Counter-Intuitive Marketing Principles That'll Surprise You
Mobile media is going to be even bigger than social. You heard it here first. With that in mind, I thought I'd share some thoughts on Quick Response codes (QR codes). QR codes are the two-dimensional codes that can be scanned by a smartphone to pull up text, photos, videos, music and URLs.
Here are the top 4 ways you can use QR codes for your business:
On business cards: It's a great way to allow people do download your information directly from your business card. (It also says, "I'm on the cutting-edge of marketing" without really having to say that.)
On marketing materials: You have brochures, programs, handouts and white papers. Add a QR code to them and you'll be able to direct people to additional content on your website.
In-store: Do you have posters or point-of-purchase materials in-store? Add a QR code for greater interactivity and engagement.
Front-of-store: Just put a QR code on your storefront window. Provide an instant 10% discount to people who scan it into their phones. Watch your foot traffic spike.
8 Counter-Intuitive Marketing Principles
One of the smartest sayings in marketing is this:
Consumers aren’t in need of 1/4 inch drill bits. They’re in need of 1/4 inch holes.
It highlights one of the great truths in marketing — that you should spend more time studying your consumer than studying your product.
If you get inside the mind of your consumer, you can understand what it is they’re really buying. And once you’ve done that, you’re home free.
To drive home this point, take this simple test:
People who buy Porsches buy them because:
1.They have 4 valves per cylinder
2.They have longitudinal engine alignment
3.They have a 9:1 compression ratio
4.They make the owner feel sexy
The answer, of course, is number 4. The people at Porsche understand this. Which is why they sell so many Porsches every year.
So, what are the timeless truths about marketing that every marketing director should know? With that in mind, here’s what I’ve come up with:
1. There are only 4 reasons people will buy your product/service. They are 1) price 2) service 3) quality 4) exclusivity or some combination of those concepts. Everything else is just a variation of those themes.
2. Don’t do research on people who buy your product or service. Do research on the people who have considered your product/service, then gone elsewhere. That’s where you’ll find gold.
3. Your #1 job isn’t to take care of your existing customers. Instead, your #1 job is to acquire new customers. Oh, sure, taking care of existing customers is a very close second. But your #1 job is to get new customers. Otherwise, you’ll be out of business in about 4 to 6 years. Do the math. Seriously. You’ll find it’s true.
4. The best time to increase customer loyalty is when a customer is pissed off at you. This is also counter-intuitive, and it’s also true. If you can take an existing customer who is about to leave and convert them to a happy, fulfilled customer, they’ll often become your biggest advocates.
5. Don’t compare your company to other companies in your industry. The trick is to compare your company to best-in-class companies in other industries. That’s where you’ll find the new, innovative and growth-producing ideas that make the cash register ring.
6. You’ll learn more from your failures than you will from your successes. People spend their careers trying not to fail. But if you aren’t failing, it means you’re not trying new things. Remember, Steve Jobs failed at Apple plenty of times before coming back and kicking ass.
7. The most important order you’ll ever get is the second order. This is a classic principle first mentioned by Bob Stone, the direct marketing guru. Why is the most important order the second one? Because a two-time buyer is at least twice as likely to buy again as a one-time buyer. Treat your second time buyers like royalty. Because they are.
8. All the research in the world won’t teach you as much as transactional data. Transactional data is the information from people who have actually purchased your product or service. You’d be amazed at how deep it can go. BKV Digital and Direct Response once studied 400 different data points about each one of their client’s customers. 400 pieces of information about each customer! Imagine the impact you can have on your sales when you can go 400 data points deep on your customers.
Why TV Advertising is a Big, Fat Waste of Money
Most of us grew up in an era where marketing was a one-way form of communication. The idea was to broadcast a television commercial to millions of viewers and shout loudly enough that they stopped what they were doing and took notice of your ad.
The consumer behavior model this technique followed was called AIDA. It was developed in the 1960s and it stood for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
The idea was that if your television commercial stood out and got enough attention then that would drive a certain percentage of the people to have interest. Of those, a certain percentage would have desire and a subset of that group would eventually take action.
