Mad 4 Blog

So, we’ve already discussed a few reasons and ways to monitor audience responsiveness. But once you’ve got yourself set up in that regard, there’s a more advanced step that you should implement. And that’s creating a customer profile (or set of profiles) by which to base your next campaign strategies. This is just one way to analyze and then apply the information that you’re collecting in an organized and practical way.

This step comes into play once enough data is collected to start drawing parallels and noticing trend-based patterns (perhaps six months to one year after you start). What you’ll want to do is come up with one baseline model–or preferably, a few model types–based on how customers/clients/audiences are buying and using your products or services. Depending on your business and how divisions fall among those who interact with it, you can create very generic models–such as female/male–or create entire baseline characters, such as the buyer who is under 30 years of age but married with a household income of more than $100,000. Or individuals who shop before 5pm. Or some other kind of category that is unique to your business and exhibited in repeat behaviors.

This will also depend on what kind of information you can derive from the types of marketing you’re monitoring and analyzing. Using as many stats and demographics as you have access to can lead to more tedious but more beneficial profiling overall. Tracking should also take into account the beginning, middle and late stages of each model type’s interaction with your brand. You definitely want to acknowledge ways that behaviors change with time and figure out why. Then you can incorporate how you’d like to ideally see relationships develop–based on realistic, data-backed prospects.

Sure, it is important to have well-worded and visually appealing ads with strong brand messages. And yes, it is also imperative that these ads reach as much of your target audience as possible for maximum and repeat exposure. But you can put the most wonderful ad in front of throngs of potential buyers and still fail with poor ad placement.

Ad placement can mean a myriad of things depending upon the format of marketing being discussed. For example, website ads should be built into the main framework, such as within a sidebar, so that they show all the time on all pages of the site, regardless of new content. And you’ll want them placed ‘above the fold’—which means that viewers can see them without scrolling down. However, ad placement in a newspaper could mean placing a small ad for your gym next to an article about vitamins, rather than a page-spanning ad next to an article about things that can be done at home to save money.

Sprint recently posted an extremely concise and clever ad on CBS.com. Viewers watching the network’s television shows are exposed to two consecutive 30-second spots on every commercial break. Sprint bought an ad proclaiming they the network helps you get exactly what you want, when you want it—and to prove it, the screen simply shows a click-through button that lets the viewer skip the rest of the ad. This instant gratification associated with the brand name is extremely smart, doing more to make a good impression and convey a clear message in one or two seconds than a full-minute ad might. The problem occurs when this ad comes first in the series of two ad spots. Rather than send the viewer straight back to their program, by clicking (following the CTA) the viewer is merely rewarded with…another commercial. Simply by swapping the placement of the two ads, Sprint’s advertising endeavors could have twice the power.

Similarly, the Associated Content website raised the hackles of its loyal readers when ads were placed mid-article, interrupting their reading flow. In this case, the ads became associated with interruption and frustration—so a viewer’s first impression and relationship with that brand was negative. But while more discreet advertising has its merits, tricky ads (such as invisible links on websites) also never win consumer favor.

Marketing experts must do more than place expensive media buys for amazing creative. They must have a hand in the ad’s placement from unit purchasing to proofing the final result. And of course you’ll want your marketing team to come to your defense against the venue if an ad is inappropriately handled in any context—and prevent future mishaps.

To ensure that you’re getting the best ad placement possible, you should not only confirm that intelligent human eyes or ears land on and approve your company’s ad in every context, but also seek ways to measure the success of various ad placements. While this is easy to do online, you may have to be more clever with other marketing formats. For more on this subject, visit last week’s blog about Tracking and Coding.

For a laugh, you may want to browse this list of Top 10 Unfortunate Ad Placements.

It always makes sense to ask successfully acquired clients and customers how they came to hear about your business. By carefully comparing how well each of your advertising efforts performs, you can bulldoze past a lot of trial-and-error and simply direct your budget toward what works, both in quantitative and qualitative units. For example, if no one’s seen that ad in the newspaper but everyone heard about you from a friend or relative, you may wish to pull your print ads and focus on buzz-generating word-of-mouth campaigns–or even reward former patrons for referring a friend. And if you’re reaching a higher caliber of clientele via brochure than billboard, you’ll certainly want to bring your message down to the smaller scale, which can also cut back cost.

These days, tracking is everything when it comes to building successful campaigns. Online, it’s perfectly easy to determine how a person landed on your page; analytics mark each click-through by its referring links, search engine source, browser type and even the viewer’s physical location—it’s not only effortless, but also automatically built into most website content management systems. But even online there’s always more you can do; when it comes to e-commerce, many shopping outlets utilize codes. Asking buyers to enter a code before they take advantage of a sale helps marketers to track which sales and campaigns were more successful than others, and to help determine if shoppers heard about it from a newsletter, referral or ad. This is why you might see several usable codes available for the same sale, depending on where you hear about it.

