It’s rare that I sit down to watch TV but last night I decided that I was just going to relax for a bit. I turned the TV on and of course they were all reruns. (This will always amaze me. I rarely watch TV, but when I want to watch it, I’ve already seen the episode they are showing!)
I turned it on CBS, in the mood for laughs, and watched Raymond and Two and a Half Men. Of course, fall launch is coming up so they are promoting the new shows. I can’t tell you what CBS will have with the exception of a new show called “How I Met Your Mother“. Oh, I lie. There’s a new Survivor starting. It won’t have one twist, it will have two.
According to the CBS website, they have six new shows coming out this fall. So why do I only know about one? The answer is simple. Where better to advertise a sitcom? During a sitcom. The target market for “How I Met Your Mother” is roughly the same as the target market for “Raymond” and “Two and a Half Men”.
There is only one other sitcom on the new fall roll-out, and while I did see the promo for “Out of Practice” it wasn’t run as heavily as “How I Met Your Mother”. So why the heavy promotion?
As a general rule it takes three airings of a commercial before the consumer recognizes it. We all have gotten to the point where we tune out ads. I can’t really tell you what “Out of Practice” is about other than it has a doctor theme, but I can tell you that by the time my 2 hours of TV watching were over, I knew all about “How I Met Your Mother” and I think it’s a show that I would enjoy. Each time the promo aired, I paid more and more attention to it.
When planning your advertising you must keep three things in mind: Your target market, the reach of your schedule (how many of your target market you are actually reaching), and the frequency (how many times it reaches your target market). A ROS (run of station) schedule may or may not work, it all depends on your target market.
Let’s take broadcast advertising and let’s say you’re a furniture company. Typically, your target market (or demo) is Women 25-54. But is your target market always women 25-54? That all depends on what kind of promotion you’re running. If you’re nearing football season and you’re pushing recliners to go with the big screen TVs, maybe not. These are all things to take into consideration.
The ratings system seems complicated, but in actuality, it’s not. In my next post, I’ll explain the ratings system in layman’s terms. Knowing your key terms and the general basis on which advertising works helps tremendously when placing your schedule. Don’t be in the dark about where your money is going!
Until next time…
Heather
Permalink 1 CommentAs business leaders and professionals, we all know by now that the success of an organization is driven by one thing: whether or not people choose to buy what you’ve got to sell. According to a recent survey involving U.S. senior executives, marketing will be the most important area of expertise for the next-generation of leaders.
Every business needs customers, but more importantly every business needs to maintain those customers while constantly retaining new ones. The only successful way of doing this is by learning everything about your customers, including who they are? What do they have in common? Do they share a hobby, an age range, a life stage, or a geographic community? Can you break them down into groups? The answers to these questions hold a wealth of information for you.
Although direct marketing can be overlooked by many businesses, here are statistics proving the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns over the years.
According to the DMA (Direct Marketing Association) 2005 Postal and Email Marketing Report:
* For postal mailings, 43% of direct marketers indicated that their up-front gross response has increased from 2003 to 2002.
* As with postal mailings, when asked about 2004, respondents showed more optimism in their up-front email response rates, with 51% projecting an increase and 32% stable response rates.
* For postal mailers, the top list techniques used to improve 2003 front-end response were enhancements to internal housefile databases (50%), demographic segmentation (50%), and prior mail history analysis (46%). Most list techniques had a success rate of 80% or greater.
According to the DMA 2004 E-Commerce Report:
* The portion of companies having an in-house email marketing list has increased from 74% to 85%
* 43% of Web and email investment is allocated towards marketing, compared to 35% in 2002
The direct marketing industry employs the top minds of our world to analyze and build databases and marketing campaigns to address only the concerns and needs of a selected audience, which history has proven to be accurate 70% of the time. Typically, budgets are based more on analyzing the product, service and/or the consumer rather than playing an ROI guessing game.
Brief Case Study of a Client
Here is a case study of a client that used direct marketing to increase their bottom line:
Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corporation (AHMCC), the largest U.S. privately held mortgage banker/mortgage broker initiated a more sophisticated form of direct mail marketing in 2003, which included the use of opt-in email files and multi-level marketing to reach new customers. The results were that AHMCC increased their revenues by 100% and increased their closing ratio by 15% by using email alone. Customer loyalty went up and referrals hit the roof. AHMCC now has 700 offices in 49 states, Guam and the Virgin Islands!
As the marketplace continues to evolve and change due the economic landscape and the need to offset expensive ad campaigns, direct marketing continues to play a major role for the success of any sized business. Regardless of the negative connotations that the public has on direct marketing, the truth of the matter is that corporations are vehicles that satisfy the needs of people and marketing is the channel that helps facilitate this process.
Ultimately, in order to be successful, companies must learn to maintain the loyalty of their customers and get in front of new ones by practicing 1 simple rule: Providing good product and service to the right people, at the right time, in the right place and in the right way.
About the Author
Brian Rice is the Founder & President of Red Clay Media, a full-service marketing data provider, direct mail and data services company. Visit www.redclaymedia.com or contact Brian directly at brice@redclaymedia.com.
I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. BIG fan. I recommend his books to anyone I know interested in marketing because they are thought provoking, informative, and a good read. I’ve read many of them over and over again.
Viral Marketing is a great way to market yourself. Seth’s book “Unleashing the Idea Virus” is a great way to learn how to start that process. What’s better? It’s free! Yes, I said free! 
Seth’s book is available for purchase at amazon.com, or you can download it from my site here.
