Should I Advertise On Local Web Sites?

Yes.

Effective marketing means discovering consumer behavior and then inserting a relevant message into their lifestyle. The web will only continue to grow because of consumer use continues to increase. Here is a must read article by Eric Sass - Local Advertisers Going Digital.

Highlights:

• The migration of local advertisers from traditional to digital media accelerated over the course of the 2008-2009 recession
• ...penetration by online and digital media among local advertisers -- meaning the proportion of local advertisers who have used digital or online, to any extent -- increased from 73% in August 2008 to 77% this year. Meanwhile, the proportion of local advertisers using any kind of traditional media fell from 74% to 69%.
• Even more noticeably, digital and online's actual share of local advertising in dollar terms jumped dramatically, from 22% to 37%
• 74% of advertisers that use Internet say they are using it more than they did one year ago
• 49% of advertisers that use print say they are using it less
• ...some good news for mobile advertising, which has struggled to find its footing in the U.S. market: 69% of advertisers that employ mobile advertising say they are using it more than they did a year ago, suggesting the medium has proven itself -- at least to marketers willing to try it.

In short local advertisers are buying digital advertising. At this point it is dominated by search marketing but search marketing works best with banner (display) advertising backing it up. In her article The Bottom Line Is Online Ads Work For Branding And Sales, Laurie Sullivan quotes Gian Fulgoni, chairman and co-founder of comScore:

"Fulgoni says advertisers and marketers need to forget the click, focus on the sales impact on campaigns and conduct post-buy analysis. They also need to realize that display ads help search advertising succeed and vice versa. Don't forget the power of creative display ads. Online branding campaigns can be effective. Internet advertising has had an impact on retail that is on par with television. "

Simply put, you can not bypass The Law of Familiarity. People buy from companies/brands they are familiar with. For the vast majority of businesses, simply relying on search marketing PPC will not sustain thier business. For local brands it supplements their current marketing programs, but it will never replace them. Branding (display ad, contest sponorships, events like Face of Fox), when used with strong creative, drives foot traffic into local businesses. And unless you are a pure internet business, advertising is designed to make the phone ring or get people into your showroom...

What Are People Twittering About?

Recently a number of clients have asked me for assistance in understanding the Twitter phenomenon. How can we get involved? Should we be involved? By now you should know that Twitter is a social networking tool that allows people/businesses to post messages in text format up to 140 characters. Text only no graphics, pictures or video, but you can post links to web pages.

Unlike traditional web sites, you establish a Twitter account and then attempt to get individuals to "follow" your messages. So in essence I am subscribing to your "words of wisdom". Some people/businesses have developed massive followings. On the business side a good example is the news networks - CNN Breaking News (2.6 million!), Weather Channel and Fox Toledo. Be sure to look around for variuos feeds from these services as many have multiple feeds. Fox Toledo has news, sports, weather, Face of Fox etc.

On the individual front, Ashton Kutcher made news earlier this year by reaching the one million followers status faster than CNN. He now enjoys 3.2 million followers. Oprah has +2 million followers.

So onceyou open an account, what is next? My recommendation is to start following people and businesses with similar interests to yours. For example, since I am in marketing I used Advertising Ages Top 50 Media People to Follow on Twitter. Here are links to the first 25 and the next 25. Read their posts for a few weeks and cancel the ones that are not of interest!

Next - add Ashton Kutcher and Oprah. Maybe you can find the allure. I have not been able to so far...

Look for local sources. I follow a number of people in local broadcasting- TV, radio and print. Don't forget ad agencies. Blogs. Competitors. One way to find people is to use Twitters Find People tool. I found sometimes it is easier to simply visit the target's web site and look for the Twitter icon to subscribe.

140 characters does not give you a lot of space to broadcast a message.

eMarketeting's report
What Are People Twittering About? sums it up best. 40% of Tweets are "pointless babble".

But tweeting can get your message out and help drive business. If you have a compelling reason for someone to subscribe to your messages, you can attract followers. Breaking news and weather are good examples.

