for these changes.
There are a lot of things that we can learn from this person. I am limiting our talk today to just four things.
1. He was patient. His previous building offered very little space. However, he was able to understand his plan, work his plan and keep his employees excited about the future. He is more than an owner, a manager, he is a leader.
2. He understands the importance of people. He treats his employees in a such a way the best of the best want to work for his company, sometimes even at a lower pay scale. Don't mistake this for being a push over boss, he knows what he wants and he expects his people to make it happen. However, they are treated in a such a way, they are excited about going to work.
3. He has a clear picture/understanding of his business. He is not trying to be all things to all people. In fact, an affiliated company was making it difficult for him to take care of his customers. He simply refused to do business with them.
4. He is brave enough to dream. By preparing for the future now, while the economy is down, he realizes when the economy comes back, he will be ready for an explosion of growth and profit.
The question this week, what can you learn from this man? I encourage you to have a real conversation with the person in the mirror and rate yourself on these four listings. Good Luck.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Marketing Moment, Volume 7
This week concludes our discussion on the top 6 mistakes advertisers make. Let's recap our first 5:
1. Advertising without a goal or objective.
2. Having a small "presence" in a number of different mediums.
3. Placing ads instead of a campaign.
4. Treating mediums as a commodity.
5. Trying to build a business with Yellow Pages
The number 6 is listed below:
Having a Them vs Us attitude with your media representative. You need to work with reps who understand marketing and want to help you grow your business and not just sell. However, you have responsibility with that too. If you have the us vs them attitude or think it is your job to beat them up on price, etc -- The best of the best will not want to work with you.
Like any industry there are top notch pros and bottom feeders who sell advertising. That truth is real in every medium. To be a successful advertiser, you need to find and work with the top notch pros. As stated above, you have some responsibility with that as well.
If you are an advertiser who enjoys beating up the sales rep, getting the lowest price, than taking forever to pay, you are not creating a partneship that will serve you in the future. A good rep (admittedly sometimes is hard to find) will help you. They will offer you suggestions, give you advice, and will do their best to get you in on limited opportunities. If you are beating them up, you probably will not be notified about the limited avail options.
Business is hard enough for you, you need to surround yourself with people who will help you be successful. You don't need a yes person or someone who is solely worried about having a great relationship with you. You need a pro who will provide honest, direct feedback and information, even if you don't want to hear it.
Sometimes there will be personality conflicts with your rep. You may not like them. But before you pick up the phone and ask for a new rep, give them a little time. Are you looking for a friend or do you want help in building your business? If that person provides quality ideas, great customer service and honest feedback, why do you need to like them? To me, confidence and respect are much more important than liking someone.
Take care of the great reps and they will take care of you. Good Luck.
1. Advertising without a goal or objective.
2. Having a small "presence" in a number of different mediums.
3. Placing ads instead of a campaign.
4. Treating mediums as a commodity.
5. Trying to build a business with Yellow Pages
The number 6 is listed below:
Having a Them vs Us attitude with your media representative. You need to work with reps who understand marketing and want to help you grow your business and not just sell. However, you have responsibility with that too. If you have the us vs them attitude or think it is your job to beat them up on price, etc -- The best of the best will not want to work with you.
Like any industry there are top notch pros and bottom feeders who sell advertising. That truth is real in every medium. To be a successful advertiser, you need to find and work with the top notch pros. As stated above, you have some responsibility with that as well.
If you are an advertiser who enjoys beating up the sales rep, getting the lowest price, than taking forever to pay, you are not creating a partneship that will serve you in the future. A good rep (admittedly sometimes is hard to find) will help you. They will offer you suggestions, give you advice, and will do their best to get you in on limited opportunities. If you are beating them up, you probably will not be notified about the limited avail options.
Business is hard enough for you, you need to surround yourself with people who will help you be successful. You don't need a yes person or someone who is solely worried about having a great relationship with you. You need a pro who will provide honest, direct feedback and information, even if you don't want to hear it.
Sometimes there will be personality conflicts with your rep. You may not like them. But before you pick up the phone and ask for a new rep, give them a little time. Are you looking for a friend or do you want help in building your business? If that person provides quality ideas, great customer service and honest feedback, why do you need to like them? To me, confidence and respect are much more important than liking someone.
Take care of the great reps and they will take care of you. Good Luck.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
The Marketing Moment, Volume 6
We are up to 5 in our common mistakes that advertisers make. This one will upset some folks, I will be gentle. To recap our first 4 mistakes:
1. Advertising without a goal or objective.
2. Having a small "presence" in a number of different mediums.
3. Placing ads instead of a campaign.
4. Treating mediums as a commodity.
The number 5 mistake is listed below:
Trying to build a business with Yellow Pages. The yellow pages is a directory. When people have made their decision, they may go to the yellow pages to get a number - so the yellow pages might be the last thing they saw before coming to your business, and when asked, the customer mentions that they saw you in the yellow pages. But no one has ever built their business with yellow pages.