The good news was that, back in the 1960s, you could run 1 television commercial during prime time on 3 different channels and reach 85% of the viewing audience. (For perspective on this, today, you’d have to run the commercial more than 125 times to reach 85% of the viewing audience.)
Despite television’s ability to reach massive numbers of people, it was still a highly-inefficient form of communication. For example, let’s say you were advertising something that was targeted just to men — men’s shoes. Automatically, right out of the gate, 50% of the people watching your commercial weren’t interested in what you were selling. So before you even sold a single shoe, 50% of your marketing efforts were wasted.
But wait, it gets even worse. Of the 50% of the people who might be viable candidates for your shoes, you could imagine that half of those were either in the bathroom taking a pee or in the fridge looking for that last cold beer.
So now, only 25% of the people watching your commercial are actually watching your commercial. That’s 75% inefficiency!
And it gets worse still!
Of the 25% who are actually sitting in front of the boob tube, maybe half of those just bought new shoes in the past 4 months. So now, only 12.5% of the people are actually active candidates for your shoes.
And of those 12.5%, maybe half of those don’t like your brand of shoe!
So suddenly, you realize that you paid for 100% of the viewing audience, but only 6.25% are actually watching your commercial and might be interested in buying your shoes.
What a horrible, horrible waste of money.
Oddly enough, for more than 50 years, this model worked. How? Because marketers built those kind of inefficiencies into their ROI models and everything came out in the wash.
But those days are over.
How many of you reading this post could go into your CFO and say that 93.5% of your advertising budget was going to be wasted on inefficiencies and mis-targeted ads? If you tried that, you’d probably lose your job.
The good news in all this is that there is hope. There are plenty of ways you, as a marketer, can gain efficiencies with your marketing. Better still, TV isn’t a complete waste of time. In fact, if you read this article on the 60 Second Marketer site about how to use television to efficiently generate sales, you’ll find plenty of good ideas and advice on getting the most bang out of your television buck.
The Bottom Line is that t
he days of being able to run a television commercial and watch the cash register ring are over, unless you know some of the new ways to gain efficiency with television advertising. In the meantime, you can focus on other marketing tools like paid search, SEO, Email marketing, direct response marketing and social media to drive sales and revenue.
What’s the Difference Between Quantitative and Qualitative Research?
The differences between these two forms of research is probably a question many people have, but have not had the time to track down the answer.
As it stands, understanding the differences between the two are important, especially if you’re a marketer. For example, if you’re interested in taking a dive into the emotions behind your consumer’s purchase behavior, you’d most often want to use Qualitative research (but not always).
On the other hand, if you wanted to get statistical data on consumer preferences, you’d want to use Quantitative research.
How to Make Money with Social Media
If you’re like many marketing directors, learning how to drive revenue with social media may the the #1 thing on your mind.
Surprisingly, many companies think of social media strictly as a branding tool. That is, they use it simply to build awareness for their brand rather than using it as a way to specifically drive revenue.
But using social media simply as a branding tool is 20th century thinking. A more sophisticated approach is to use it for a multitude of purposes, some that specifically make the cash register ring.
Here are the 5 most common social media business models. Which ones would work best for your company?
Research: You can also use social media as a way to keep tabs on customer sentiments about your brand. One way to do that is to use a company like RapLeaf to analyze what people are saying about your brand online. Another way to do that is to launch a website like MyStarbucksIdea.com that asks customers to vote, discuss, share or see ideas from the Starbucks community.
Branding: Social media can also be used as a branding tool to build awareness and interest in your product or services. That’s what Toyota has done with this funny, light-hearted YouTube campaign promoting the Toyota Sienna.
Customer Retention: If it costs 3 to 5 times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing one, wouldn’t it be smart to use social media to to keep customers satisfied? That’s what Comcast has done with their ComcastCares Twitter page. Go Frank!
Lead Generation: Some companies can’t sell their products or services online. For those, you can use the lead generation model outlined in the graphic on this site. With this model, you’d drive people to a landing page on your site that captures lead information from your prospects. Once you’ve done that, you can re-market to the most qualified prospects and convert them to customers. (For an example of a lead generation capture form, check out the one we have for BKV Digital and Direct Response.)