If I were in the food business - say pizza - and business is slower than expected on Wednesday... Save $5 on the pizza of your choice... Add a web page "Save $5" and tweet the link. Good today only... Marketing a sporting event and still have tickets to sell 3 days prior to the event? Tweet... Breaking news about a new concert or other "hard to get tickets to event"? "Subscribe to our Twitter feed and be the first to know"...

If I ran a local ad agency I would post links to case studies of successful campaigns that have helped other businesses... Auto Repair - tips on maintaining your car that you can do yourself. Tweet us with your questions... Research - Learn how "Cash for Clunkers Gives Auto Makers a Boost."... Door and Window Replacement - The Advantages of Replacement Windows and Double Glazing...

Most businesses can find a reason to use Twitter, but keep the following in mind before you start:

• Only tweet relevant information. Keep it professional.
• If you have nothing to say, keep it to yourself.
• If you wouldn't read it, don't post it.
• Be a resource, not a pest.
• Don't forget to post links to the complete article on your web site
  

Here are links to more articles on Twitter and social networking:

"Why People Use Twitter"

"Focusing on Social Networks"

"Marketers Embrace Twitter over Facebook"

And start your account by following http://twitter.com/Eaglewolfbear I use it mostly to post research that I come across...

Your Best Customer Is Not a 'Woman With Children Under the Age of 4"

I love this article by Josh Bernoff.

The gist...

Who are your best customers?

Do you know their names?

Here's a conversation I often have with marketers:

Josh: Who are your best customers?

Marketer: Women with a child under 4. [Or "People with assets of at least $1 million." Or some such.]

Josh: No, I really mean "Who are your best customers?" What are their names?

Marketer: [No response.]

Read the rest of the article

And follow the comments at the bottom. Enjoy!

Internet, Cell Phone, Land Line - What Would you Eliminate First?

Times are tight. So which is the first to get the axe in your household budget?

• Broadband Internet
• Digital TV
• Land Line Phone
• Cell Phone Voice
  
• Cell Phone Data

According to Strategy Analytics Mobile Data Plans are the first to go. 48% of Adults said they would eliminate/reduce their mobile data plan if faced with budget constraints.

The last to go? "Don't touch my Broadband Internet Connection!'

Other tidbits... Old Fashioned "land lines" are the next to under go the budget axe, but as cable companies continue to bundle TV/Internet/Phone, this decision becomes more complex. With my local cable company I can eliminate my phone service, but the "new unbundled" price of the remaining Internet and cable is almost the same as the VIP bundle... Still the long term outlook for traditional land line telephones is looking belak.

According to Pew Internet and American Life Project, 22% of US Adults "canceled or cutback on cable TV Service", while 11% canceled their land line service. 22% of US adults also reported cutting back or canceling their mobile service plans.

So take away my cell phone, land line and reduce my TV - just don't touch my internet. Note: 2009 is the first time that consumers have spent more time daily engaging the internet than the radio. In order of use it is TV, Internet, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine.

For more information visit Home Broadband a Must in Downturn.

The Law of Familiarity

The Law of Familiarity should be the first concept taught in every franchising company, marketing class and advertising sales job.

This is one of my favorite business principles and I have written about it previously.

Unless the market is familiar with you - your brand, you have no chance for success. The more familiar your brand, the more likely people are to engage it.



The first step in the purchase funnel is awareness. Followed by familiarity... Brand Image, Purchase Consideration, Shopping and finally Purchase.

But until you have aura of Familiarity in the consumer's mind you are not going to move on to the ultimate goal - a purchase.

So how do you become familiar? Marketing and Advertising.

All too frequently I will ask a business owner "what is your marketing plan?" and the answer is "I plan to open the doors and service everyone who walks in..." or "I think Word of Mouth is the most effective form of advertising".

No disagreement here, but few businesses can afford to wait around while Word of Mouth builds their business to profitability. (Want to learn more about WOM advertising – start with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.)

There are very few businesses that can exist without advertising. Advertising makes your brand (name) familiar so prospects can at least consider doing business with you when the need arises for your service.

As I have posted before, there are only three reasons not to advertise in Today’s economy.

