Marketing Comet - Small Business Marketing Secrets

Microsoft's New XNA Game Studio Express Offers Unique Oportunity

I have to say that I love the trend of democratization that technology is bringing. Anybody can put up a blog, a web page, video on YouTube, a MySpace profile. Any some stuff out there is actually quite good. Along with this comes new opportunities for small to medium businesses to promote themselves.

The key is content

Remember the old time radio and TV shows that were not only sponsored by, but produced by the advertisers? You might have the Camel cigarette variety hour, for example.

I believe that this trend is coming around again, as soon as businesses figure out how to capitalize.

Microsoft has announced the launch of its XNA Game Studio Express. For a license fee of $99, the tool will allow those with some programming experience to create and distribute their own rudimentary X-Box games. So what?

Well, imagine a smart small business that teams up with a local high school computer science lab. The small business provides the licenses and maybe some instruction, and the high-schoolers could compete in teams to create branded games to distribute. The prize could be a small scholarship, but the learning experience would be invaluable.

Now you have a game - developed at very low cost, and distributed on a popular game console. The game would carry the brand of the company and, if it's good, possibly bring global viral attention to your business.

This is a plan that is eminently achievable, and would undoubtedly generate secondary press for a company that handled it well.

With this new set of tools, Microsoft has promised that simple games could be developed in a matter of weeks not months. I am sure that other console makers will be soon to follow suit - if they know what's good for them.

In any kind of sponsored content endeavor it's really important to remember that if the content appears too much like an ad - it will not get nearly the attention that it should. Think product placement in movies.

I am excited about anything that gets people to think creatively. I think the XNA Game Studio Express may be a fantastic opportunity for some smart smaller businesses.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Multiple Levels of Advertising and Promotion

I bet you didn't know that there are multiple levels of advertising and promotion that correspond to intent and stage of business. Understanding these levels helps small businesses tailor their promotions and ads to the proper purpose thus making more money. Let's look a little closer...

Stage 1 - Awareness
Hey mom look at me! Cries the little child who wants attention. One of the biggest threats to small business is the fact that there may be thousands of people out there who need what they offer - but don't know they exist.

This stage works on the "if you build it they will come" principle. It's good if you don't have much competition, or if you are an established brand opening a new location.

This is the most basic form of advertising and it has its uses. Unfortunately most small businesses never move past this level.

Stage 2 - Gain Market Share
This is a very important stage of promotion an advertising. This is where you put your unique selling proposition out there so that people will choose you over a competitor. You have to be compelling in a way your competitors aren't.

Most advertising (even from a lot of the big guys) just doesn't go this far. Your job here is to compel action from the customer.

Stage 3 - Increase Consumption
Gaining new customers is very important, but what are you doing to bring your old customers back? What kind of advertising or promotional tactics will increase the frequency and the size of your average purchase.

Advertising to your current customers is not a waste of money. In fact your ROI is likely to be far higher than advertising to get new customers.

Think about ways to get customers to come back more frequently and spend more with you when they do. You can realize an exponential growth in sales if you get these two components down.

Stage 4 - Capitalize on Opportunity
This stage is where you use opportunities to increase sales. What kind of opportunities? How about holiday sales, long weekends, current events?

Be careful about using very bad news for promotion. Being seen as too mercenary can come back to haunt you. There were some companies that sold terrorist insurance after 911 - but I can't imagine any did well.

However, offering deals to offset rising gas prices or beat the heat of summer deals can be great was to promote all kinds of things.

You can boil these four stages down into finer points of distinction, but mastering just these basics will give you a head start for a more profitable future.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Should You Do Your Own Commercials

OK - this is going to get personal, so I apologize in advance. There are many people who appear in their own commercials, or speak in radio commercials, to promote their local business. Sometimes this is a good idea, most of the time it isn't.

First, remember that the goal of advertising is to bring you business. The decision to appear in ones own commercials is usually ego based. Why do I say that? Because no objective person would look at 90% of the local commercials I see and say, "I gotta have that!"

Let me tell that I have been on radio and television multiple times. I have also studied performance for television from one of the best in the business. I can tell you that delivering lines to a television or radio audience and compelling a sale is not that easy.