In what other ways can coding and tracking be used in your business endeavors? Mad 4 Marketing recently posted job listings on several career search websites. But each posting required us to pay a fee, and since we weren’t sure which websites or which wording would be most successful for attracting the best new teammate, we decided to generate a few different ads. We asked job candidates on each board and posting to reply with a different subject line. This took a little more time and thought, but we were able to see from where we were getting hits, and what kind of prospective employees were nipping the bait. After the first week we cut our ad placement (and cost!) in half and only used phrasing that was clearly expressing our desires to the most qualified candidates.

Another example is Satori’s text message campaign. In 2008, we used a lot of on-the-scene guerrilla marketing to advertise for the newly opening apartment rental community in Fort Lauderdale. We wanted to reach out to those who already lived in and loved the surrounding area of South Florida. At each event (such as street fairs, art shows and the boat parade), we advertised the chance to win six months’ free rent by texting a code to a given phone number. At each event, the code differed. That way, we could see which community event had directed the most participants to our giveaway, as well as which regions or crowds were most interested in Satori. This information turned out to be extremely valuable in later marketing endeavors, such as choosing local ad placement.

The bottom line is that tracking efforts are a smart investment in the future. It means looking past today’s brochure or even tomorrow’s website, toward next year’s entire marketing strategy. Tracking provides you with the tools to always understand and surpass prior tactics–and no matter what, this means that you will ultimately succeed.

Last week, we introduced the premise of using blogs in marketing, and what to do once you have your own blog. In that same vein, this week we are following up with tips for keeping your readers once you have reached out and engaged them in the first place.

Getting Readers to Stay on Your Site

In a world where single impressions are used to measure website results, one might wonder why it’s important to care how long readers actually stay on your site. When it comes to marketing, keeping readers engaged means that you’re increasing their familiarity with your voice and information. By staying on your site, readers are able to connect to the content, which may make them think about your ideas later or want to return (more on this below). You’ll also want visitors to move around on your site, which is why you should always provide links to other areas that might be of interest. For example, if you published a complementary article last month or previously mentioned the topic at hand, you’ll want to refer back to that old post. When readers move through your site, it increases your impression rate click by click–getting you more bang for your buck per visit or guest.

Getting Readers to Revisit Your Site

Why allow readers to have one single good experience on your site when you can encourage them to create a pattern? Readers make pivotal decisions about whether they might want to return to your blog in the first few seconds of landing on it, so inviting them to come back again begins promptly at the start of their very first visit—even with your blog’s title. An easy-to-memorize name will make it easy for one-time visitors to find their way back to you. The look and layout of your blog are also invaluable tools that can influence how the general populace—or your targeted audience—perceives the value of returning to your blog, so don’t skimp on the creative. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

The next step is to make your content as subscribable as possible by providing easily identifiable links to RSS feed, your newsletter or other forms of content subscriptions; this includes ‘following’ ‘friending’ ‘liking’ ‘fanning’ or other ways to connect with the page. It also helps to flat-out prompt readers to bookmark your hyperlink. Anything that removes the middle step of making your reader remember that your blog exists will be useful, so be sure to try to lock them to a mailing list or feed as soon as possible.

You’ll also want to make your blog extremely user-friendly so that it’s a welcoming and easy-to-navigate space that readers will want to revisit. We’ve previously discussed the importance of user-friendliness on the Web, but there are a few differences when talking about a blog rather than a website or forum. For example, utilize your blog’s sidebar to chronicle past posts, organize content by key words or add a search feature. Don’t just load this valuable space with heavy text and ads; besides, a busy blog will generally overwhelm readers and dissuade them against ever coming back.

Of course, no effort goes so far as introducing frequent, fresh content and enforcing quality control. By providing plenty of new, engaging content (that must, must, must be typo-free), readers will come up with the bright idea to come back again all on their own.

These aren’t stand-alone suggestions; each relates to one another in order to create a plotted process by which readers are easily directed and re-directed to the blog. Much like with all advertising, it takes several interactions or impressions before marketing tactics can truly take hold; and it’s those who have been most often exposed to your messages who are likely to convert to customers–and spread the word.