E-Commerce: If you can sell your product or service online, then your #1 goal for your social media campaign should be to drive prospects to a landing page on your website. That’s what DellOutlet does. They make special offers to their 1.5 million followers and drive those followers through to Twitter-specific landing pages on their site. Research indicates they’ve generated in excess of $5 million in revenue this way.
The Bottom Line is that t
here are some very smart, very authoritative social media experts who claim that social media isn’t measurable. Quite frankly, they don’t don’t what they’re talking about. Social media is very measurable. Better still, if you set up your social media campaign properly, you can use social media to drive revenue. And isn’t driving revenue what it’s all about?
Email Marketing
According to ConstantContact, the email click-through rate is the percentage of click-throughs (Click-Through Rate - CTR) for a particular email based on the number of contacts who actually opened the email. A common click-through rate is around 4% of those emails opened. The click-through distribution total is merely the total of all clicks for that campaign – which is always 100%.
Email click-through rates vary widely based on industry, email content, contact list quality, timing and many other factors. The email industry overall reports average click through rates around 6% of emails opened. Constant Contact customers see average click through rates ranging from 7% to 27%
Example:
Open Rate (OR) and Click-Through Rate (CTR).
In a recent email campaign the results where OR = 22% and CTR = 11%.
With total emails of (say) 100, then 22 people opened their emails. If 11% of them then clicked-through then the actual number who did so = 2.4 people.
Six Ways to Improve Online B2B Lead Generation
If you sell B2B, your website must be more than an electronic brochure. Here are six ways to improve how your website can generate business.
People see your home page more than any other site or marketing materials, so make sure it grabs their attention with useful information that pulls them in and is segmented by the markets or industries you serve. Graphics that take up most of the page are pretty but do little to improve conversion. Also, ditch the cute Flash opening (unless of course you’re in the Flash business.).
2. Use a conversational tone in your web copy.
It should read like you’re sitting across the table from someone and talking about your company. Discuss how you help clients make money or save money and the results you’ve achieved. Have content that speak to prospects at every stage of the sales cycle. At the beginning that means establishing credibility and trust, and holding off on specific solutions until further into the funnel. And use a copywriter for customer-facing communications.
3. Have content that is speaks to each target market.
If you sell the same product or service into more than one market, you need content that is unique to that market. Why? Because you want to show you understand each market and its unique needs and challenges. This means you’ll need to organize your web site by customer type so prospects can easily find what you recommend based on their company size, vertical or other differentiator. Use phrasing unique to each market you serve.
4. Update your website regularly.
Prospects don’t want to see press releases from 2007, or announcements for past webinars. Keep things current, and keep things relevant to your target markets. You can maintain your own website by using a content management system (CMS).
5. Have a compelling call to action on every page of the web site.
Give people a reason to begin the sales conversation with you by having a compelling call to action on every page. The call to action will be specific to the offering they’re reading about and could be a white paper (of 5-7 pages), webinar or other useful information they’ll trade their contact information for.
6. Use short online contact forms
Long, detailed contact forms deter people. All you need from them is their name, company, phone and email. You can get other information as the relationship develops. And since you’re not simply calling everyone who gives his/her info (it’s too soon in the sales cycle), have a checkbox if immediate contact is desired (as opposed to just signing up for a newsletter or white paper).
Ways to Promote Your Business on the Web
- Use YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, My Space, and Twitter
- Use Videos. Create a YouTube Channel and include a viral video, like a funny office Video.
- Send a message to a prospect via video on Facebook.
- Provide useful Tweets on a regular (daily) basis.
- Get prospects engaged with "treasure hunts" by placing code words in your Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and your website. The first customer prospect to collect all of them wins the price.
- Do appropriate comments on other people’s blogs, but provide useful information.
- Do webinars with tips on your field of expertise at least once a month. Avoid over-selling your product or service.
- Conduct primary researches that your customers/prospects would find interesting, or a short eBook, and offer it for free – provided they supply their name, company and email address.
- Create a free online magazine.