Yes, your friends will tell you how wonderful and witty your commercials are. Yes, when you look at your commercial you will think that you did a good job. However, connecting with an audience requires skill and a certain look.

I can't tell you how many poor girls that I have run across who have friends that tell them they should be a model because they are tall, pretty, and slim. Most of these girls will never get work because they don't photograph well. However, to an untrained eye, they are very pretty. Put their photograph next to a professional model and there's a clear difference.

I once went to a bridal wear shoot where the vendor was to provide the model. The vendor basically pulled a non-professional who she thought was pretty to do the shoot. The "model" required hours of retouching in photoshop, she didn't know how to pose, and there were only a few usable photos out of the whole shoot. It turned out OK, but the shoot was far more difficult, and less productive than it would have been with a pro.

Radio has its nuances as well. All you have is your voice. People can be turned off if you have any kind of accent other than what's termed "Neutral American English." Good radio announcers know how to project, speak clearly, and with resonance. They are trained experts, not just people with nice voices.

This is not to say that great fortunes haven't been made by people doing their own commercials. Sometimes business owners just have what it takes. Sometimes the offer is so compelling that the commercials succeed despite themselves.

There are certainly certain types of businesses where appearing on your own behalf works. Sometimes you are the brand. You may be a professional, or the only person who does what you do. Donald Trump is absolutely lousy on TV, but the guy has charisma and a few billion dollars, so people listen to him. Imagine a guy with no money who spoke and looked like Trump - with the bad wig and all. Would you trust that person?

If you're going the TV or radio route think long and hard about bringing in professional representation. Set the ego aside. If you are still insistent on doing your own work - get some training.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Using Advertising to Push Though Seasonal Lulls

It's 70 degrees and sunny in Boston today - just beautiful. Soon the magnolias along Beacon Street will bloom. It's my favorite time of year in the city.

I know that many businesses in the city dread summer because of the inevitable slow down. First, the city loses over a hundred thousand people when all the students leave on summer break. Second, there's a mass exodus of people to Cape Cod, Maine and the like.

Combined with the fact that Boston is actually losing population, and that can make for tricky business. This is especially true for those in retail businesses,

Many businesses, sensing the slowdown, reduce their marketing budget during this time. Many cease their advertising, or at least advertise less. The logic is that when business is slow more advertising isn't going to help. I believe this is a mistake.

Research shows that businesses that advertise consistently through economic slowdowns outpace their competitors during that time. Not only that, but when economic conditions improve, they do even better than their competition who were inconsistent.

Why is this so? Several reasons:

• People need multiple exposures to advertising to respond to it. If they see your ad for a while, and then it disappears, your business leaves their consciousness.
• When your competition stops advertising, but you keep it up, you stand to win customers that won't be aware that your competition even exists.
• By advertising consistently your brand will seem stronger. People will be more attracted to your business.
• Sometimes people just aren't ready to buy the first time they see your ad. By having it in front of them all the time, when they are ready - they are more likely to choose you.

Consistent action is the key to any marketing effort, and advertising is no exception.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Tickle Your Customer's Imagination For Powerful Advertising

The text read, "A half hour ago a pool of bloody chicken juice sat on this counter." The picture was of a boy (appearing to be about 4) grabbing a cookie from a pile sitting on a counter.

Gasp! It's enough to make any parent squirm.

The ad was for disinfectant wipes. In fact, it was probably the best ad I saw while flipping through Better Homes and Gardens in my doctor's office.

Would the ad have been more effective if it simply showed a picture of the product and said something like, "kills the germs on your countertop to keep your family safe"? I doubt it.

Many of the greatest ads in history act to stir the emotions of the buyer by stimulating the imagination. Remember that people make decisions emotionally first and then justify with logic.

A classic direct mail headline (from a piece that made millions of dollars) read: They all laughed when I sat down at the piano, and then I began to play. The ad sold a home-study piano course.

Both the bloody chicken-juice ad and the piano piece use emotional implication. The bloody chicken-juice ad implies that your children are in danger. The piano piece implies social acceptance.

The ads don't say something like: "play the piano and everybody will like you." It's too blunt and doesn't successfully get past the conscious filtering that says, "I don't need to play the piano to have people like me." Our conscious filters might also say, "for centuries people have cleaned counterops with soap and water and yet the human race has somehow survived."

