Learned a few things today...

I have said for many years that if I learned something today, it was a good day. Well, today was a good day. In fact, it was a very good day because learned several things. I'm only going to blog about a couple of the things I learned today, simply because they relate to my livelihood and are of interest to me.

The company I work for recently added a new product in my area that I am selling. We now have a really nice community magazine publication that I'm selling ad space for, something that is totally new to me. As I've gotten into presenting the magazine and talking about it more with business owners and their staff, I've learned a few things about magazines in general, people and a different conversation that make sense... to me anyhow.

Magazines are usually sold to subscribers, right? Magazine ads are sold to businesses who want to brand their business and cause "top of mind awareness" amongst the readership, right? Well, at least this has been my personal take on magazines forever. I subscribe to several magazines. In fact, I have one laying by my chair, another in the bedroom and others in each bathroom in our home. Magazines have always been a part of my life so I enjoy them. Well, I did until I learned a little about how some magazines are sold and "circulated".

Ah, there's that word circulation. Circulation by definition as it relates to printed media means "the distribution of copies of a periodical among readers". Now, today though I learned that not all circulation statements from magazine publishers means the same thing. For instance, there are magazines I see all around town, in banks, insurance offices, realty offices, doctor offices, etc. In fact, these things are everywhere! I believe it is actually on purpose so they are easier for me to find. They are a great lead source for me! See, circulation means a totally different thing to that publication than it does to the one I am selling. Let me explain.

Here is the circulation process of the magazine I am selling. The magazine is printed with an address and name on the back each month. The magazines are taken to the post office and every copy is mailed out to a specific list by zip code, age, annual income and home value. Next month, the same process or "circulation" if you will, is followed again. In fact, there are so many of these magazines being "circulated" or "distributed" that the numbers rival those of the WSJ.

Let's think about the circulation of the publication I see laying around in banks and insurance offices. The magazines are printed, lots of them I've heard, and then they are bundled together. Those stacks or bundles are then delivered or "circulated" out to all the advertisers who have paid to have their business represented in the magazine. For about two months, those magazines "circulate" around the lobby. Then after a couple months, a new magazine is ready to start "circulation" and the old stack is "circulated" right into the trash can. That's right folks, off to the landfill with all those "circulated" magazines. Then the vicious circle begins all over again with the next publication.

How sad! All those trees! All that garbage! I learned a lot about circulation today. I learned that when a company states that they circulate a number of magazines, we should ask them how many are being mailed to a person's home, and not just a person, but a person who can use or may use the services or products I offer from my company.

I await your comments.

Your Brand & Online Display

What is online display you ask? Well, online display is sort of like having a billboard on the internet except you can actually measure how many times these billboards are seen. You can also measure how many times click them to your website and engage with your business. Types of online display ads can include banner ads, rich media, video, and more. Let me explain.

I have the ability to help you create ad content that is dynamic in nature in that it actually moves on the page. Now, I'm not talking about pop-ups and crazy things moving around in your ad, but rather a subtle movement that catches the eye of the viewer. This is what gets their attention as the images change and move about. Besides, who wants a blah old ad anyhow, right?

Once your ads are created, we load them in to a display network, one of the largest in the US through the Microsoft network and other well-known websites such as yahoo.com, yellowbook.com, parenting.com and thousands more. We also allow you to choose some geographical targeting. This means that if you only want customers within your town, county, state, etc. you can have your ads display only in those areas. A potential customer for your business may live out of the area but may be searching for your type of business in your area and still find your ads. The cool thing though is that as that one customer travels throughout the internet, your ads keep following them so they see your ads over and over again burning that impression into their brain so that when they need your type of business, you are top of mind!

Let's go over a few statistics related to online display:

The current global display advertising market is predicted to reach $25.27 billion this year, with a 36% growth to $34.4 billion in 2013.

The overall internet advertising market, which also includes paid search and internet classifieds in addition to online display ads, will increase around 31.5% from $72.18 billion in 2011 to $94.97 billion in 2013.

If you are planning on creating, enhancing or expanding your brand, online display is strongly advised. In today's modern age, no one can argue that the majority of consumers are online. They may not necessarily buy online, but they are researching and shopping online and online display is part of a branding campaign and will encourage engagement with consumers.

I offer various packages of online display that will help you create, enhance and expand your brand recognition. You may reach me at 304-885-4403 or by emailing info@blazonbrilliantly.com www.blazonbrilliantly.com

Successful SEM Management - What does it really take?