On the heels of this article, which explains how Hulu.com uses surveys to gauge an audience’s opinion on ads, comes a recent story out of Australia. The down under nation’s Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) is dealing with less-than-positive feedback on its published content. But not only is this feedback negative, it’s also out of left field. Naturally, when you ask for your audience’s opinion, you have to take what you get. And as every suggestion-box-key-holder knows, every informed and constructive comment comes with a dreary downside: the throngs of merciless, inapplicable complaints.

Surveying is one of the most useful tools for marketers, and having eyes and ears in the field is invaluable. How else to accurately and objectively measure how well your work is doing? But when you solicit for comments, it means taking the good with the bad (and having the wisdom to know the difference). Someone has to read them, and someone has to sort them, but is there any easy way to whittle down the winners from the whiners?

As outlined by the Sydney Morning Herald, examples of useless reports included:

- A dancing child as being too perverse.
- A child eating an ice cream cone as being sexualized.
- A rude redhead as being vilified for her coloring.
- An errant wool ball as promoting violence against Victorians.

Tactfully, the ASB states that the real problem comes down to allocation of resources, stating that time and money can’t be spent addressing irresolvable issues. Marketing survey site Mumbrella, which analyzed a sample of received complaints earlier this year, was far less restrained, calling the task a matter of dealing with “idiots” and “single-issue zealots.” Many of the criticisms led the agency to believe that complainers might even be reporting out of spite for a particular brand or product, rather than actually taking issue with the commercial itself. However, due to quality control regulations currently in place, even one raised issue warrants an investigation by the ASB. And the number of incoming complaints has more than doubled in the past half-decade alone.

Even if a significant percentage of feedback is coming from “the nutty fringes of society,” according to the ASB, how can the bureau separate the wheat from the chaff? A system of standards is being implemented that takes into account a new set of clauses dictating what is and isn’t nationally pre-approved. For example, dogs on a leash are not examples of animal abuse. While it may seem painstaking to parse out the more minute depictions of questionable behaviors, these guidelines are expected to make it that much easier to quickly sort and reduce complaints so that only the most practical are left to consider.

Chief Executive Fiona Jolly of the Advertising Standards Bureau informs that an estimated 10-30% of incoming complaints would be filtered out by this system. The percentage of previously discarded pre-filter complaints is unknown, but at least will be markedly reduced—making it that much easier to focus on the comments that can actually be used to approve quality advertising content that appeals to most audiences.

In an age of downloadable music that is listened to online or on your phone or on an iPod—not to mention any other ubiquitous handheld device—is it still relevant and cost-efficient to advertise on the radio? At Mad 4 Marketing, we are frequently asked about the merits of radio advertising. The truth is that there are still plenty regular radio listeners out there—approximately 230 million, in fact. But the trick is knowing who is listening and when. As with most marketing formats, the greatest value in radio advertising comes from doing your homework in order to hit your niche demographic as often as possible with a memorable, informative ad.

Picking the right station and time slot for your ad to air is rather important, but you also have to buy enough time. Radio commercials are traditionally offered in 30-second formats, although you may also be able to purchase a full minute of air time for a steeper price. Another option might be to sponsor a section of radio programming, so that announcers themselves mention your product (and this can be backed up by regular advertising during commercial breaks). Regardless of the amount of time one commercial takes up, it is vital for that commercial to be heard over and over again. One trick is to continuously buy air time during the same short time period (such as 12-2pm). That way, the same very targeted audience (like workers who have a daily lunchtime commute) will hear your commercial over and over again, giving it time to sink in. Exposure on the radio is known as ‘frequency’—which is not the number of times your ad airs overall, but how much exposure you have to your preferred audience.

When it comes to crafting commercials for radio, you must keep in mind your formatting. Creative cannot take on the same hurdles as print, television or online advertising, which come with enticing visuals and interactivity. With radio, sound is the most important factor. Your ad needs to catch listeners’ attention with the right music, jokes and sound bytes. And because listeners cannot click on your ad or rewind it, key messaging must be extremely tight and make an impact the first time around. Contact information must be at the forefront—after all, what good is even the most entertaining, persuasive call to action if your potential customer cannot reach you?

Additional benefits to advertising on the radio include:

• Cheaper than television commercials, but with the same big-audience outreach
• Smaller cost to produce than television commercials or broad online campaigns
• Can be used to supplement other marketing efforts (‘See our ad in the Daily Post’)
• Easy to adapt and re-place ads according to effectiveness
• Catches the same people at the same time on a regular basis (built-in audience)
• Utilize trusted on-air personalities by buying sponsored segments or endorsement

Interested in discussing the logistics and pricing for how to put your business on the radio? Contact Mad 4 Marketing as the radio media buying experts to get you the most effective scheduling at the best cost so that you can be heard. Contact us for a consultation.