Other Ways to Promote Your Business:
- Create a referral program. Establish your average customer lifetime value, and give a gift certificate of 10% that value every time you close a new a customer.
- Start an eNewsletter that provides tips and techniques on your field of expertise.
- Hold open houses at your office.
- Throw a party for your suppliers.
- Donate to a charitable cause on behalf of your customers or clients and let them know.
- Stickers are not expensive these days. Buy a products (i.e. bottle of wine), take the original label off, and put a new one on with your company logo on it. Give it to a high-value customers or prospect.
- Write articles for a magazines, blog, forums.
- Write a press release each week for at least 8 weeks in a row. Make it relevant and helpful.
- Give away a week’s stay at a lake/beach house as part of an online promotion on your website for your best customers.
- Invite your biggest customer out to lunch.
- Have "happy hours" and promote them on you blog, and make it available on Mobile phones.
- Call in to a radio station talk show. Mention your company name – gracefully.
- Network at any event you assist, and instruct your associates to do the same.
- Find crazy ways to promote your URL.
- Brainstorm all the time, specially when your are in the shower.
Using Advertising Media More Effectively
How To Pick The Best Media
What advertising media should you use to promote your business? Simple. Use the one that is most influential and believable, and that comprehensively reaches the highest percentage of your target audience for the lowest cost. Is that easy? No.
There are many advertising media options for reaching your target audience. This chapter covers the relative strengths and weaknesses of different types of advertising media, and specifically explains how to choose the most effective printed advertising media.
Pick An Advertising Media Category
The first decision to make is what category or combination of categories of advertising media to use [newspaper, magazine, radio, direct mail, television, telemarketing, direct sales, yellow pages, outdoor, etc.] Note that I did not say that the first decision was what the company could afford. It is a fundamental mistake to buy any advertising media that you can’t afford to use effectively, or that will not generate the volume of sales you need to stay in business. Many companies decide what advertising media to use too fast, and they base the decision on too little information. Don’t make assumptions about what you should do until you get some information. And you absolutely do not want to make media decisions based on what media sales rep knocks on your door.
A clearly defined set of goals for your advertising campaign will help you to choose the best advertising media available. Know what you want your advertising to do, so that you can measure the results and make decisions accordingly. A realistic budget should indicate which advertising media could be effectively used for your campaign. And understanding the relative strengths and weaknesses between the different advertising media will help you to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.
Advertising Media Strengths & Weaknesses
Very broadly, different advertising media are better at doing different things. Depending on your type of business and your target audience, one advertising media will be better than another for effectively conveying your message. For example, photo reproduction quality may be critical to your products. Or information content might be critical. Having a personal conversation may be important. Offering a coupon or a sale price may be the key to success. Timing may be critical. Receiving information from an expected and credible source is hugely important.
Newspapers As An Advertising Media
Pros
- Newspapers get 21.5% of all U.S. advertising expenditures.
- Newspaper ads rank highest for believability for all media.
- High local coverage and immediate [daily] delivery of your message.
- Excellent mass media [almost everybody reads the newspaper].
- An interactive medium [people hold it, save it, write on it, cut coupons, etc.].
- Flexibility in production: low cost, fast turnaround, ad shapes, size, excellent quality for inserts.
- Special targeted sections and shopping guides.
- Extraordinarily high Sunday readership.
Cons
- Very busy/cluttered competitive environment [must compete against other ads and the newspaper copy].
- Little control over ad placement.
- Low production quality.
- Hard to target your specific audience.
- Short life span [24 hours].
Radio As An Advertising Media
Pros
- Radio gets 8% of all U.S. advertising expenditures.
- Immediate delivery of message and high frequency of message [you can repeat several times per day].
- Local audience. Selectivity by format. High availability.
- Low cost per thousand [CPM] exposures.
- Low cost production.
- Reach an exclusive and captive [mobile] audience.
Cons
- Limited to audio message.
- High channel switching.
- Your message expires immediately [no shelf life].
- High advertising clutter.
Television As An Advertising Media
Pros
- Broadcast and cable television combined get 23.4% of all U.S. advertising expenditures.
