by Scott Howard | Jul 7, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
At WOWO Radio, I sell advertising. Wait, I really help businesses solve their Key Marketing Challenges.
Sometimes that includes ads on WOWO, sometimes that includes using our Federated Digital Solutions and sometime it’s both.
I’m about to show you data from Google Analytics from 3 of my advertising partners.
This business started with embedded live news sponsorship ads, 10 seconds long on WOWO in 2015. In March 2016 we added Custom Audience Targeting and a SEM/PPC campaign from Federated Digital Solutions.
The first source is people directly typing in the business URL, which we have been saying on WOWO 15 times a week for nearly 60 weeks. Number two on the list are the C.A.T. Display ads from Federated Digital Solutions. #4 and #5 are the SEM/PPC digital ads we are doing. (7, 9 & 10 are spam.)
Let’s look at another local business.
This business started on WOWO Radio with Live Endorsement ads in 2015 that include both their phone number and web address. They are an established name with over 60 years in business. In February 2016 we added Custom Audience Targeting and on June 4th took over their SEM/PPC campaign.
Again the results from our Federated Digital Solution campaigns are amazing. #1 on the list is the C.A.T Digital Display ads. #5 is the results from 3 weeks of our managing their SEM/PPC compared to #6 which are the results from 5 months of SEM managed by their old vendor.
One more to share today…
This is a local manufacturing company that sells wholesale. Their very specialized market is worldwide. We are only using a Custom Audience Targeting Digital Display Ad campaign that covers the entire U.S.A. No WOWO radio ads.
This is the results after 6 weeks. Once again Custom Audience Targeting Display Ads, (#1 on the list) is driving traffic to their website which was our goal. We’ve looked at the details of who the people are that are seeing and clicking on their display ads and we are on track to help them make a lot of money.
Questions? Ask me.
by Scott Howard | Jul 6, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Around the radio station we talk about offering a “CAT” advertising solution as one of the methods to help our advertising partners.
But most of you are clueless if I were to ask you, “Do You Know What C.A.T. Is?”
That’s alright because I’m going to take a couple days to explain.
First off C.A.T. is a made-up word. 
But that’s okay, because it’s an acronym for something pretty spectacular that is offered exclusively by Federated Media, the parent company of my radio station WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We have a digital division called Federated Digital Solutions, and C.A.T. is one of the solutions.
C.A.T. stands for Custom Audience Targeting. Here’s why those three words were selected.
Imagine if you could targeting your advertising so only specially qualified individuals saw or heard your ad?
If this was possible while watching T.V. that means the ads that you see while watching your favorite show would be different than the ads I see, while watching the same show at the exact same time!
Say you are into Country Music, and I’m more of a Classic Rock fan, you’d see ads for the upcoming country concert coming to town and I’d see some old rockers concert commercial.
So far, that’s not possible. It’s not possible with television, radio, print ads, billboards either.
But it is possible with the power of digital display ads. These are the ads that seem to follow you around after you’ve been to a website and ads for that website appear when you’re off looking up something else online.
What I just described is called Retargeting and it works by the website you visited placing a pixel or cookie on your web browser. Retargeting is the oldest form of this digital display ad technology.
When I combine it with three other methods of finding the right target for your ads, it can be pretty powerful.
Those three other methods include Search Retargeting, Contextual Retargeting and GeoFencing. Together, these 4 methods of finding the right audience for your digital display ads combined with other qualifying data helps us to create a Custom Audience Target.
Curious about how this works? Contact me and I’ll show you.
by Scott Howard | Jun 30, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Our previous article talked about making sure you put together a marketing strategy plan by asking and answering the right questions in the right order. But hand-in-hand with that, I also need you to consider, What Happens When I Google You?
I do this all the time. Before I meet with someone, I ask Google to find out whatever it can about that person or business. 
I’m not the only one who does this. With the advances in our mobile tech to be able to search simply by talking, this is quickly becoming the norm. So it doesn’t matter if you Google others, others are Googling you.
Back to the question, What Happens When I Google You?
The worst that could happen is a bunch of negative results on page one.
But right behind that is no results on page one.
According to the internet, you do not exist.
I find this too often with business people that are wanting to promote their business.
In the olden days, before the internet, you needed a physical location and a phone number to be legit.
Now you need to be found online. That’s more important than a street address and phone number.
And if you are on the first page with a link to what you want people to find when they Google you, excellent!
You need to invest in more than a Facebook page, you really need to pony up the cash and buy your own domain and create at least a landing page that you control and is about you.
Let’s review:
- People will Google you to learn about you
- Negative results about you are bad
- Not being found at all is also bad.
- You have the power to be found by creating your own spot online
Need help? Talk to me.
by Scott Howard | Jun 29, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
This week I was asked by my friend Kevin Mullett to sit on a panel for the Social Media/Marketing Breakfast that he emcee’s each month in Fort Wayne, Indiana along with Ric Johnson from Xymmetrix.
