Word of Mouth

Over and over we hear how “word-of-mouth” is the best form of advertising out there. It is unarguable the strength that lies in “word-of-mouth” marketing. But how many of us stop and REALLY think about that?

1. Are we giving our customers something good to talk about?
2. Do we have enough customers for “word-of-mouth” to have a noticeable impact?
3. How long will it take for “word-of-mouth” to produce noticeable results?
4. How long am I willing to wait to see growth in my business?
5. Is there anything that I can do to increase my “word-of-mouth” marketing?
6. Can I make my “word-of-mouth” marketing produce results more quickly?

For most businesses who are just “getting through the day”, they’re probably not giving their customers anything substantial to talk about. What are the things that make YOU talk about another business? Slightly bad service? Maybe something really fantastic that surprises you or knocks you off balance because you weren’t expecting it? Unfortunately, giving customers what they “expect” to receive from your business is going to do NOTHING for your “word-of-mouth” marketing.

• Make a big mistake and they’ll go out of their way to tell people they don’t even know about it.
• Make a small mistake and their entirely family and most of their friends are going to hear about it.
• Do what they expect and they’ll say nothing.
• Do what they don’t expect and their entire family and most of their friends are going to hear about it.
• Do something that they never would have thought was possible, that they can’t possibly ignore and they’ll go out of their way to tell people they don’t even know about it.

See a pattern here? Any thoughts on how easy each of these scenarios would be to achieve? I’ll give you a hint, they’re listed in the order of easiest to hardest. Is that a good thing for relying on “word-of-mouth” marketing? For most businesses… no it is not.

What happens when advertising stops?

The reasons we are unable to introspect on advertising's effects, especially in low-involvement situations, are:

1. the effect of each single ad exposure is small;
2. with repetition, even imperceptibly small effects can build into larger perceived differences between brands;
3. if something gets repeated constantly without challenge, our minds seem to regard this as prima facie evidence that maybe, just maybe, it is true (the truth effect);
4. often it is no big deal to us which of the alternative brands we choose, anyway.

Understanding this also explains why tracking campaign advertising is far more effective than trying to track the effectiveness in one single ad delivered through one particular media.

We don’t know a lot about what happens when advertising stops but what we do know is enough to warrant caution. Most companies don't know what happens when advertising stops because they only look at the immediate sales figures. If sales don't go down, they breathe a sigh of relief. But it is critical to look at what is going on underneath, at the brand image and 'brand value' level. Here is where the early warning signs of erosion in brand value are likely to be seen first.

So stopping advertising could be a smart decision. But, then again, it could be a time bomb. Remember the milk company I mentioned in a previous article? Well a doctoral thesis on milk advertising in the United States some years ago revealed the delayed nature of the time bomb. It underlined the fact that maintenance of sales in the short or medium term after ceasing to advertise is no reason for complacency. In a prolonged series of test market experiments, it was found that nothing happened to sales when advertising of milk was stopped. Nothing, that is, for 12 months! After a year of no advertising, milk sales suddenly went into a sharp decline and continued to decline at a sickening rate.

Advertising restarted immediately, but it was too late. It took another 18 months to halt the decline and then begin to reverse it.

So beware of the delayed time bomb. To regain a favourable position that is lost during belt tightening can cost more in the long run than to try to retain it by continuing to advertise at a maintenance level.

Are you part of the Wedding Market? Maybe you should be....

The wedding industry is HUGE.  Even in a lower economy, people still manage to find dollars for the day, that for many, is the most important day of their lives.

Did you know that over 5 million people will get married THIS YEAR alone?!

So, are you a business that is very obviously, directly related to the wedding industry?  Or are you a business who typically sits back thinking "I wish I was, but no I'm really not" ?

For some that may very well be true - but for others you might be surprised.  Many brides are often looking for different ways to make their special day unique. For their wedding to be the one to stand out in the minds of their friends and families for years to come.  I for one did a few "out of the norm" things for my own wedding back in 1996.  First was having the entire wedding party (and most of the guests) arrive in antique and hot rod cars. Second was the inclusion of a magician to provide some fun entertainment for the numerous kids we had in attendance. Third was the entertainment for the adults!  tsk tsk.... I know what you're thinking!  :-)  We brought in a Fun Money Casino.  And to top it all off, the staff from the casino along with the men in our wedding party were all dressed "Blues Brother" style.  It was a blast and was a hugely talked about event for years to come. Another thing that we did that was unique back them, was we had little bottles of bubble blowers for everyone at the ceremony to use rather than throwing rice, bird seed or confetti.

My point is to have a hard look at your business and see if you are able to create an opportunity that would allow you to tap into an industry as huge as the wedding industry.  This also gives you the opportunity for some marketing features that you may otherwise have not participated in.

Our Gateway Gazette Wedding Supplement is one such example, but there are plenty of others out there too.

Marketing your business isn't always just about getting the right "message" in the right "place".  It can also be about finding the right niche to promote.  To think outside of the box not only in what you say or how you say it, but also in what you are offering to the public.  Look at your products or services through a different set of eyes - you never know what opportunities may simply be lying in wait!

If you are interested in learning more about the Gateway Gazette Wedding Supplement visit: http://wedding.gatewaygazette.ca.  But hurry, deadline is March 9th.

Get your print advertising for FREE! (no joke!)

• dead simple
• straight-forward
• no song and dance

Gateway Gazette Referral Program

Not only is the Gateway Gazette all about Good News for readers…

It’s Good News for businesses too!

