Mad 4 Blog

Television advertising is far from dead. Although viral marketing via website banners and streaming video is the new bandwagon in media placement, a well-executed TV commercial is still a guaranteed way to increase your company’s sales while expanding brand awareness. But only if you do it right. Here are five tips for successful television advertising:

1) Entertainment is essential. Let’s face it, no matter how smart and practical your products or services are, when people are facing the television screen, they’re expecting some form of entertainment. This doesn’t mean comedy; serious spots work just as well. But from start to finish, it’s important to keep a viewer engaged so that they’ll remember your message and absorb all of the information your commercial is seeking to convey.

2) Be brief. Televised ads traditionally average 30 seconds in length. Identify a key message or a few main points and make sure that your advertisement explicitly features these elements. Because television ads aren’t something that prospective customers can reference at their leisure, your message must be clear-cut and easy to understand on the first viewing. Clouding your message with too many other details or off-topic iconography can strongly undercut your ROI. However, even the most concise commercials may take several impressions per viewer to create a lasting, measurable impact, so be patient rather than worry that your message didn’t take hold.

3) Visuals are vital. While print advertising allows you to outline facts about your business, and radio focuses on speaking directly to the potential buyer, television is about conveying a message primarily through pictures. Your goal is to create visual impact that enforces your key messaging and leaves a strong impression with the viewer. Advertising agencies that specialize in storyboarding and graphic messaging will help elevate your commercial content; you’ll also want a knowledgeable director on your set when filming.

4) Call to action is critical. Give your captive audience a valid reason to call or visit your website to make further contact and begin developing a relationship. Provide viewers with a strong impression of your brand and let them know what sets you apart from the competition—this will serve as a reminder when they’re ready to commit or seek more information. Remember, if a television viewer goes to bed humming your theme song but doesn’t know what you do or how to reach you in the future, then even the biggest blockbuster commercial won’t actually improve your bottom line over time.

5) Seek out specialists. Consult with an experienced media buyer to help you ascertain the correct locales, stations and times for airing your ad within your budget. Media buyers have access to comparative data about viewer demographics and reactivity, and they can offer valuable insight to the logistics and statistics of when and where your ad would make the greatest impact. Then, of course, they can help you purchase those time slates. Working with a comprehensive advertising agency that has plenty of experience with purchasing, designing, creating and tracking commercials is the best way to ensure that you’re on the most surefire path to successfully advertising on television.

In 2010 it’s time to ask: why isn’t the face of your business on Facebook?

True, Facebook has been around as a social networking site for students since 2004. But rather than become an outdated tool over the years, Facebook has been expanding its services to better enable professionals to use the popular website for interacting with clients and colleagues. And it’s not just about marketing to the college-age kids who were Facebook’s original audience—though they remain its main demographic. In 2009, adults between the ages of 25 and 34 doubled by the month, while adults between 35-54 years of age demonstrated a growth rate of 276.4% in presence over six months in the first half of the year. In fact, Facebook was increasingly utilized for adult marketing as soon as the website opened enrollment to all adult age groups in 2006. And it’s been taking off as a popular marketing platform ever since.

The relevance of Facebook is that it’s all-in-one social media marketing. It’s a quick and easy way to let prospective customers know what’s new with your business, in real time. You can reach out to interested individuals anywhere in the country—or anywhere in the world. And you can immediately receive their thoughts and feedback about your announcements, products or services. Whether you’re courting new clients or keeping in touch with existing contacts, Facebook is a casual and convenient way to communicate via words, pictures, links and multimedia. It’s easy to get started and easy to use, and your consumer base is already built in. Plus, there are several ways to get involved.

The first way to get involved with Facebook is to create an account. Although accounts are reserved for individuals (rather than businesses), an account for your company can be started by an employee, or a dummy account name can be used to represent the company name. This account will allow your representative to link directly to friends, post status updates and shared pictures. This account can also be used to fan pages, join groups and leave commentary on other relevant pages of Facebook.

Then you’ll want to create a ‘Group’ and/or ‘Fan Page’ for your business or product. The difference between these two options is that a group is a static page that other users can join, which doesn’t give companies the option of communicating directly and freely with its members. However, every time someone joins this group, Facebook will tell all of their friends that they are a member, which may bring about brand awareness and inspire others to join. The group’s homepage can provide further information about what your company does, and allows you to contact members directly through their inbox.

However, a fan page may be even more pertinent to businesses joining Facebook because this page allows you to advertise your brand’s identity while also sending out messages and updates to those who are interested in your services. Notifications will be shown to a user’s friends when they ‘become a fan’ of your page. Messages are sent out as live feeds, rather than as messages which stay in someone’s inbox until it has been read. However, fan pages can be accessed by non-Facebook members or those who aren’t logged into their account, so these may be more accessible than group pages overall.