What is Seth doing by offering his book for free? Creating an idea virus. He shared it with me, I share it with you, and you’ll probably share it with someone else. If this is the first book that you read by Seth, I’m sure that you will be inclined to read more. Which means that you’ll have to go and buy those books. See why I’m a big Seth Godin fan?
Enjoy the book. If you’re not a big eBook fan, you can purchase it at Amazon.com. His other books are there as well…
~~ All Marketers Are Liars ~~ Free Prize Inside! The Next Big Marketing Idea ~~ Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable ~~ Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends and Friends Into Customers ~~ 99 Cows ~~
Enjoy! Make sure you pass it on to those you think it might help!
Until next time…
Heather
Permalink 2 CommentsToday I went across town to drop off a check to reserve our table at the Shrimp Fest. I had to go somewhere else before heading home and I could see my next destination in my mind, but for the life of me, couldn’t figure out the best way to get there. I knew that if I went straight on 460 I would eventually get there, but I just knew there was a quicker, better way to go.
Of course as I was driving by 419, I then figured out that was the way I wanted to go.
I continued East on 460 and couldn’t believe what I was seeing! Businesses that I had seen advertised and never knew exactly where they were, a few really nice parks that I could take the kids and the dog to, restaurants to try, etc. I don’t travel that route very often and it had changed immensley since I had travelled it last.
So what’s my point? More often than not, there are several ways to get from Point A to Point B. One might be better, one might be faster, but one might teach you more. Don’t get so caught up in always doing it right. If you know the direction you’re headed will eventually get you there, enjoy the ride. 
How can you relate this to your business? How can you get from where you are right now to your goal, whether that be an increase in customers, profits, better location, more services, etc.? Do you know of any routes to take? Do you know which one will be the most effective? Do you know which one will get you there quicker? Don’t stall. Pick one and go. If you’re still not sure, stop and ask directions. There’s a great navigator located at Valley Virtual Assistants who would be more than happy to help you get to where you want to go.
Until next time…
Heather
Permalink 4 CommentsIn July I launched a new service to help small businesses with their advertising campaigns: making sure they truly knew their target market, that the schedule they purchase is reaching their target market, and to ensure that they are getting the most out of their advertising dollars.
Advertising is confusing if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for or if you go in blindly. It can be a very cost effective way of reaching your target audience but at the same time it can be very costly.
In addition to the articles I think are useful for marketing and virtual assistance, I’m also going to be posting some on advertising.
Oh and if you need any help deciphering it all, just drop me a line!
Here’s our first advertising article!
by Charlie Cook
www.marketingforsuccess.com
“Advertising doesn’t work.” I hear it from my clients all the time. One client was about to file for b.ankruptcy because she wasn’t getting a good response to her radio ads, and the cost was killing her. But she knew her target market was listening; she knew she needed to get her name out there to generate more business. What should she do?
Owners of small businesses and professionals like yourself realize that to take your business to the next level, you need to get your products and services in front of a larger audience. You want to generate more leads, get more prospects to contact you and buy from you. Advertising is essential but how do you get more out of your advertising dollars?
Have you been disappointed by your advertising campaigns? I felt the same way about my family’s VCR. I paid good money for it (though probably not nearly as much as most people pay for advertising) and as far as I was concerned I could never get it to work the way I wanted it to. I spent way too much time fiddling with it and I still couldn’t get it to record a TV show or a movie reliably when I was away. After a while I stopped
trying to use its record function.
Sound familiar?
Compared to programming a VCR, creating a successful advertising campaign is simple. Note the operative word here is “successful”. It’s easy to put together an advertising campaign, but creating one that helps you make more than you spend should be the objective. The following seven elements are what separate a successful advertising campaign from one that just costs you money.
Elements of A Successful Advertising Campaign
1. Choose the media that will reach your target market. It sounds obvious, but make sure your target audience will see and/or hear your ad. Select a publication or radio or cable station that your target audience reads or tunes to. If you’re advertising on the web, your keyword selection is critical here.
2. Write ad copy that your prospects will want to read. Your prospects’ primary interest is in what your product or service will do for them, not what it actually is. Which would you be more likely to read, a headline that reads, “Accounting Services” or one that reads, “How to Avoid Overpaying Your Taxes”?
3. Have others establish your credibility. If space allows, include testimonials in your ad verifying the
outstanding results your products and services generate.
4. Motivate prospects to contact you. Include a limited-time offer or something for free — a report,
appraisal or bonus product — to prompt your prospects to take action.
5. Tell prospects what you want them to do and how to do it. This is your “call to action”. Tell them to call you, visit your web site, send you an email, fill in the reply card, etc.
6. Follow up your offer with the information prospects need to make a purchase. Too many people make the mistake at this point in the s.ales process of launching into a sales pitch. Whether your prospect is on the phone with you or is visiting your web site, help them clarify the problem or concern they have and detail the solution you provide. Then remind them what action you want them to take.
7. Continue to educate your prospects and clients. Stay in touch with likely prospects by contacting them at least every month. Get the conversation going by discussing a common problem. Give your prospects a quick tip they can use and, of course, mention the solutions you provide.
A successful advertising campaign will include all seven of the above elements, not just one or two. When you put all these elements in place, your advertising will generate more leads and sales and you’ll see a good return on your advertising dollars.
By the way, the client who came to me on the verge of bankruptcy is now back on solid financial ground. Once she understood how to write her advertising copy and manage her advertising campaigns, her radio advertising started to bring in a steady stream of new business.
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2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
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The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals, small business owners and marketing professionals attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Strategy eBook, ‘7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business’ at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com