Appearing in your own advertising, is it an advertising industry scam ?

We’ve all seen the television ads for a local used car lot, wine merchant or accountant in which the business owner appears talking directly into the camera. Sometimes they are exclaiming that their “prices won’t be beaten” sometimes they are a little more reserved.

The advertising industry has a number of arguments they put forward as to why a business owner should appear in their ad :

  • People trust the ad’s claim more if the actual owner is making them.
  • No one can convey a genuine belief in the business’ offerings as well as the actual owner.
  • One less actor, one less expense.

But I suspect there is another set of reasons justifying a business owners appearance in an ad and they aren’t to the benefit of the business but of the advertising agency.

An owner appearing in an ad is going to be less likely to cancel or disparage the ad campaign. Imagine a local business owner getting recognized when they go out socially. Their wife/husband’s friends commenting on the ad. Appearing in a local tv ad gives a slight touch of celebrity.

I have seen examples of a business owner young child appearing in their television ads dressed up as a superhero. Can you possibly expect that business owner to have a hard nosed clinical view as to that ads effectiveness ? I don’t think so.

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January 22, 2011 | Sam Howley | No Comments »

Travel Agent Marketing Tips

Tip – Read these ideas with an open mind, if they aren’t perfect for your business think about how you could modify them to made them fit.

Do you have any newsworthy stories under your nose ? An old couple returning to their homeland for their 50th wedding aniversary ? A young sporting team travelling overseas to compete ? Do you see a sudden increase in clients going to a particular country ?  All of these stories could merit reporting in local newspapers and media.  Find the email address of the journalist who covers local interest stories and email them. The best way to get PR is to become a source, journalists need sources, quotes and tips.

Look at things from the clients point of view, what additional information could you be providing that would help your clients ? Can you offer clients a list of local dog/cat sitters who can feed their pets when they are away ? Do you know where the best place is for them to leave their car when they are away for a short trip ? The more you solve the clients problems, especially the ones unrelated to selling them travel, the more likely they are to recommend you to their friends and family.

If you’re asking for referrals make sure you reassure people. One reason people don’t refer their friends and family to businesses is that they worry about the business under delivering, which of course reflects badly on them. Don’t just say “if you’ve enjoyed our service please tell your friends about us”, provide some reassurance that if they do refer people these new clients will be well taken care of.  ”If you’ve enjoyed our service please tell your friends about us. We want to give your friends and family the best service we can so make sure they tell us you referred them!”.

It’s all about smoothing out the wrinkles. There are hundreds of interaction points where a client or potential client can decide to stop, turn around and go elsewhere. There are hundreds of little wrinkles in the process of dealing with your agency that make things a little bit harder for your clients. Every time you can identify and remove one of these wrinkles your business become a little bit more efficient at turning prospects into clients.

There are some process wrinkles that we are all aware of, and should have already addressed :

  • Are your contact details easy to find on your website ?
  • Are your opening hours clearly displayed on your shop front so that passers by know when they can visit ?
  • Are your staff greeting people with a smile soon after they step into your premises ?

Once you have removed all of the obvious defects in your business interactions it’s time to look more closely for some of the more subtle wrinkles that may be deterring clients. It’s very difficult to put yourself in the shoes of a client who has just walked in to your agency because you are so intimately familiar with it but if you can do that and walk through the process as they would you will find lots of moments of uncertainty that you need to remove.

Every time a potential client is uncertain or is forced to make a decision is a moment when they may turn away.

For you ideal client dealing with your business should be as smooth a process as possible, from the moment they find your website or pass your shop front to the moment they make their final payment for their travel.

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September 4, 2010 | Sam Howley | No Comments »

Should you be recording where your customers heard about your business ?


“One of the most common remarks I hear from Business is that ‘I tried advertising and it didn’t work’. My response to this is always the same – how do you know it didn’t work ?
…
The only way to really determine where your customers have heard about you is to ask them. people are happy to answer this question, in fact most are
quite impressed that you care enough to ask.”

Andrew Griffiths,  101 Ways to Market Your Business


“The easy place to start is to simply ask customers where they heard about you. This lets you track which channel of advertising reached them. Over time, this information will tell you the ROI on your advertising, so you can focus your spending.”

Ed Erickson – Thrive Strategy,

Small Business Success – Being in the right place at the right time


“Find out where the sales are coming from. If you’re a mom and pop retail shop, ask your customers where they heard about you. Keep a tally of what percentage are coming in through social media.”

Rob Laughter,

3 Ways Small Businesses can Measure Social Media ROI and PROVE results


“The difference between a good and a great business is that the great businesses know where their customers are coming from.”