- Immediate delivery of message and high frequency of message [you can repeat several times per day].
- Very high impact – TV is the best for stimulating the senses.
- High mass audience coverage, high prestige.
- Low cost per thousand [CPM] exposures.
- Local regional emphasis, cable audience availability, some audience selectivity.
Cons
- Very high costs of production and airtime.
- Limited audience selectivity.
- Your message expires immediately [no shelf life].
- High advertising clutter.
- High channel switching.
Direct Mail As An Advertising Media
Pros
- Direct mail gets 19.2% of all U.S. advertising expenditures.
- Highest response rate of all media.
- Highest level of selectivity of all media.
- High quality control.
- A measurable media for cost and response. Easy to test.
- High personalization.
- Creative flexibility.
- Long life span.
- No advertising clutter [once they open your piece].
Cons
- Highest cost per exposure.
- Over-saturation of market - people get a lot of mail.
- Negative connotations about buying through the mail.
- Negative connotations about “junk mail”.
Magazines As An Advertising Media
Pros
- Magazines get 5.3% of all U.S. advertising expenditures.
- Excellent photo reproduction in full color.
- Long shelf life with high pass-along readership.
- High readership rates and reader loyalty.
- High ability to select audience.
- Regional editions for a more local audience.
- Proven selling power. High prestige.
Cons
- Long lead times. Unable to deliver your message immediately.
- High CPM for mass audience advertising.
- Heavy advertising clutter - often half of a magazine is advertising.
- Poor local coverage.
- Can’t deliver your message with a high frequency.
Outdoor As An Advertising Media
Pros
- Outdoor get less than 1% of U.S. advertising expenditures.
- Highest reach of all media.
- Lowest CPM of all media.
- Neighborhood level selectivity.
- Very high frequency of reach.
- Potential high impact because of size.
- Some good location of message availability.
Cons
- Only very short, simple messages work.
- Some image problems with poor locations.
- Hard to measure results.
- High initial costs.
- Negative connotations about visual pollution.
Yellow Pages As An Advertising Media
Pros
- Yellow Pages get 5.9% of all U.S. advertising expenditures.
- Very high percentage of new buyers [over 50%].
- Very high percentage of active buyers [over 88%].
- Completes the marketing process by bringing customers in.
- Second highest media for believability.
- Reaches 76% of U.S. adults in the average month. [Available in almost every home and business.]
- Longest shelf life. Open 24 hours per day.
- A measurable media for cost and response. Easy to test.
Cons
- Highest advertising clutter [100% ads].
- High cost for competitive positioning.
- High CPM [but highest active buyers].
- More directories mean lower reach per directory.
- More headings mean lower reach per heading.
- You can only change your ad once per year.
Web As An Advertising Media
Pros
- Target audience can be provided with a simulated experience.
- Can use the medium’s multi-media capabilities to take customers through a review of product features.
- Use the medium’s computing capabilities to demonstrate product benefits.
- Can use the medium’s interactivity to answer queries on how offerings can be customised.
- Let users sample clips, games, and music.
Cons
- Surfers who are on the net for a specific purpose may ignore your ads.
- Surfers may notice your ads but choose not to click.
- Low-net penetration of your target markets. This will push up cost per contact.
- There is a limited media choice as not all Indian sites maintain user data-bases.
- There is an absence of sufficient research on the effectiveness of Web ads.
How can advertisers use the space on the web?
- Banners either on top or the bottom of the page. These banners could be plain, or click-throughs, connecting to the company site.
- Pop-up screens, or insterstitials, which will appear when the surfer performs a certain operation or opens a particular landing page.
- Tailor contests and promotions exclusively for the Net, where users can log on, fill in an on-line entry form, and just click to submit.
- Create discount coupons or forms that users can download from the site, and redeem at the nearest brick and mortar outlet.
- Build customer relationships by using e-mail to send newsletters about product upgrades, sales, and other corporate developments.
- Leverage their on-line brand to forge co-branding deals with high-traffic sites that attract audiences similar to their own target audience.
- Create an on-line community around a subject that is relevant to the product’s core benefit either on the corporate site or elsewhere.