So, today I'm sitting here wanting to write something on my blog but not knowing what topic is most relevant nor where I should begin when out of the blue one of my clients calls me. It's Saturday and sometimes I'll answer client calls on a Saturday but sometimes not. This time though I chose to pick up the cell and see what's going on. Boy was I glad I did!! My client is a local home improvement business and in managing his internet marketing and website we are in a constant flux so that we manage his budget to maximize results. Just before Thanksgiving we'd met for a few hours and gone over some analysis and trending data so that we could increase his calls which had really been dismal of late. Trending said to focus on other things so we built our strategy and went to our analyst and asked her to make some changes. Well, the call today was a huge thank you! What a pleasant surprise to hear from a client whom I've worked with for about 5-6 years and hear that with the few simple changes made by his analyst, his phone is ringing again! In fact, he received two calls just today!! After getting the second one, he called to thank me and say that whatever I did, it worked!! I'm so excited for my clients when the strategies I build and implement for them pay off. My ultimate goal is to help a business owner maximize their marketing investments and reap the rewards financially. This is truly plain out fun!! What did I do that caused such a positive outcome for my client? I simply researched trends for his services, those that are most used this time of year and throughout the coming winter months. With that analysis we could see what people are more likely to search pertinent to his business and we adapted his online marketing strategies accordingly. The pay off for the client is more phone calls as a direct result of his online marketing campaign. So, the lesson here is two-fold: First, when a client calls, think positive and pick up the phone! Two, a well-managed online marketing strategy is imperative to success into today's fragmented marketplace.

Why Still Go Yellow?

Yellow you ask?  Is that still being used?  Do people really use those Yellowbooks?  Is it relavent today to my business?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes!!

All across America the phone book is still being used by millions of people on a regular basis.  See, perception and reality simply do not match on this particular instance.  Just ask one of the hundreds of thousands of business owners who still advertise their business in the local phone book and they will tell you the same thing.  Yes!!

Now, has usage declined?  Has usage changed?  Are the leads as good as they once were?  Are people using them less?

Yes, yes, yes and yes!!

That's right, I said "yes" to the fourth question.  Usage of the yellow pages has declined.  Industry data shows this to be true.  However, my opinion is this... Yellow page advertising is by and far one of the least costly forms of advertising when you look at cost per lead.  One call to a patio contractor for instance, pays for his entire year of advertising and likely the next few years if he lands a great customer.  So, does declining usage mean that nobody uses the yellow pages anymore?  Of course not!

Business owners have a responsibility to their customer base and to local consumers to advertise their products and services.  What's the old phrase, "Inquiring minds want to know?"  When a consumer looks into their local directory and your business isn't running an ad there, guess what, they are going to look to your competitor.  If nobody is advertising what they need or want, they will seek in other ways.  You just lost a customer!!

Remember this... one new client/customer/patient is worth the $1200 or $3000 or $500 you spend in yellow page advertising.  One new customer is also a referral source to your business and you must consider the lifetime value of that new customer.  If you do a great job, they will come back time and again, right?

Invest in yellow!  You will be glad you did!

Marketing a Local Event for Free!

Last year a pair of local business owners in our community decided they would begin a contest to see who was the best at making a one of America’s favorite foods, a hamburger. This idea began as the brain child of local entrepreneur Selina Meehleib. Selina’s husband is a local butcher who is half owner of a local butcher shop, Mountain State Meats and Catering. Selina runs the business and in particular the catering portion of the business. Having a background of being an expert in the meat industry gave Selina and her husband Ryan the validity in founding this local competiton. But, Selina needed to have other support in starting this and actually pulling it off and her funds were limited.
Selina approached local business owner Jason Roach of Sunfire Hearth Patio & Spa. Not only does Jason’s business specialize in outdoor patio furniture, spa and hot tubs, indoor/outdoor fireplaces, woodstoves, pellet stoves, etc. They also specialize in gas and pellet grills. How do most American’s prefer their burgers? Grilled! When Jason and Selina put their collective ideas together, the Big Bad Burger Contest was born!
Ok, so they had a great idea but again the funds were limited with which they would be able to market their idea of the contest and then there were prizes and press so here is how they pulled it off, all things anyone can use to market their big idea with small funds.
First, both Selina and Jason began talking to everyone about their idea. Selina knows hundreds of local business men and women and she talked up the contest to everyone seeking support in prizes as well as free marketing. Jason likewise knows hundreds of local business men and women and also spoke to many of them looking for support and particiation as contestants. Their goal was to have 50 contestants but they would be content with 20. Early on the local newspaper, The Journal, jumped in with support in print as did a local radio station owned by Prettyman Broadcasting. It wasn’t long before other sponsors and supporters jumped in to make the contest successful.
Finding judges was important because they had to be local yet someone who was experienced. Selina was able to secure West Virginia State Senator John Unger, II as the celebrity judge. This was very helpful as Senator Unger has experience judging in other local food competitions such as the Chili Cook-off and is a Kansas City BBQ judge. With Senator Unger’s participation this created validity for the competition and entrants began to come in quickly.
Selina also employed the knowledge of yours truly to create an online buzz through Twitter, Facebook and various blogs. As word got out and others jumped on this buzz was expanded by Around the Panhandle Magazine, The Buyer’s Guide, Hospice of the Panhandle, Inthepanhandle.com, and others in local media. It wasn’t long before they reached 20 entries in the two categories, beef and alternative burgers.
Jason and Selina were able with a very limited budget to build this event to actually be the largest first year event in Martinsburg, WV. Other than the cost to print full color fliers, and the time involved, they were able to market this event successfully with their own efforts. This coming year when they host the event, social media will be a large part of their marketing effort as well be the concerted efforts of the organizers to speak to as many local business owners, supporters and participants as they can reach personally. Who knows, maybe TV stations from the DC area will come out to feature the event or if they are lucky somone from the Food Network will sit up and take notice and attend as well.