Judi Jamieson, Advertising Saleswoman


“The simplest way to log the effectiveness of an advert is to just ask customers where they heard about you.”

BizHelp24,
Marketing Help 24 – Measuring Advertising Results


“Don’t forget to ask your customers where they heard about you. But if you’re going to measure advertising effectivness, do it carefully and systematically.”

ExplainThatStuff DIY Advertising,
www.explainthatstuff.com – Measure the effectiveness of your advertising


“An even easier way to gauge the effectiveness of your promotion is simply to ask your clients where they heard about you. It’s a very natural question to pose during the course of an enquiry or sale and most clients will be more than willing to tell you.”

www.business.qld.gov.au,  Smart Skills – The State of Queensland (Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation )


“There is little point in spending money on marketing unless you are able to tell if it has worked. Ask customers where they heard about you, keep records and results and you will know whether it is worth repeating or not. Make your advertising work for you, by using coupons or promotional codes. Awareness advertising is the remit of the ?big boys?. Small businesses need to see a return.”

thisisspain.info,  Mallorca Marketing

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August 26, 2010 | Sam Howley | No Comments »

Twitter / Facebook Saves a Restaurant

An interesting mini-article about how a a failing restaurant used Twitter and Facebook to make a comeback.

http://thinksync.com.au/blog/social-media/social-media-saves-restaurant

The original news report is here :

http://www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2010/july/119291/Owner-credits-Facebook-with-saving-his-restaurant

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August 8, 2010 | Sam Howley | 1 Comment »

Making Effective Flyers – A Case Study

The Flyers Back-story

A long time back, when CustomerCradle was a desktop application, not a website, we came up with some flyers to distribute to local businesses to try and drum up some customers.

It actually turned out that the flyers were a great help and had a much higher ROI than the web advertising we had been doing, but not in the way we had expected.

We distributed 150 flyers by creeping around an industrial estate late at night sliding them under the doors of businesses that looked like they could use CustomerCradle.   (I have a funny story about accidentally setting off an alarm at a gun shop, but I’ll leave that for another time).

Well a 2-3% response rate is considered pretty good for flyers, what did we get ?  We got one response.  One person took the time to email us because of the flyer.  Sounds like a pretty weak response.

That one person loved CustomerCradle however, they used it, they recommended it to a friend, they sent out an email to 15 other business owners associated with the same franchise telling them about CustomerCradle and they introduced us to a bookkeeper who was interested in becoming an affiliate / partner / reseller.

As a startup business trying to get feedback and the first few customers that kind of response was really motivating.

Flyer Version 1.0

The first version of the poster

How can we improve this flyer ?

Some of the improvements we made to this flyer before distribution included :

  • A better use of space to focus attention
  • Making the ‘call to action’, the next step we want the viewer to take, more clear
  • Removing confusing jargon

Flyer Version 2.0

Flyer Version 2.0

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| Sam Howley | No Comments »

The heart of it all : Art & Copy

Art & Copy is a beautiful documentary that illustrates the explosion in creativity that has been seen in the american advertising industry since the 1960s.

The film consists of interviews with aging advertising gurus. They recount how they got started in the stiff unimaginative 50s and 60s and how they broke free and created an industry where every new campaign deserves a new idea.

Highlights include the story of the making of Apple’s iconic 1984 ad.
Steve Jobs was the dream client declaring “Go do me an ad that doesn’t look like anything anyone has ever done before”.

The Apple board was less impressed with the completed symbolic ad that was to be screened a single time during the Superbowl, declaring

“This is stupid, the whole company is riding on this computer and you’re going to spend all this money on an ad that doesn’t even show it ?”

Acording the documentary Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were prepared to personally fund the ad.

There are many other groundbreaking ad campaigns covered, such as the genesis of Nike ‘Just Do It’,  ’Where’s the beef’ and ‘I want my MTV’.

What did I take away from the film ?

Be brave. At one point George Lois, whose straight talking ways are the star of the film, recounts how he told a young designer called Tommy Hilfiger that he had a choice between running an edgy arrogant ad campaign or spending tens of millions of dollars over decades, the impact would be the same. “I can make Tommy Hilfiger famous and an important brand”, looks at watch, “in a couple of hours”.

Be Big.  At one point an ad man mused that the advertising industry had taught their clients about their products just as much as the other way around.  Referring to a pet food company he said  “We taught them they didn’t have to just feed dogs, they could love dogs”.

Be cocky and committed. It’s somewhat trendy to see advertising as a scourge of modern life.  There was very little doubt or apology in the film, these bright creative people talked about their work with passion and purpose.

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August 3, 2010 | Sam Howley | 1 Comment »