- Attract surfers to their site by registering with search-engines, and picking key-words about the product’s core benefit.
Effective Reach/Frequency In Print Advertising Media
Effective Reach is the total number of different households or individuals that see your ad enough times to be aware of your message during a specified time period [normally four weeks].
Effective Frequency is the number of times a household or an individual needs to be exposed to your message to notice and understand it.
Understanding and estimating what effective frequency you need to achieve to get your message through is very important. After all, if you pull or change your ads before your customers get the message, you will be wasting your advertising budget. Traditional guidelines for print advertising suggest that you give your prospects at least four viewings within a four week time period to achieve an effective frequency rate. But if you are a small, local advertiser, you will be playing the game a little differently.
There is nothing wrong with the traditional guidelines, but if you are running your ad only once a week, about the best exposure rate you can hope for is three viewings in four weeks. So for your print ads, you want to take a slightly different approach to achieving an effective frequency rate. You want to aim to get five to eight customer viewings of your ad over a longer time period. You can achieve an effective frequency rate, and make sure that people see and understand your ad, by letting it run for a longer time period.
So, how long should you run your ad, and when should you change it?
If you are running a 1/16th page ad, you probably want to let the same ad run for a long time [indefinitely]. If you want to make special offers with a 1/16th page ad, then you probably want to let each special offer run for at least a month to make sure that people see it.
This is about the effective frequency that your 1/16th page ad will achieve. Here is a rough estimate of what happens in the real world when people read the newspaper: If you ran a full-page ad one time, you would get about 75% of the people to notice it. A half page would get you 50% of the people. A quarter page ad would get you 30% of the people. An eighth page ad would get you 15%. A sixteenth page ad would get you 8% or so. Thus, your 1/16th page ad would be seen by only 8 – 10% of the people each time it runs. If people need to see your ad four times, that means you need to run your ad every week for forty weeks to get all of the readers to notice it four times. If you were running a quarter-page ad, you would accomplish the same thing in about ten weeks' time.
So by the traditional definition of effective frequency [four viewings in four weeks], you would never get there. Instead, you have accomplished your goal through sheer determination. You have kept your ad running long enough to get noticed. That’s why persistence, budgeting, and patience are so important in newspaper advertising. You have to be prepared to stick it out long term to get the results you want.
But 40 weeks?
A lot depends on what you are selling. If you are selling products that people are interested in [like diet products or newly released music], you may only need to show your ad a couple of times to get your message through. If you are selling complicated or expensive services, you will have to run your ad longer. If you are a consistent advertiser, people will notice and understand your ad much faster – often with only a single viewing. People will also know to reference your ad when they are ready to buy what you are selling.
Also note that in the newspaper [and in all print media], your audience will build very fast. In other words, you are likely to get the majority of the audience to see your ad within the first few weeks.
This has implications for your promotion strategy. If you are running larger ads [1/4 page] with special savings offers, you will need to change your promotion on a regular basis [probably every few weeks] to keep it fresh. But your main strategy should be to have your ad there when the people are ready to buy what you are selling. Being a consistent advertiser will insure that people will see your ad when they are ready to buy. So maybe running the same ad for 40 weeks is not the answer - you may want to run it forever.
Effective frequency also should be considered in your other marketing activities. If a hot prospect asks for a brochure, then you probably want to send it to them – twice. Then you want to send them two follow up post cards, and maybe give them a call. You need to achieve an effective frequency with all of your marketing materials.
The golden rule for running your ad is to pull it when response declines. No matter the theory or the plan, you need to get rid of ads that don’t work.
Pick Your Newspaper: Comparing Print Advertising Media
1. What are the demographics the newspaper or magazine is offering? The publisher will send you a complete description of their market. How well is your specific target group represented? Compare different local media against each other for better coverage of your market. It’s well worth the effort.
2. What media will allow you to best target your trade area? Does the small community newspaper cover your trade area better than a larger regional paper? Does the small, local phone book do a better job? Local papers are inexpensive to advertise in, and they are well read. Remember - any advertising outside of your trade area is completely wasted. And don’t forget that the regional paper can sell you advertising that only appears in your local market. It costs a little more per person reached, but you are reaching the right people.