These ads also cause us to create pictures in our heads. You can see the shy guy at the party sitting at the piano. You can imagine a pool of bloody chicken-juice. Holding these pictures in mind stimulates deep emotional desires that we might not even be conscious of.  The desires for social acceptance, and to protect one's children are basic human nature.

If you create your own advertising, it's always a good idea to begin with the customer in mind. That about which emotions and desires you can stimulate through your images and words.

Telling stories is a great way to work the human imagination.

Make that emotional connection and your advertising will become a customer magnet.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Superbowl Ads And Small Business Marketing

It wouldn't be the Monday after the Superbowl without the analysis of the $2 + million per spot commercials. I have to admit, I'm a sucker for Superbowl ads - especially the more cinematic or humorous advertisements.

A relevant question that none of the analysts seems to ask is - do Superbowl ads work? The answer is: that depends on what you mean by "work".

Do Superbowl Ads Generate Positive Cash Flow?

This question is tough to answer. If I spend $10 million on Superbowl advertising alone do I get a return of at least $10 million + $1? Probably not.

A few years back when venture capitalists were wheeling truckloads of money up to dot-coms, every new dot-com blew their money on pricey ads. Not one of them is still in business today. Pets.com is a prime example - they spent a tons of money on ads including at the Superbowl. They just couldn't sell enough dog food to stay in business.

Do Superbowl Ads Generate Buzz?

This is where expensive advertising such as this pays off. If an ad is good, people will talk about it, post it to web sites, parody it, and give it awards. A good ad will generate buzz and talk for a while.

Another nice thing about the Superbowl is that larger groups of families and friends gather to watch. This can help with word of mouth when people talk about the ads with friends and families.

One of the biggest advertisers on the Superbowl is Bud Light. They had some great ads last night too. Undoubtedly people will be talking about some of their advertising over the next couple of weeks.

If they hadn't advertised on the Superbowl, would it have a negatively impacted their business? It's hard to know for sure. Their Superbowl ads are part of their larger overall marketing which includes comprehensive year-round multi-channel marketing.

One of the secrets of Superbowl advertising is that it's not just about selling beer to individual consumers. Having an ad on the Superbowl also makes Bud Light look like a big deal to its distributors, restaurateurs, liquor store owners, and their own employees. It's as much public relations as it is simple advertising.

What Can Small Businesses Like Yours Learn?

Here are a few of the lessons we can derive from Superbowl advertising:

• Smart businesses market across multiple channels all year round.
• Advertising that's simply cute or funny without developing word of mouth, or customer demand is a waste of your money.
• PR and branding are extremely important aspects of marketing.
• One of marketing's main jobs is to build consumer confidence.
• Don't blow your entire marketing budget on one risky ad or series of ads.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

How Important Is Your Headline?

Question - Why have newspapers used headlines for hundreds of years? Answer - because they help sell newspapers. Naturally headlines are tools that are designed to build interest.

Look at this headline from the AP today:

Terrorists 'invited to dinner' died in airstrike

Now, imagine the headline said something like:

Conditions under which airstrike conducted

Blaaah! Yuck - uninteresting. I probably wouldn't click unless i was already interested in reading a story on the airstrike in Pakistan.

Headlines work the same way in advertising, be it print, direct mail, email, web, television, radio whatever. Of course in radio and TV there's no real analog for the headline. As a rule of thumb we'll say that in radio and TV the headline equates to the first three seconds of the spot.

How may TV spots do you see every day with a weak opening? A lot. Of course these ads get more people to go to the fridge for a snack then they do to pay attention.

So the job of the headlines to get you interested in the rest of the piece - whether it's a magazine article, or a web ad. If you can't get people to give up their time and attention on your ad, then you're not going to sell them anything.

"The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising ."
David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy is one of the most influential ad men in history. His ads built empires. If you want to learn about good advertising - study Ogilvy.

So just how important is a good headline? Well I have spoken to several direct marketing people about this very subject. They test everything, and have told me that sometimes just changing a word or two in a headline can increase response rate 18 or 20 times. That has pretty powerful for us in the small business world.

