The next 3 months are usually not the best time to "buy" advertising. I'm not saying it's a terrible time to run advertising, just that you should have already bought it before the traditional holiday push that depletes media inventories, driving prices up. I'll give you some tips on when and how to make media decisions in future posts.
So, where should you be spending this quarter if you haven't got an ongoing schedule? If you own a service or retail business that isn't reliant on holiday sales (HVAC, Medical, Financial, etc) think about putting some of your ad budget into sprucing up the Personal Experience of your customers.
Here are a few ideas…some more expensive than others.
The bottom line is….if the holiday season is slow for you, don't just sit on your bottom. Get busy doing something so when your own season rolls back around, your customers will be delighted by the "new" you!
QUESTION: This list isn't exclusive. What other suggestions do you have?
It's simple. Put your phone number in your banner. The phone rings more and the bounce rate goes up.
I get tired of web gurus telling people that they should make sure their bounce rate isn't too high. Some will cite studies that quote an average bounce rate. Some will say things like, "Obviously a high bounce rate means your site has low relevance to visitors, and so to capture more of those visitors you can work on making your site more relevant."
Here's the rub…comparing YOUR bounce rate to somebody else's is simply bad math. The only important comparison to make with your bounce rate is to compare it to the past. If it changes, dig deeper into your web analytics to find out what is going on.
So, how will putting your phone number in your banner increase your bounce rate?
And, why is this good?
If you are a local retail or service business and you are doing other advertising in your market, you will no doubt be enjoying traffic (you do have a web site...please say yes) from visitors who have searched for you by name. (The good news about this is that when they search for you by name, they most likely won't find your competitors.)
Many of those visitors are coming to your site for one reason; to find your phone number. If you bury it on a "contact" page instead of making it prominent, you create friction for your customers who are already convinced they should call you. If they are forced to click through to find it, your bounce rate drops because these visitors don't count as a bounce.
If you put it on your banner, a visitor can find your site by searching for your name, see it on your banner and stay on your site just long enough to dial the phone. Your analytics program will count this as a bounce.
I would count it as making the phone ring.
Wouldn't you like the phone to ring more?
You hear a lot of people talking about how stupid it is to stop advertising during a recession. They recount how so many businesses stayed the course and came out the other side with increased market share.
Question: Were they just better equipped to weather the storm, or did their advertising work better during the downturn?
If your competitors are cutting back (or belly up) you can actually get a boost in the effectiveness of your advertising because your Share of Voice just got bigger.
The Advertising Performance Equation accounts for how your market share relates back to the Share of Voice that you've purchased through your advertising. All things being equal, if you have fewer competitors barking on the airwaves, your ad will do a better job of "branding" your business in the minds of consumers as the first place they think of and feel best about, when the need for your product or service arises.
You see, Share of Mind, is the result of your Share of Voice times the Impact Quotient, or level of effectiveness of your message. Couple a powerful message with an increased Share of Voice and something magical starts to happen. If you don't fritter away this advantage by delivering a below-average customer experience, increased market share is sure to follow. It's all in the math.
It's not simply that your competitors have left a void in the market, but they've left a void in the minds of their customers.
Will you step up and fill that void?
Great story on CNN about food vendors using Twitter to announce their schedules and locations to their fans.
[I've fixed this post 3 times. CNN's embed code keeps breaking...is it CNN or is it Typepad? Here's the link to watch it at CNN.]
With 4 flights on United last week, it was easy to read the in-flight Hemispheres Magazine from cover to cover.
Two stories that caught my attention were flashback pieces.
First, "Remembrance of Cocoa Puffs Past," a story about retro marketing. It's a cool read and it makes the case that especially during a recession, we like to touch the comforts of the past.
The other flashback piece, "Bunker Mentality," was about Norman Lear and his 1970s and 1980s TV dynasty. The story talked about how Lear altered the national conversation with his provocative shows. Coming out last month was the Norman Lear TV Collection (19 discs) with the first seasons of 7 of his classic shows including All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, Good Times, Maude, Mary Hartman, and One Day at a Time.
Tags: retromarketing, hemispheres, norman lear
I've got a couple of course recommendations for you.
First...Fight the Big Boys and WIN! Just a few seats left and you might just get to stay in Engelbrecht house if you hurry.
Second....The Marketing Performance Seminar in Denver, Colorado. This one is a bargain, especially if you're a retail or service business owner. Your registration will be just $99 and you can grab an on-site hotel room for just $99/night.
About a year ago, Microsoft Advertising released a video called "The Breakup." It's a great statement about the disconnect between advertisers and consumers. Now, a year later, they've produced a nice sequel. Again, deep irony regarding the fact that the advertiser just doesn't get it.
The video is designed to get people to a Microsoft web site called getinspiredhere.net, a brand new blog that promises to build a community of marketers, designers and developers. There's not much there yet, but it's likely worth watching to see how they progress...or they could just become another piece of the irony.
A bunch of my fellow Wizard of Ads Partners are throwing a party seminar in the Music City. It's gonna be a lot of fun very educational. Wanna come along?
Take away a wealth of persuasively potent tools you can begin using immediately to Boom Your Business on Friday and Saturday, August 1st and 2nd, at the Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
It’s just $299 for two days. Strictly limited to the first 200 who register.
A 2-day event with this line-up should cost you at least $1,200. Why are we only charging $299? You're thinking that you're going to get a sales pitch, right? Nope. Nothing of the sort.
We're charging less because this is the first time. We're working out the bugs before we take this event on tour. You won’t be asked to buy anything else. The Wizard of Ads Partners do not solicit business. They are teachers first.
Ready to go back to school? Raise your hand.
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