The Gateway Gazette Referral Program is a great way to free up your marketing dollars to make them go further.

Call today to learn more or visit: http://referrals.gatewaygazette.ca!

For information on advertising, web design, packages or other marketing products and services available call: 403-933-4283 or 403-938-2469

I'm not getting any calls!

For most businesses, their first reaction is “That media isn’t working for me.

” But let’s face it, “that” media has an audience or it wouldn’t exist.

So why isn’t that audience calling you?

1. They don’t want what you’re offering;
2. Your ad didn’t grab their attention;
3. Your target customers aren’t part of that audience;

So the question becomes – is the answer to your problem to keep switching Medias? Or is it perhaps time to take a close look at what your ads are saying (or not saying)? And exactly who your customers are.

Let’s start with your customers. If you don’t know who your customers are, then you don’t stand a chance in selecting the right Media for your marketing.

I hear from different people all the time:

• “I won’t even look at the Wheel because it’s negative; it’s full of mistakes and mis-quotes. I don’t like it.”
• “I only read the Gazette because it’s a great read, local, fun, positive and interesting.”
• “I’m not interested in the Gazette because it doesn’t cover any hard news.”
• “I turn to the Wheel because that’s where I can get the real “newsy” news.”
• “I love Facebook, it keeps me in touch with so many people, some I haven’t talked to in years.”
• “I hate Facebook, it is such a complete waste of time.”
• “I do all my research online, it’s the best way to get detailed information at my convenience.”
• “I hate researching online, I can never find what I want, Google always gives me a bunch of crap results.”
• “I love well-built business websites that provide me with the information I’m looking for.”
• “I’ve given up looking at business' websites because they are so cluttered, I get lost looking for stuff and they’ve got so much flashy crap that it takes forever to load on my computer.”
• “I love country music.” / “I hate country music.” / “Classic Rock is my favourite.”
• “I can’t stand CJAY, their jokes are in bad taste.” / “Forbes is freakin’ hilarious.”

I could probably go on forever with thoughts and comments such as these. My point is, people are different. What one person loves another person will hate. In order to choose the best Media for your business, you absolutely MUST know your customer. Until you profile your customers you can’t even begin to hope that you’re advertising effectively. Instead of asking customers where they saw/heard your ads – try asking them what newspapers they read; what radio stations they listen to; are they low, moderate or high Internet users; do they like Facebook or other social media sites. This is the information that is going to tell you “where” you should be advertising. For sure it is possible that you’re going to get quite a mix, in fact I can almost guarantee it, but if you gather enough information from enough people you’re going to be able to come up with some statistics. 50% of your customers love Facebook, 10% never heard of it, 10% don’t care, 30% hate it. 50% of your customers read the Gazette, 20% read the Wheel, 20% read both, 10% don’t read either. Are you starting to see the kind of information these type of statistics can give you about how you should be handling your advertising/marketing? But remember, this example doesn’t mean that you would put half of your marketing budget into Facebook and half of it into the Gazette and that’s it. It simply indicates how much weight to put into each level of Media. Facebook is free (unless you choose to do some of their paid advertising, which is a viable option to consider), so for the most part, your Facebook (or other Social Media site) is primarily going to cost you time rather than money. A larger percentage of your customers are reading the Gazette, but some of them are also reading the Wheel – so divide your print advertising dollars on something like a 70/30 split, or 50/30/20 and include another publication.

Profiling your customers is the ONLY way to determine WHERE you should be advertising. Running an ad and then saying “It didn’t work, must be the Media.” Plain and simple, is wrong and if you choose to continue to think about your advertising that way, your advertising will never work for you successfully on a consistent basis. I do apologize if that comes across a bit bold and blunt – but it’s the truth and sometimes we need to hear that truth in its raw form (not all prettied up) for the realization to dawn.

So let’s assume that you’ve got the customer profile taken care of, you know where your customer media “hang-outs” are. But damn it, you’re still not getting the calls. This will be due to one of two factors: either your ads aren’t getting anyone’s attention, or nobody wants what you’re offering (badly enough). Some pretty strong statements again, but at the end of the day, despite the economy, people are still spending money. At this point in time perhaps they’re not spending as much as they were 3 years ago, but all that means is that you have to try a little bit harder to get your piece of the pie because the pie isn’t quite as big and thick as it used to be – but there is still a pie!

So how do you go about doing that? You need to take a hard look at what you’re offering to people and what you’re saying to them (or not saying). You need to find the right words and images that are going to grab their attention in the first place, then you need to find the right words to keep their attention and get them excited, then you need to give them a reason to take some action. Here are some suggestions:

1. Come up with a catchy headline that will grab a person’s attention that possesses an emotion;
2. Tie your headline into the “body” of your ad through the emotion you introduced in your headline;
3. Close your ad with how your business will appeal to the emotion you’ve tapped into in steps 1 and 2.

You’ve also heard it described as “Start by giving them a problem, finish by being the solution to that problem.”

Once you’ve got a de-cluttered ad that is designed to get people’s attention, then you need to test and measure that ad. You must make sure that you are cross-marketing with the same message, presented consistently, that you are using appropriate tracking methods, that you give the ad enough exposure in enough places for long enough before you can make the decision of “this ad isn’t working”. If that is the outcome in the end, then you need to rework your message to something different then test and measure again. Like I said at the start of this article, existing Media’s have an audience – once you’ve determined where your customers hang out, your challenge becomes getting their attention. There is nothing wrong with the Media – you are simply either not getting their attention or are saying the wrong thing(s).