We have previously mentioned the importance of being transparent when advertising on the Web. As page viewers become increasingly frustrated by pop-ups, covert ads and run-arounds, they reciprocally appreciate websites that are up-front about what elements are sponsored–as well as those that tailor advertising to most accurately reflect products and topics that readers may actually want. When distrust brews toward online advertising, the entire framework of interactive marketing–and how it can positively impact and support websites and businesses–is compromised. Earlier this year, popular review site Yelp.com came under fire for practices that walked too close to the fine line between acceptable and deplorable ethical behavior.

Yelp is a website that features every kind of business (from restaurants to dental practices) and allows anyone to sign in and post a review about that business–good or bad. That way, interested parties can get an unbiased, comprehensive overview of that company. Yelp offers free listings as well as paid memberships which come with additional features such as enhanced content control, videos and photo slide-shows. Paid accounts may also add sponsored posts–which means that their business page can come up first in a search for chosen key words, or an ad can even show up on a competitor’s page. Cost may depend on impressions or clicks, according to individual account terms.

Problems began to arise when it seemed like Yelp was ‘selling’ positive reviews to paid members through ‘Favorite Reviews.’ This feature pushed better reviews to the top of the page, and confused the matter of what were reviews and what could be constituted as advertisements. Even when these were genuine reviews–that is to say, not written by a company exec–the confusion and doubt that page visitors experienced when they saw positive reviews highlighted was enough to draw ire and attention to the site’s other questionable policies.

Another practice that bore review was Yelp’s filter, which automatically removed some reviews according to a quality control algorithm. Because only paying members had the filter in place, which most often managed to weed out negative reviews, this device made business pages seem even more like ads in disguise. For example, when soliciting paid accounts from businesses that were currently listed for free, Yelp made offers that essentially said negative reviews could disappear…for the right price. Many of the businesses that were contacted found the offer extortive, and some went so far as to contact authorities. The wording seemed to take advantage of a not-quite-illegal loophole–but one that could still be considered immoral.

In the spirit of total transparency, Yelp now offers readers the option to view every single review written, regardless of relevance or content–but only through a special, segregated link. Some critics have frowned upon this compromise. They believe that all posts should be shown at all times–or that the filter removal should be more prominently feature on the site (it is currently tucked into the bottom of review pages). However, having this option—and other changes that Yelp has made in recent months—have thus far been enough to satisfy contemporary ethical guidelines for transparency on the Internet.

In 2009, Hulu.com caused concern with investors when advertisers were not lining up to buy slots alongside the premium streaming video content of the site. Despite a strong surge in traffic and viewership that same year, competition from other video websites and Hulu’s relative newness on the scene led advertisers to remain cautious.

However, halfway into 2010, advertising on Hulu is not only flourishing, but also undergoing revisions in order to provide more targeted commercial experiences. For example, viewers may choose to watch one longer commercial and then view their video without interruption. Or, they may choose between 2-3 themes to view during commercial breaks that occur at regular intervals, much like advertising during traditional television broadcasts. Providing viewers with options helps Hulu gauge what format their followers prefer, and offer advertising encounters that adhere to those expressed choices. Viewers may also be less annoyed by their television interruptions when they feel they have some say in the way advertising is presented to them.

Unlike television commercials, online video viewing provides a much better idea of how many eyes are actually landing on ads—the numbers are much more traceable and can be broken down by hits, replays and other factors. But that doesn’t mean advertisers are in a hurry to convert formats, even to save money. Many companies would still rather throw big bucks at television advertising than pay more per given, engaged viewer online.

But Hulu hopes to take advantage of the TV/Web differential by tailoring its content to viewers in an effort to get advertisers greater bang for their buck, further antiquating the advertising notion that more eyes equals more buys. They mean to do this by really utilizing the interactive element that is also unique to ads on the Internet. Not only does Hulu allow viewers to often choose from the outset what type of advertising experience they prefer, but the website also recently added an instant-feedback system. At first, this feature was designed to show two options: thumbs up or thumbs down. Currently, a bar at the top of each commercial asks, “Is this ad relevant to you?” Viewers may choose yes or no. To further focus advertising, Hulu may also provide short surveys that viewers can fill out in lieu of seeing any ads at all during their playback.

By asking viewers what kind of advertising experience they prefer and allowing them to watch ads only for products and services that are most relevant to their lifestyle, Hulu can assure advertisers that although online ads may not cast the same broad net as television ads, at least they can narrowly focus who is seeing them—and provide advertisers with a much better return on their investment, with a higher chance of conversions, by reaching out to those most likely to need or want what they’re selling. Smarter advertising—not merely more advertising—continues to be the trump card that online formats hold over conventional television broadcasts when it comes to video-adjacent advertising.