Who wouldn't kill to increase the response rate to their advertising by just 10-25% let alone 1800-2000%?

So your next question is probably, "what makes a good headline?" The answer may be simple, but the execution can be difficult. Good headlines capture the reader's attention and make them want to pay attention to the rest of the ad.

There are tons of formulas out there for writing powerful and effective headlines. The problem with formulas is that they may work in some situations and not others. Headlines have to be considered in scope of the entire ad and with the target market. I believe that many people make the mistake of seeing a  good headline and basically copying it inappropriately.

I might scratch my eyes out the next time I see a headline that reads, "Who else wants ...?" or "they all laughed when I ... but then I ...". This is just lazy copywriting, and there's a lot of it. The problem is that people get desensitized about the 100th time they read the same headline with a couple of words changed.

Another losing headline strategy is to use hyperbole to the point that it taints the rest of your ad. If your headline reads like SPAM mail - forget it! "You'll get $4,973,146 working just six hours a week." Yuck!

So what are some good things to keep in mind when writing a headline?

• You can use a headline to get attention from your target market: Attention left-handed golfers...
• You can put a compelling promise out front: End The Agony Of ...
• You can relay some compelling news: Our new ...
• You can begin to tell a compelling story: Last month I was nearly homeless and then...

There's a lot of argument about a good headline length. I don't see any evidence for a hard and fast rule. I have read great 3 word headlines and 100 word, multi-sentence headlines. If the headline does it's job well, who really cares?

Look at the opening lines of the letters you write, or your web site, or the subject line of your email. Does it make people want to read the rest of your message? If not, go back to work!

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Why Your Advertising Flops

The two schools of thought that advertising is marketing, or that advertising just doesn't work anymore, are both flat wrong. The problem is that most advertising is simply junk. Yes - even the stuff you get when you pay a million bucks to an agency.

Advertising has three jobs:

1. Get your attention
2. Inform you while building interest
3. Persuade you to take action

Most advertising today does #1 poorly and forgets about the rest.

Advertising companies like to measure stuff to justify their jobs so they measure "awareness". They can tell you that after 6 exposures to the ad where a monkey wears a suit and tap dances that 33% of viewers know the company they advertise exists.

On a lark I picked up the Boston Yellow Pages (one of the worst offenders) and turned to the limousine section. I don't know what you're looking for when you hire a limousine, but here a few of the ad slogans from the display ads:

• "The Smoothest Ride In New England"
• "You've Gone With The Rest Now Go With Our Best"
• "One of the Lowest Rates Around"

Well, perhaps they want to be compelling by compelling you to take a nap. These slogans mean absolutely nothing. Can you imagine them getting your attention, or compelling you to call. And if you think these slogans are atrocious, you should read the rest of the ads. They are all just identical laundry lists of features. I can not tell the difference between any of the 32 limo companies with display ads, not to mention the hundreds of companies with listings.

Wake up call: Nobody cares, or even wants to believe you, when you say any of the following:

• We're the best...
• One of the oldest...
• The largest...
• We care about service...

This is just plain lazy advertising, but then again it's par for the advertising course.

One of the other problems that small businesses encounter with advertising involves doing "concept" or "branding" ads. Sure Nike and Coke can afford to slap their logo on a million billboards across the country to build brand recognition - you can't so don't do it.

After you get your customer's attention in a meaningful way - you now need to educate them why they need to business with you. Why should a person give you their money over your competitor? What should they care about reading, or listening to, or seeing your ad?

If your answer is anything like, "because we are the greatest, biggest, whatever." think again. You need to tell the customer what you are going to do for them, advertising is not about how great you are, it's about the great things you will do for the customer that nobody else can.

If your advertising is just like everybody else's the only thing you have to compete on is price. You had better hope that a WalMart like competitor doesn't move in or your business is gone. Competing on price is a dangerous activity.

Frequently you'll see companies offering basic features as benefits. It's just ridiculous to see an airline offering "on time flights" or any business saying "service is important to us." They're saying to us that they are most proud of meeting our lowest expectations. Don't you just want to open your wallet and give them all your money now?

Most advertising betrays a very basic flaw in how many people do business. They don't take the time to find out what's important to their customers. They don't offer to solve our problems or fix our pain. They don't answer the nagging questions we have that would prevent us from using them.