Kevin, Ric and me. Picture snapped by my friend Ryan Recker.
The topic was Online Reputation Management which included a great discussion and plenty of advice. This monthly event is 5 years strong and if you want details, contact me.
But what really struck me recently was the way media has changed over the past 5 years and even the 10 years before. Some of the members of the audience weren’t involved in any form of media, online or otherwise 15 years ago.
From a marketing perspective, these millennials don’t know about life without the web. Or they have lived a majority of their lives with the web.
Compare that with the 40 year old or 55 year old business person who has to make marketing and advertising decisions to keep their company alive and growing for the next 15 years.
Before 2000 a minority of businesses had a website. Social Media really started to take off with MySpace from 2005 through 2008. By 2009 Facebook became the largest Social Media platform and others have come and gone while even more have come and evolved as they discovered their niche. In researching this article, I discovered that MySpace has a Facebook account!
Social media platforms have allowed all of us to be both consumers of content along with creators of content. Facebook has launched a live video capability to compete with the others that offer similar options. This is vastly different than the media choices we had before. One of the differences is the size of the audiences doesn’t compare.
Traditional media included T.V., radio, newspapers, magazines. Lots of advertising options in traditional media. Plus other traditional advertising options included yellow page phone books, billboard, direct mail and flyers/posters.
There has been an explosion of choices we have as consumers to get the entertainment and information we want and need. Instead of settling for summer reruns or special summer seasons of TV shows, I will go to my Amazon Prime Video account and stream movies or shows I want to watch. I can use my Google Chromecast to watch on my TV. Others are using Netflix or Hulu or who knows what to watch video entertainment.
We have the ability as consumers to ignore the traditional media and still be informed and entertained.
However many of us don’t ignore traditional media. I work in the radio industry and also online world. Over 90% of Americans listen to a radio station every week.
We just got radio rating information and my station WOWO continues to lead the pack with more adult listeners than anyone. Overall WOWO is one of 4 stations that has over 100,000 weekly listeners and 98% are over the age of 18.
WOWO is still a mass media that produces results for the advertising partners. Sadly that is not always true of all radio stations for a variety of reasons.
What about the online advertising options? Technology has allowed us to pinpoint the people that a business wants as customers, anywhere in the world and deliver advertising marketing messages to them. It’s sort of mindblowing. But I’ve seen it in action with my advertising partners. I’ll delve into some of those details next week.
Bottom line is simple:
- You need to invite customers to do business with you.
- There are people who will become your customers if you invite them. They are spending their money every week on stuff they need and want.
- I can help you make that connection to invite them to spend money with you.
Want to know more? Let’s meet.
by Scott Howard | Jun 15, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo Sales Tips, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
A co-worker asked me recently what I do to prospect. In other words, what do I do to find new advertising partners.
My answer is different than what I would recommend others do because each of us have different connections and personalities and there is no “one-size-fits-all”.
One thing all of us have in common, is we need to be inviting people to do business with us, and the methods we use should be relevant to us and our potential customers.
Last week I received an email that was both lazy and stupid.
Lazy because the person did absolutely nothing to qualify me for his service. And Stupid because, I now have a negative opinion of him and his company. Here, take a look:
I use email as a communication tool. I use it as a prospecting tool. I never would send an email like Brian sent, and neither should you. I’d like your feedback on why this email is lazy and stupid, or perhaps you think it’s okay. Either way, leave a comment, I’d like to know your thoughts.
by Scott Howard | May 11, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
If someone is looking for your business because they want want to spend money with you, or at least consider spending money with you, can they find you?
This is a problem with lots of businesses, big and small.
I have a friend who has a successful painting business that he’s been operating for over 30 years. But you can’t find him unless you know exactly how to connect with him. There are a couple ways to spell his last name and he doesn’t have a website, his Facebook page has less than 100 likes, etc.
I also have friends who have had a successful business for nearly 16 years that does pretty good. They are local owners of a world-wide franchise, so they can be found online. But they also launched a related side business and due to limited name recognition, they are not being found by people who want to hire them. I know this because I got an email from someone who was looking for them, but didn’t remember the exact name of the company. He tried to no avail but it was impossible.
Another friend who had decent exposure online, if you knew her name, but there was a Google Map listing that showed up with all the wrong contact information because she moved. I learned this old listing was over 5 years old and who knows how many thousands of dollars she has lost because she was “hiding in plain sight”?
This is just 3 examples of a dozen I could mention off the top of my head that I’ve seen this year. None of these people or businesses are out of business, yet…
I say yet, because the danger is there. If people don’t know how to find you, how to connect with you or simply can’t because your online presence is missing, wrong or inaccurate, You need to fix it.
Too busy? That’s a terrible excuse. Don’t know how to fix it? Hire a professional team that specialize in this. I’ve got one at Federated Digital Solutions and we can help. Contact me now with a text or phone call to 260-255-4357 or email Scott@WOWO.com.
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