Reason One: Business is booming and I can’t handle additional customers.

Reason Two: Waiting for the economy to turn around.

Reason Three - I can’t answer the following question in 30 seconds or less:

What would a client say makes me different than my competition?

Even in tough times, few people will do business with a company they have never heard of. So stop whining and develop a plan to get your name in front of potential clients today. You do not need to launch a massive TV, print, radio, direct mail or web campaign, but you do need to do something.

Want some ideas? Shoot me an email at jeffreydavis@bex.net and I will share my 30 years of experience with you.

“You can never control yourself into profitability; you can only sell your way there.”

SEO for Bing.com and How to Improve Your Rankings

I have received a number of inquires along the line of "What do I have to do to make my web site attractive to Bing". By now you know that Bing is Microsoft's latest attempt at a search engine and it is aimed at taking market share from Google.

In short, your efforts to optimize your site for other search engines like Google will help you in the rankings on Bing.

Dante A. Monteverde has a great article in the August edition of Web Site Magazine. Here are some of his thoughts:

• Start by performing searches on Bing.com for your brand, website and relevant keywords.
• Title and description are coming directly from "title" and "meta name="description"" tags.

Sound familiar? These are the first two steps for making your web site visible to any search engine.

• Be sure to have a meta description that compels the searcher to click your listing and it accurately describes your pages content.

Once again this advice works for any search engine. In performing a web site analysis for a client the most frequently asked question I hear is "how do I improve my rankings?" Here is the magic answer...

Hard work.

Deciding on a title, key words and descriptions is the easy part. (Try searching for the key words that are important to your business. See who is ranked first. Look at their title, key words and descriptions.) Links to and from other web sites is easy. The hard part is relevant content.

"Responsibility is the one thing people dread most of all. Yet it is the one thing in the world that develops us."

-- Frank Crane

Relevant means new. Current. If you simply build out your web pages and sit back and wait for traffic you are on the road to disappointment. Search engines view your site and then return looking for something new. New content gives them reason to return - looking to see if you added more content... More and new content is a key ingredient to improved rankings.

Develop a schedule that forces you to sit down every week/month to review your web site. What have you learned in the prior time period that is relevant to your web site? Add it. Read a great article? Post it.

Another key component for Bing results - the Quick Preview. When a visitor hovers over the search results: "The preview contains a longer description of the page, internal links on the page, phone numbers, emails and physical addresses. To leverage this feature, consider adding these elements to every one of your pages." This is good advice for any site that uses their web site to generate sales leads. If a prospect is interested in your product but can not find out how to immediately make contact with you, the opportunity is lost.

Finally Local Search is a core component of Bing. "If your site/business is not listed on a Bing Maps search, add your profile in the Listing Center."

To learn more try reading the following articles:

• SEO Tips for Bing
• Bing SEO Tips Explained
• Will Bing Change SEO?

Brilliance Doesn't Have to Cost a Fortune

Full discloser - the headline is a direct ripoff from an article I read in the online edition of Advertising Age this morning - so I felt compelled to share! Here is the complete article.

Written by Bart Cleveland, it talks about how smaller agencies can compete with larger agencies in developing compelling advertising. He uses an ad created for Pringles (Cannes festival winner) to show how an ad can be low budget, yet effective. Here is the ad. Try clicking on the ad a few times... Like 5 or 10 times....

"The first thing you should rely upon is between your ears. Even if you have a budget, pretend you don't. Succeed without the need of big production money, so when you have it you will be even better."

This reminds me of my days at Tuffy Auto Service Centers. Mike Sands used to call our inhouse advertising agency "Creativity On Demand!" Short lead times and even shorter budgets. A shoestring budget looked big to us!

But we still did great work. Creative minds blended with a few common concepts. "People do business with people, not businesses." The Tuffy brand name gets the initial attention, but then how do we relate to people (living, breathing individuals) and still get the message across.

More than once during our brainstorming we would start off with a great idea and suddenly find ourselves running down a train track... And Mike would say "what does this mean to me?" And by me he meant the consumer we were trying to speak to...

Anyway, enjoy the Pringles ad.