Who’s the Voice of Your Company?

Who’s the Voice of Your Company?

Some of the most effective marketing successes in history, both locally and nationally, have involved capitalizing on the voices, faces, and personalities of charismatic and humble business owners and corporate leaders.

Nationally, you may recall Chryslers’ Lee Iacocca or Wendy’s humble founder Dave Thomas. More recently the spokesperson for Quicken Loans also happens to be their President and Chief Marketing Officer Jay Farner.  In these cases, and many more, consumers have responded positively to the credible messages delivered by real people.

Locally, you see and hear business owners voice their own ads, some of which are fantastically real and have moved their business from mediocracy to home town heroes, and from rags to riches. 

People buy from people they trust. It’s that simple.  But if you don’t come across as real, trustworthy, and humble, the chances of you going from local to national are slim.  Even if you don’t have dreams of going national, you need to be credible.

Two of the ten tips for being front and center in your campaigns are:

1.) Check your ego at the door. Only voice your commercials or have quotes and photos of yourself in your advertising if it is strategically correct to do so from a marketing perspective. It’s not about hearing your own voice or having mom see your picture, it’s about bringing believability and memorability to your campaign.

2.) Introduce yourself as the Owner, CEO or President.  There is NO reason to either voice the ad or be in the video if you don’t introduce yourself.  

As the owner or president, you don’t need to be better at voicing the ads than a disc jockey, actor or actress, you simply need to serve the purpose of you doing the ad, and that is to become the voice or face of the company.  If you can’t add purpose, hire a caveman, create a fictional character or let someone else do it!

Nothing sells like the human voice and using your own voice and words can make your campaign stand out against a hoard of ads produced by professional, anonymous sources.

What I just shared with you is from my Sound ADvice weekly marketing tips newsletter.  You can get it free in your email by filling out the form on this page. 

But I also want to share more on this topic right now.

Too often I’ve seen or heard a business owner appear in their own advertising and it just falls flat.  I’m not going to call them out but you can probably think of a couple that you’ve seen or heard.

What those ads usually miss is authenticity.

What is authenticity in advertising?

Well, it can be bunch of hype, or fast talking, or becoming a caricature instead of being your genuine self.

Remember to keep the human relationship factor in your marketing.

When we need or want what you have to sell, we want you to talk with us person to person, not salesperson to customer.

There is one more item that I must share with you that is unique in Fort Wayne and my radio station, WOWO radio.

WOWO has a select number of advertising partners that are getting the best of the best in their ad campaigns.

I call it the Platinum Level.

The spokesperson for their company is one of our trusted radio personalities and these companies are getting the very best type of ad campaign we offer.

Kayla Blakeslee, host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO and Pat Miller, host of the Pat Miller Program both do live ads for these special companies.  On the weekends, both Rick Wolf, host of House Calls and our WOWO Farm Director, Rob Winters also will do live ads on their programs on WOWO.

Kayla, Pat, Rob and Rick are the official spokesperson for the companies that they endorse through their live 60 second radio ads.  In many cases, these are also testimonial ads because they have had these companies do work for them.   There is also a level of exclusivity that these companies receive.  Pat will only endorse one Heating and Cooling company. Any others that you hear when listening to the Pat Miller Program are not getting Pat’s personal endorsement.  

Now there are 5 or 6 Heating and Cooling companies on WOWO and all are doing well, but each has a different marketing strategy and having the personal endorsement from one of our Live, local radio hosts is an excellent way to stand out too.

Let’s talk about ways that I can help you and your business noticeable with the right spokesperson.  Contact me, Scott @ WOWO.com