3. What is the cost per thousand impressions [CPM] for your specific target audience for each newspaper or magazine?In the simplest example, if two newspapers are charging the same amount for an ad space, and one paper delivers twice as many people in your target audience, then your cost per thousand is half what it is in the other paper.
And what discounts are being offered? If you are going to be a long-term advertiser, the paper should have a discounted rate for you. But don’t forget – advertising will only work if it convincingly reaches your target audience. Price is not the most important consideration when you buy media.
4. Don’t assume that one newspaper is better than another. For example, morning papers tend to have a wider geographic circulation, and are read by more men. Evening papers have a higher female audience. Which hits your target group better?
A morning paper can get you sales in the afternoon. An evening paper might be used to get a family to talk and think about a purchase the following day. What fits your needs? Talk to your customers, and ask them what they read and why. Ask them if they read each newspaper by name, and how often they read it. Ask if they are subscribers, and ask how many other people in the house [and in your target audience] read the paper.
Make each newspaper send you their demographic information [in writing – not verbally from the salesperson]. Tell them exactly who your target audience is, and ask how they specifically target that audience. Each newspaper has special sections, issues, and coverage that are designed to appeal to specific target audiences. What do they have for your target audience? Remember, the most important thing is whether or not the paper is being read by your target group. A large, regional paper may have a huge subscriber base of people that only lightly read the paper [except on Sunday when they read it thoroughly]. A local, weekly paper focusing on your specific neighborhood may get read cover to cover, every time. Ask your customers.
5. What environment does the paper provide? Is the paper well liked and believable? Has it taken an editorial position [like endorsed a political candidate or a controversial measure] that has alienated your target audience? [Their alienation may naturally be extended beyond just the paper to all of the advertisers in the paper]. Is the paper seen as an authority on issues related to your business? Do you need to associate yourself with the most authoritative or prestigious paper or magazine you can? If you need the prestige, then pay for it. Don’t waste your money advertising in the wrong place. It is true that often the media is the message.
6. You normally want to advertise in the same newspaper as your competition is advertising in. That is probably where most of your clients are looking for information. Sometimes this goes against some of the other strategies for picking the best paper to run your ad in. If you can, run ads in different papers for six to eight weeks [with coupons or offers coded to tell you where the ad ran], and see which works better. The longer you run your test, the better. Testing is the key to effective advertising.
7. It is normally a good strategy to spend your advertising budget where your current customers are coming from. Certainly you can try new media outlets for getting new customers, but it is normally more expensive to get new customers from new media than it is to get new customers from your regular media. As always, go slow, and test.
8. There is also advertising theory to consider when you decide on what newspaper or magazine to choose. The recency theory of advertising states that you want to reach as many people as you can as close to the time that they are going to make a purchase as possible.
This means that you want them to receive your advertisement in the Saturday morning newspaper for their Saturday afternoon shopping. To best take advantage of this timing, you may have to change what newspaper you are advertising in. As always, testing is the way to find out.
9. The position your ad gets in the paper is very important. A quarter-page ad that falls on the fold of the paper will only get 50% of the readership that a quarter-page ad in the upper right hand corner will get. Bad positioning just lost you half of your customers.
What is the paper offering? Run of press [ROP] positioning means that the publisher is free to place your ad anywhere in the normal pages of the paper.
With a preferred position, your ad goes in a specific section, or near the top of a page that has reading matter on it. A near reading [NR] position is placement anywhere on a page near reading matter. You want your ad to be on a page where people spend time reading. The longer they stay on the page with your ad the better. You normally will pay a premium of 10% - 50% for good position, but it’s probably worth it.
What deal is the newspaper offering? Good positioning could double or even triple response. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples when you compare different papers or magazines and what they are offering. And don’t forget that people look at different parts of the newspaper to get different information. Ever notice how ads selling the same things are grouped together? If you place your ad in the wrong location in the paper, your customer will miss it. If you place it on the wrong day of the week, your customer will miss it. Make sure your ad runs at the right time and in the right place.