Furthermore, you may wish to purchase advertising directly on Facebook. Though pricing remains competitive for space on this popular website, advertising on Facebook pages is popular because it allows buyers to tailor viewings to certain age groups, geographic locations, personal interests–or any of the other information that users supply when they join Facebook. This means that none of your advertising dollars will go to waste, because you are able to specifically target the audience who will most likely be interested in your company’s services.

Last but not least, complementary advertising campaigns (such as any coinciding print advertising you do) should feature elements that promote your Facebook page and encourage fellow Facebook users to become friends with your main account, join your group or become a fan of your business through its unique page. Your presence and pages become a hub which interested parties can easily access from a site where they are already likely to traffic and be active, which means you’ll have a leg up on expansive, dynamic marketing when you put your business on Facebook.

Creating a brand isn’t all about research, analytics and strategy. In fact, defining your brand is a lot like creating a persona or character. This can be a daunting task if you let it, but it can also be a satisfying process—and it might even be fun. The most important aspect to keep in mind is that your brand has to be a three-dimensional, complex character with a fully developed personality. No one likes one-note characters, no matter how attractive the note. Once you’ve identified the characteristics of your brand, it makes the process of promoting your business and expanding brand awareness that much easier.

Here are some helpful characterization notes for brand development:

• Own all strengths and weaknesses. You won’t do your brand any justice if you only identify positive traits and pretend it has zero flaws. No company, product or service is perfect—and trying to sell yours as such can come off as static or insincere to an impartial audience. Acknowledging flaws is also the only way to improve upon areas of weakness before your brand hits the market. Only by fully exploring all of your brand’s good and bad traits internally can you create outgoing campaigns that truly do your brand justice and highlight its assets. Over time, you will learn new flaws and eliminate others—this process signifies your brand’s maturation, which is easier to identify and accomplish if you start out by admitting your brand’s complete character.

• Stand out from the competition. Another important set of traits are those that set your brand apart—what makes your brand unique. Even if they aren’t the most important facts you’d like to convey about your product or service, they may be the most compelling. Qualities that make your brand special are the very things that will catch audience attention and leave a lasting impression. Most companies are not offering a completely novel concept or product, but instead are tasked with demonstrating why their option is a better choice than all alternatives. The best way to make this argument is by including—if not featuring—all interesting and unusual facts when promoting your brand.

• Put together a spec sheet. Once you’ve identified all of the strengths and weaknesses and special qualities of your brand, characteristics should be organized in an easy-to-reference fact sheet. One of the most important aspects of advertising is maintaining a consistent image for your brand, and an organized fact sheet will help you keep tabs on key messaging over time. Much like a ‘cheat sheet’ this chart will allow current and future promoters of your brand to get a quick, clear overview at a glance. If you’ve successfully created a comprehensive brand, there will be many different ways to interpret and expose different aspects through creative campaigns—and this chart will serve as a concise and complete foundation. It can also be modified in the future as the brand grows and matures.

Did you meet all of your marketing goals in 2009? Or were there areas where you saw room for improvement? Now is the time to analyze previous successes—and failures—to determine new marketing strategies for 2010.

The past year has been a rocky time for businesses across the board. And in times of economic uncertainty, it’s not uncommon for companies to branch out and explore new strategies to market their products and services. Whether a limited budget meant that your company tried alternative marketing for the first time, or a changing consumer climate introduced you to new audiences, last year was a time for trial and error when it came to advertising and brand promotion.

Whether you ultimately flourished or floundered, there are lessons to be learned from each step you took. In the new year, these lessons can be used to set you up for even greater marketing success in 2010. Here are some tips to help you devise your marketing goals for the year ahead:

Create a vision for the full year.
Looking at your budget for the upcoming year, you may be tempted to plan a gung-ho advertising campaign to get the ball rolling. While making a big impact at the start of the year is one way to go, another advisable technique is to plan a staggered process that creates a lasting, solid impression of your business brand throughout the year. You’ll want to incorporate options from across the spectrum, from print ads to social marketing to interactive website strategies. Plan your pricing and agenda so that all messaging ties together and builds throughout the months. That way, you’ll have the strong, comprehensive results you desire when it comes to January 2011.

Don’t be afraid of change.
Taking new strides can be scary. In fact, you may have already shaken things up last year, and it didn’t quite pan out. This may make you think twice about pushing forward and exploring even more new routes—but then again, what can you gain by doing the same thing you’ve already done? If you devote the time to analyzing previous marketing plans, you can target areas that need improvement to predict results and reduce—or eliminate—your risk. Smart, evidence-based changes will give you an advantage this year.

Learn from past mistakes.
The first step is admitting that it’s okay to make mistakes. In fact, mistakes can be useful. Although it may seem tempting to forget previous endeavors that didn’t quite match expectations, it’s time to haul out old plans and notes to analyze exactly what went wrong and where there was room for improvement. Maybe all you needed was a more accurate sales projection. Maybe all you needed was a different marketing agency. Whatever needs amending must be determined so it can be fixed, preparing you for new successes in 2010.