I am proud of the fact that I have worked in radio for nearly 30 years. I am proud of the work that the stations have done and I continue to be blessed to work with true professionals. When I decided to do this blog, my intention was to talk about all types of advertising and not down play everything but radio. You might read this blog and question that statement.
People are wasting money in Yellow Pages. There is nothing pro-active about yellow pages, it is a directory. Once the decision is made, people will look in the yellow pages and find your number. By the way, they will also find all your competitors numbers. Since you are listed with your competitors, your yellow page rep will tell you that you need to have a bigger ad to get noticed.
Additionally, they will push you to add some color, bold listings, pictures, etc. By the way, do you know that the only way most yellow page reps earn commission is selling you more this year than last year? That puts the rep in the position not to worry about what you need, but what they need.
Taking that same money and investing in a proactive medium, like internet, billboard, newspaper, radio (at least I put it last) you can gain share of mind with your prospects; something that yellow pages will never provide for you.
If you still feel like you must be in the yellow pages, please think about reducing your ad size greatly. Good Luck.
1. Advertising without a goal or objective.
2. Having a small "presence" in a number of different mediums.
3. Placing ads instead of a campaign.
4. Treating mediums as a commodity.
The number 5 mistake is listed below:
Trying to build a business with Yellow Pages. The yellow pages is a directory. When people have made their decision, they may go to the yellow pages to get a number - so the yellow pages might be the last thing they saw before coming to your business, and when asked, the customer mentions that they saw you in the yellow pages. But no one has ever built their business with yellow pages.
I am proud of the fact that I have worked in radio for nearly 30 years. I am proud of the work that the stations have done and I continue to be blessed to work with true professionals. When I decided to do this blog, my intention was to talk about all types of advertising and not down play everything but radio. You might read this blog and question that statement.
People are wasting money in Yellow Pages. There is nothing pro-active about yellow pages, it is a directory. Once the decision is made, people will look in the yellow pages and find your number. By the way, they will also find all your competitors numbers. Since you are listed with your competitors, your yellow page rep will tell you that you need to have a bigger ad to get noticed.
Additionally, they will push you to add some color, bold listings, pictures, etc. By the way, do you know that the only way most yellow page reps earn commission is selling you more this year than last year? That puts the rep in the position not to worry about what you need, but what they need.
Taking that same money and investing in a proactive medium, like internet, billboard, newspaper, radio (at least I put it last) you can gain share of mind with your prospects; something that yellow pages will never provide for you.
If you still feel like you must be in the yellow pages, please think about reducing your ad size greatly. Good Luck.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
The Maketing Moment, Volume 5
In our first four weeks of The Marketing Moment, we have talked about:
1. Advertising without a goal or objective.
2. Having a small "presence" in a number of different mediums.
3. Placing ads instead of a campaign.
This week, we are up to 4 on our list of advertisers mistakes.
Treating mediums as a commodity. Whether it is print, radio, billboard, TV, you are buying an audience. If the medium has a huge audience, the price is higher. Supply and audience should drive the rate. If you only buy on rate, you may have lost the game before it started.
Most people do not go to a car dealer and expect to buy the top of the line products for the same price as an entry level model. However, there are a lot of advertisers who are all about price.
Of course, you need to get the best deal you can get. You need to be smart with your budget, you need to make sure that you can pay for what you buy. However, paying the lowest rate is usually not the best deal. Let me explain.
You advertise when you can't go see someone. You are hiring a salesman that can reach people you can't talk too. Regardless of the medium, you are buying an audience. Once you have a strong audience and you couple that with strong frequency and a motivating message, you will get results.
The more results a medium gets for advertiser, the higher the demand, the higher the demand, the higher the price of the advertising. The lower the results, the reverse is true. With that in mind, you need to ask yourself why the medium is so much cheaper than all the others. Usually, it is in direct correlation with the results.
I am not saying that there are not over priced mediums, there are and you need to be careful. I am saying, if someone is a whole lot cheaper than everyone else, be careful with your money. Good Luck.
1. Advertising without a goal or objective.
2. Having a small "presence" in a number of different mediums.
3. Placing ads instead of a campaign.
This week, we are up to 4 on our list of advertisers mistakes.
Treating mediums as a commodity. Whether it is print, radio, billboard, TV, you are buying an audience. If the medium has a huge audience, the price is higher. Supply and audience should drive the rate. If you only buy on rate, you may have lost the game before it started.
Most people do not go to a car dealer and expect to buy the top of the line products for the same price as an entry level model. However, there are a lot of advertisers who are all about price.
Of course, you need to get the best deal you can get. You need to be smart with your budget, you need to make sure that you can pay for what you buy. However, paying the lowest rate is usually not the best deal. Let me explain.
You advertise when you can't go see someone. You are hiring a salesman that can reach people you can't talk too. Regardless of the medium, you are buying an audience. Once you have a strong audience and you couple that with strong frequency and a motivating message, you will get results.
The more results a medium gets for advertiser, the higher the demand, the higher the demand, the higher the price of the advertising. The lower the results, the reverse is true. With that in mind, you need to ask yourself why the medium is so much cheaper than all the others. Usually, it is in direct correlation with the results.
I am not saying that there are not over priced mediums, there are and you need to be careful. I am saying, if someone is a whole lot cheaper than everyone else, be careful with your money. Good Luck.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
The Marketing Moment, Volume 4
We are continuing our conversation about the top six mistakes that advertisers make. So far, we have talked about the importance of having a goal and the problems with trying to advertise in to many mediums. This week we are talking about the actual ad. The third mistakes in our top six list is below:
Placing ads instead of a campaign. Smart advertisers have a consistent theme, their offers may change, but the theme and message remains consistent.
What is it that you want people to know about you? Actually, that is not the correct question. Please don't be offended, but what you want them (your potential customer) to know about you and what they (your potential customer) want to know are very different.
Most advertisers will say something like, we are locally owned. We have a friendly staff, etc, etc. What your customer wants to know is how will doing business with you improve my life. What are you going to do for me? Talk about me, not you.
So what is your constant theme? Is it based on knowledge of your staff. When you do business with us, we will provide you all the information you need, we will walk you through it.
Is it based on customer service? If it is, put some meat with the claim. For example, "If someone has not greeted you and offered to help you with in ten seconds of you entering our store, we will hand you a $50 dollar bill." People will hear that and test you.
What is your promise, what do you stand for, how will you improve your customers life. Determine that and then tell them in every ad, build a campaign around those issues. Just be sure your staff is delivering on what you are promising.
Good Luck.
Placing ads instead of a campaign. Smart advertisers have a consistent theme, their offers may change, but the theme and message remains consistent.
What is it that you want people to know about you? Actually, that is not the correct question. Please don't be offended, but what you want them (your potential customer) to know about you and what they (your potential customer) want to know are very different.
Most advertisers will say something like, we are locally owned. We have a friendly staff, etc, etc. What your customer wants to know is how will doing business with you improve my life. What are you going to do for me? Talk about me, not you.
So what is your constant theme? Is it based on knowledge of your staff. When you do business with us, we will provide you all the information you need, we will walk you through it.
Is it based on customer service? If it is, put some meat with the claim. For example, "If someone has not greeted you and offered to help you with in ten seconds of you entering our store, we will hand you a $50 dollar bill." People will hear that and test you.
What is your promise, what do you stand for, how will you improve your customers life. Determine that and then tell them in every ad, build a campaign around those issues. Just be sure your staff is delivering on what you are promising.
Good Luck.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Marketing Moment, Volume 3
This week is a continuation of our discussion of the 6 major mistakes of advertisers. Please feel free to review last weeks entry to remind yourself of mistake 1, advertising without a goal.
But now, we have a goal. We know how many people we need to see in our store. So how do we get there? At Hometown Radio, we believe that Reach (The Number of people who see, read, or hear your message) Frequency (The number of times they see it) and message (Are you communicating to them how you can improve their life) are the three central components to getting results.
The second biggest mistake is "having a small "presence" in a number of different places, without dominating any place" (IE...trying to reach too many people) Roy Williams, The Wizard of Ads, talks about reaching 100% of the people convincing them 10% of the time or reaching 10% of the people and convincing them 100% of the way.
Remember the TV Commercial with the three little ballerinas? They all had a small amount of milk in their glass and they could not reach the milk with their cookies. Obviously a problem. Then, they combined all their milk into one glass and the problem was solved.
Take a look at your advertising. Are you unable to reach your prospects because of too little frequency. Sometimes, advertisers see their competition advertising in a medium and they feel like they should be there as well. Before you realize it, you have a very small amount of milk in a number of glasses, but not enough to have an impact.
You can learn from most successful advertisers, whether it's radio, billboard, print, or web. When they advertise, they are dominant.
What can you do? If you are in a number of different mediums, you can probably improve your advertising, simply by spending the same amount of money but concentrating that money in fewer places.
Do some homework this week on how you are spending your advertising dollar and see if less places can mean more results. Good luck.
But now, we have a goal. We know how many people we need to see in our store. So how do we get there? At Hometown Radio, we believe that Reach (The Number of people who see, read, or hear your message) Frequency (The number of times they see it) and message (Are you communicating to them how you can improve their life) are the three central components to getting results.
The second biggest mistake is "having a small "presence" in a number of different places, without dominating any place" (IE...trying to reach too many people) Roy Williams, The Wizard of Ads, talks about reaching 100% of the people convincing them 10% of the time or reaching 10% of the people and convincing them 100% of the way.
Remember the TV Commercial with the three little ballerinas? They all had a small amount of milk in their glass and they could not reach the milk with their cookies. Obviously a problem. Then, they combined all their milk into one glass and the problem was solved.
Take a look at your advertising. Are you unable to reach your prospects because of too little frequency. Sometimes, advertisers see their competition advertising in a medium and they feel like they should be there as well. Before you realize it, you have a very small amount of milk in a number of glasses, but not enough to have an impact.
You can learn from most successful advertisers, whether it's radio, billboard, print, or web. When they advertise, they are dominant.
What can you do? If you are in a number of different mediums, you can probably improve your advertising, simply by spending the same amount of money but concentrating that money in fewer places.
Do some homework this week on how you are spending your advertising dollar and see if less places can mean more results. Good luck.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Marketing Moment, Volume 2
Last week, we discussed advertiser's most common mistakes. This week, I want to go into a little more detail. Let's refresh on the first mistake:
1. Advertise without a goal or objective. If you don't know where you are going, you will never know if you get there. Advertising to "get your name out" or to "support" various programs can be good -- but it's not advertising as much as it is public relations.
The obvious first step is to create a goal. But be careful, it is easy to say that my goal is to increase 10% for this year. But exactly what does 10% mean. You need to be able to show your work. For example:
Business "A" wants a $100,000 increase in sales for 2010.
Their average ticket is $100
Their average closing ratio (The % of shoppers who actually buy) is 50%
Business A needs to add 1000 new customers in 2010. But since they sell 50% of those customers, they need to see 2000 new customers per year.
167 per month
The store is open on average 26 days per month, so they need to increase 6.4 people per day.
The question is are there 6.4 people in your market going somewhere else every day to shop for what you sell.
Admittedly, this is a simplistic approach. But are you doing the math on your goals? Do you know for sure what your business needs to do to hit their numbers?
Here are a couple of obvious variables:
Attrition: There will be a percentage of business you must replace from death, people moving, becoming unsatisfied, etc.
Increasing your closing percentage or your average ticket: If you increase either one of those then the number of new faces you need can decrease.
Do the math and find out what you need to do to hit your goals. Then ask the question; will the advertising I am currently doing help me bring in the right amount of people?
Do simple record keeping and track the amount of people who visit your store everyday and the weather conditions. It is a little bit of work but it helps you see traffic patterns, closing ratios, etc.
The Marketing Moment is designed to help you reach your goals. Admittedly, I come from a radio background. My training, expertise, and experience is with radio. However, I understand marketing and how to use all forms of advertising. I hope you will join me every week and together, we can improve the results you are getting.
The next time you need a speaker, make it easy on yourself and call me. I will inspire, motivate, and entertain your group. Check out my speaking demo at www.bransonbusiness.blogspot.com then call (417) 339-6568 for availability. The only way I look good is making you look good for booking me.
1. Advertise without a goal or objective. If you don't know where you are going, you will never know if you get there. Advertising to "get your name out" or to "support" various programs can be good -- but it's not advertising as much as it is public relations.
The obvious first step is to create a goal. But be careful, it is easy to say that my goal is to increase 10% for this year. But exactly what does 10% mean. You need to be able to show your work. For example:
Business "A" wants a $100,000 increase in sales for 2010.
Their average ticket is $100
Their average closing ratio (The % of shoppers who actually buy) is 50%
Business A needs to add 1000 new customers in 2010. But since they sell 50% of those customers, they need to see 2000 new customers per year.
167 per month
The store is open on average 26 days per month, so they need to increase 6.4 people per day.
The question is are there 6.4 people in your market going somewhere else every day to shop for what you sell.
Admittedly, this is a simplistic approach. But are you doing the math on your goals? Do you know for sure what your business needs to do to hit their numbers?
Here are a couple of obvious variables:
Attrition: There will be a percentage of business you must replace from death, people moving, becoming unsatisfied, etc.
Increasing your closing percentage or your average ticket: If you increase either one of those then the number of new faces you need can decrease.
Do the math and find out what you need to do to hit your goals. Then ask the question; will the advertising I am currently doing help me bring in the right amount of people?
Do simple record keeping and track the amount of people who visit your store everyday and the weather conditions. It is a little bit of work but it helps you see traffic patterns, closing ratios, etc.
The Marketing Moment is designed to help you reach your goals. Admittedly, I come from a radio background. My training, expertise, and experience is with radio. However, I understand marketing and how to use all forms of advertising. I hope you will join me every week and together, we can improve the results you are getting.
The next time you need a speaker, make it easy on yourself and call me. I will inspire, motivate, and entertain your group. Check out my speaking demo at www.bransonbusiness.blogspot.com then call (417) 339-6568 for availability. The only way I look good is making you look good for booking me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)