10. The Rate Base is the real number of copies of a newspaper or magazine that get printed and sold. Readership is the average number of readers per copy sold. The readership number reflects the pass-along rate of the newspaper. It’s important to understand actual readership rates when comparing one paper against another. And the rate base is important because just printing a newspaper doesn’t mean that people are actually reading it. Would a publisher do that – print more copies than people buy or read to boost circulation figures? No. Publishers don’t play those games.
But let’s just say that many of the newspapers that get printed never get read. And let’s just say that publishers make money on the advertising, not on the subscription money they get. And if a newspaper doesn’t get read, then it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on. [Never use clichés in advertising!]. Just be careful. Talk to your customers about what they read, and listen.
11. One more note here. Media sales reps have lots of terminology and a lot of facts and figures. In fact, they know their market very well. But a bunch of advertising talk about brand awareness and ad awareness and attitude and purchase intent doesn’t matter. It’s sales that matter. Make the media reps prove that they are better than the next guy. Pick the credible media that delivers your specific target audience at the best price.
Using Advertising Media In Combination
Large advertisers almost always use a combination of different media to promote their products. This strategy makes sense for a number of reasons, but mainly because it is cost effective. So, is this a good idea for a small, local business? The answer is a resounding YES, but on a slightly different scale. You certainly want to maximize your marketing through coordination. Let’s take a look at how your advertising reach is increased when you use different media in combination.
Consider the percentage of people in your total target audience that you reach when you advertise in the newspaper. Here is a good example of what is going on in the real world: With a newspaper ad you reach 25% of your total target group. Add a yellow page ad, and you reach an additional 18% of the people. Add a direct mail piece, and you reach an additional 19% of the people. Add television advertising, and you reach an additional 15% of the people. Add radio, and you reach an additional 8% of the people.
By using multiple media outlets you have reached more of your target audience with your marketing and advertising. You have also reached them multiple times because they get messages from different places. Your messages reinforce each other. The result is an overall higher response at a lower cost. You have created synergy with your marketing and advertising. It works because different people pay more attention to [and have more faith in] different types of media. When seriously reviewing ads for a product, about 25% of people review and trust the newspaper. 18% consider direct mail, 21% the yellow pages, 8% television, 4% radio, and 4% magazines.
The numbers in our examples are only an approximation of what really happens in the marketplace, and they change according to product category. But it is clear that by using different kinds of media [like the yellow pages and direct mail together], or even different media outlets, [like multiple newspapers], you can and will reach more potential customers more effectively with your marketing and advertising. There is the matter of overlap between the different media to consider. You have to assume that the different media will duplicate your message with a percentage of your target audience beyond the effective frequency level required.
The way to calculate the overlap is to take the total expected reach of each media as a percentage, subtract each one from 1, and multiply them together. For example, if your newspaper ad achieves a 25% reach, and your yellow page ad achieves a 20% reach, then you get:
1 - .25 = .75
1 - .20 = .80
.75 x .80 = .06, or six-percent
You can safely assume that six percent of the people will have received your message from both the yellow pages and the newspaper. You have an overlap rate of six percent. Thus you have not reached 25% + 20% = 45% of the people. Instead, you have reached 25% + 20% - 6% = 39% of the people. You have to subtract out your overlap to understand how many people you reach when you use different media in combination. In any case, some overlap is not a bad thing for a local advertiser. What counts is that people understand that the different ads found in the different media are all coming from you. If you are using different media, make sure your ads are similar enough so that people know it’s you. That’s the way to get synergy in your advertising.
Choose Your Best Media
Each kind of media has advantages and disadvantages. How can you figure out what to do? Understand what kinds of media are available to you. Understand what they cost and whom they reach. Understand where your customers are looking for information. Test different ads and media, and measure the results. [And keep testing over time]. Your work will be richly rewarded. Don’t forget that the media you select has a great influence on your advertising effectiveness and believability. What is the difference between an ad in the newspaper and a flyer on your car? Effectiveness and believability. What is the difference between a column listing and a display ad in the yellow pages? The difference is effectiveness and believability. What is the difference between the smallest ad, and the biggest, most professional ad? A whole lot of customers.