On the Internet, launching a successful viral video or popular website certainly has its own merit. But gaining brand recognition and traffic may only be part of a complete business model. Once a presence is established, the fastest way to generate revenue is through advertising. Selling valuable advertising space (much like real estate) allows businesses to capitalize on their traffic by receiving payments per thousand visits or per click. Whether the end goal of online efforts is a high conversion rate or new customer acquisition, it never hurts to make some extra proceeds, even if advertising only pays for domain hosting, website management and overall marketing campaign costs.

After originating in 2006, and becoming a household name by 2008, Twitter is only just looking to cash in on its increasingly valuable social interface real estate. Previously known for its lack of ads, Twitter aims to start small by sending out targeted sponsored messages—dubbed Promoted Tweets. This announcement came in April 2010, when the company was rumored to be pairing up with major players such as Sony and Starbucks.

One reason that many booming websites hesitate to launch full-fledged advertising campaigns is that ubiquitous advertisements can be perceived to cheapen overall look and experience. No forum wants visitors to feel used for their contribution to an outstanding CPM. But reluctance to plan for advertising from the ground floor of a burgeoning online operation may be a detriment. For Twitter, users may express distaste and disdain once they see advertising appear where there previously was none. Whereas on Facebook, advertisements have been seamlessly—albeit sparingly—integrated for years so that they don’t interrupt the layout or feel of the site, and visitors are accustomed to their presence. When questioned on their timing, Twitter expressed that it has only been analyzing and determining the best way to introduce effective advertising for both buyers and users.

Currently, Twitter is often accessed through third-party services and interfaces (rather than through Twitter.com); in fact, it was created for its SMS remote-access appeal. That’s why posting standard banner ads on the website alone is not necessarily going to do as much for the company as it might for more stationary social media platforms, such as Facebook. Instead, the plan for Promoted Tweets is to send out sponsored messages that relate to key words that users enter into a search field. That way, ads are more likely to reach their intended audiences. To keep these expensive ads from getting lost in the noise of incoming tweets, they will always be queued to the top of lists (instead of ranked by their timestamp). Over time, Twitter may begin to show Promoted Tweets at the top of all feeds, whether users searched for any terms or not.

One way that Twitter assures quality control for both the user and advertiser is by taking down any Promoted Tweets that don’t have ‘resonance.’ For the advertiser, this means that if their ads aren’t doing well—as gauged by a nine-point system that includes visibility and interactivity—it will be taken down and they won’t have to pay for it. On the user end, they won’t have to encounter ads that aren’t relevant to them. Ostensibly, this process will only become smarter and more accurate—and more profitable—as time and trials progress. Though slow to start, there’s no going back on advertising on Twitter.

Marketing to Women – Fast Facts

For the past few weeks, we have been talking about how to adjust your advertising tactics to specifically target the female market. To provide a lighter, broader overview, here are some fun facts, interesting quotes and extra tips we have collected:

Quick Quotes

-  “When it comes to big purchases, the conversations have been primarily directed toward men. The theory seemed to be that the hunters decided what to get and the gatherers went out and got it.”
-  “Many companies make the mistake of thinking they need to create a separate brand to reach women, one that is softer and more accessible. And let’s be honest, they’re also afraid that feminizing the core brand will alienate the guys.”
-  “Women are great at detecting inconsistencies. If your marketing message doesn’t match up with your product performance and your retail experience, you’ve lost her trust and she’ll go somewhere else.”
-  “Women are suckers for quality and, more importantly, when they find it they’re willing to pay for it.”

www.startupnation.com

Five Fun Facts

-  Women buy 50% of all automobiles sold, and play a role in influencing the purchase of 30% more.
-  61% of women have eaten peanut butter straight from the jar, says Glamour.
-  40% of households with assets of more that $600,000 are headed by women.
-  Teen girls are twice as likely as teen boys to actively follow fashion blogs (34% vs. 19%).
-  69% of women over 18 wear lipstick, reports L’Oreal Paris.

Marketing to Women for Healthcare Services

-  Women prefer campaigns for total wellness with lifestyle messaging, as opposed to ads boasting products, solutions or services.
-  Women may respond to healthcare ads with links to real causes in the community.

Marketing to Women for Travel and Lodging

-  Women make 75% of all travel decisions.
-  Women make the safety of their destination and accommodations a priority.
-  Women are wooed by ads promoting art, ambience, architecture and atmosphere.
-  Women are more likely than men to seek out all-inclusive vacations.

www.allbusiness.com