So let's say that you and I are starting the Comet Limousine Service. We have decided to focus on the very lucrative airport runs. We start talking to potential customers and we find out that the biggest concern is being late and missing a flight, particularly early morning flights. A ha!

So, we invest a few thousand bucks in  GPS systems that are tied to traffic reporting systems. We also incorporate a system where we call our customers in advance to make sure they are awake and ready to go. We can create a great attention getting offer:

Never Worry About Missing A Flight Again
When you hire Comet Limousine Service we'll call you in plenty of time before the flight to make sure you're ready to go. Our state of the art system predicts traffic patterns to make sure you're not stuck in traffic while your flight leaves without you. We guarantee you'll make your flight on time or the ride and return trip is free.

This is quick and dirty, but you get the point. This would stand out from all other limo ads in the book, or the local paper.  I can virtually guarantee that the response rate from this would be high enough that we could dominate the airport limo market until the competition caught on and imitated it.

Take a look at your ads, brochures, and web site. If any of it is an empty slogan followed by a laundry list scrap it and start over - you're wasting your money.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

When Small Business Advertising Makes Sense

There are two opposing schools of thought with regards to small business advertising. 1. Advertising never works. 2. Advertising is the ultimate in marketing. Neither of these attitudes really represents what's going on with advertising.

The two biggest problems with most small business advertising are:

1. The message stinks. Advertising's main job is to inform and then persuade. If you aren't Nike, don't waste your money on a billboard with your logo. Most small business advertising I see is poorly written. Billboard, TV, radio, print, web - the words are the most important part of your ad.
2. The targeting stinks. Unless you are in a business that the general public actually uses, like a grocery store, advertising to everybody is a waste of your money. Many business owners have a false view of who is interested in what they're selling. "Everybody needs this." Maybe so, but not everybody is going to buy it.

If you can get these two things right, and the cost makes sense, then advertising may be a good marketing vehicle for you. Ignore either of these factors and you might as well set piles of your money on fire.

As an aside, if you feel the burning desire to go with some high-concept cool branding advertisement  - give yourself a pinch and think again. You need to decide if you are in business to be cool and quirky, or if you are in business to succeed. Cool might win you an advertising award, but it doesn't pay the rent.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

What Small Businesses Can Learn From Bad Big Business Advertising

I nearly fell over laughing last night. My wife and i stared at each other in disbelief, not sure we saw what we just did. It was a TV commercial that left us stunned at how bad it made us feel about the advertiser.

A bunch of office workers "draw straws" using pencils. One unlucky guy gets the short pencil and looks horrified. His coworkers watch out the window and he timidly enters a McDonald's across the street. When he emerges he has a cup in his hand which he triumphantly raises towards the sky. The announcer comes on and says, "Finally, McDonald's has good coffee."

Now my wife and I are a focus-group of 2, and maybe millions of people will flock to McDonald's to try their new coffee. However, The first thing I thought of was, "yes, we're very sorry for pouring molten-hot crap down your gullet and onto your lap for the past 50 years, now we actually have actually infused some quality into our product."

For the love of all things great and small, what is their ad agency thinking?

McDonald's has been a media target ever since the lawsuit over burning a customer with coffee and the movie Super-size Me. It would not have been my choice to call attention to the lack of quality of their food, and their coffee in the same ad. If you read my post yesterday - you know that the human brain is an association machine. When I saw this ad, I instantly associated it with the hot coffee lawsuit and Super-size Me.

Sometimes being self-deprecating is OK - but you must be careful with it. In the 60s Avis adopted the slogan - "We're #2 So We Try Harder". It has since been shortened to "We Try harder." This worked very well for them, in part because they made it part of their corporate mission. It also made customers believe they were getting the best service, because Avis couldn't rest on its laurels.

I argue that every message you put out there, everything you do that customers experience, must be very intentional. You must pay very close attention to the messages you are sending.  I am reminded of the Chevy Nova which didn't sell in Spanish speaking countries because "no va" means "no go."

Look at you marketing communications and think about the logical and emotional leaps your customers might make. Only time will tell if the McDonald's coffee advertising pays off, but it didn't make me confident in them.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet