8 Principles to Improve Your Life and Business

by Scott Howard | Aug 11, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an article on Medium.com titled: 8 Pillars of a Satisfied and Happy Life. Here’s a link to it: https://medium.com/mind-cafe/8-pillars-of-a-satisfied-and-happy-life-847d98707e81

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon as I read it and decided that I wanted to add my spin on the 8 Pillars with both insights on how to apply this to you business and also reflections on how I do it personally.

On the business side of my life, I am the General Sales Manager of WOWO Radio, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I lead and coach 6 full time advertising sales people on our Local Sales Team. I moved into this position at the beginning of 2020, a few weeks before Indiana went into lock-down due to the pandemic. This is my 8th year with WOWO and I’ve been in the media and marketing world most of my life, although I do know how to drive a forklift and run a thermoformer too.

On the personal side, my wife and I have been married for over two decades and our 5 kids from our 1st marriages of made us grandparents multiple times. The people on my Local Sales Team at WOWO range in age from my age to my kids age and so I know most of what they go through both personally and professionally. The term, “Been There, Done That”, applies however the world has changed since I was a new Dad, some for the better, other changes not so much.

Pillar Number One from the Medium story:

1. Allow Yourself To Be Happy Before You “Succeed”

Absolutely. As you grow, you need to learn to enjoy the journey. Starting a new business is challenging all the time, not just in extreme circumstances. Give yourself credit for doing the work. One of the ways I measure the activity of the sales team I work with is the types of activity they are doing and how much they are doing. I know that if they do certain benchmarks, success will follow.

Similarly, my wife likes gardening and it makes her happy. It is hard work and the rewards take time to grow, but in the meantime, she is happy doing the work. How about you? Do you have benchmarks in your business or life that you use to measure success before the financial success comes in?

2. Have A Clear Vision

Goals need to be both short and long term. My team has a big picture goal that I shared at the beginning of the year, and then each month I break it down into smaller chunks for each person. Together I work with each of them to help guide them to achieve those smaller goals which will add up to the original long term goal for our team.

I’ve worked for others who had no vision or they were continually changing course which creates frustration and confusion. As a business owner, make sure your team understands the vision for your company too. When my wife and I plan a trip either for ourselves or to visit family, we agree on the important elements and then also plan the details. I learned several years ago how we best travel together and perhaps you and your spouse have learned what works best for you too.

3. Devote Yourself To Something Meaningful

I really dislike most advertising salespeople. At least the way they do business, too many are focused on themselves, not on their clients success. That has been the secret to my success. To help others succeed, using the wisdom, knowledge and experience I’ve learned. That’s one way I devote myself to something meaningful. I also am involved serving on a non-profit organizations board to give back to the community. How do you and your employees give of yourselves?

4. Become a Lifelong Learner

The day I stop learning is the day I stop living. My formal education is not documented with college degrees but I keep getting invited to speak at numerous higher education colleges and universities. Be curious. Learn from others, listen and ask questions and figure out how to apply it to your life, your business or the people around you.

5. Do Not Settle For Less

I’ve done this a couple of times. I’ve walked away from the world of advertising and took a break, but then I returned. Some people decide not to return to their dreams and by doing that they never know if they could accomplish what they once sought. On the personal side of life, this is very personal. On the business side, you are going to have to decide what is important and what isn’t. I used to work with an auto repair shop that was going to be open 24 hours a day. Then when the owner discovered that it wasn’t a sustainable way to run his shop, he settled for less hours. He also discovered how to merge what his customers really wanted with his vision and came up with a business plan that was unique, and he’s doing great now.

6. Remember To Have Fun

I took my WOWO Local Advertising Sales Team out for a morning of golf and lunch last month. It was a team building event but it was more than that. It was a time to set aside time to just have fun. It wasn’t a reward for hitting a certain goal, it wasn’t earned based on performance, it was simply a guilt free way to hang out on a day when others were working and have fun.

At work, at home, having fun is something we all need to include in our lives regularly, not just special events. How do you accomplish this?

7. Take Care Of Yourself

At the end of 2020, I decided to improve my health by dropping a few pounds and lost 20 pounds in about 6 months. I’ve maintained that and am slowing dropping a few more this year. Stress is the silent killer for everyone it seems. 99 out of 100 people you see this month have something stressful going on in their lives that you may never know about. You need to take care of your health, and encourage those who work for you to do the same. Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual health are all needing our attention. The H. R. Department at WOWO’s parent company, Federated Media sends out reminders about this and also provides resources that members of my team have made use of.

8. Cherish Those You Love

This is the last pillar from the Medium.com article, but it’s not the least important. I’m blessed to have loving relationships with my family and we work at making sure we stay in touch and express that love.

While the dynamics are usually different in a business setting, how would the culture improve if you really told your staff individually what you appreciated about them?

They need to know that they are appreciated and why. The companies that have problems retaining employees are the ones that have the worst company cultures. As a business owner or manager, you set the example. A genuinely positive work environment is also appreciated by your customers and clients too.

I hope you’ve learned a few things today, and perhaps go back and answer those questions I mentioned to see how 2021 can be even better for you and those around you.

Transactional vs Relational Customers

by Scott Howard | Aug 4, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

One is more profitable. One is more needy. Both are important to the overall success of a business. Understanding how to identify each type and how to turn transactional customers, when possible, into relational can be a huge boost to your business.

Every business has basically two types of customer profiles:

1.) Transactional Customers
       – Only care about price
       – Have no brand or business loyalty
       – Demand more, but pay less
       – Consider themselves buying experts
      – Often return merchandise or complain about service when they discover the “cheapest” solution was not the best solution.

Warning:
Don’t confuse “traffic” with sales. Because transactional customers contact you so often per purchase, their “traffic” can cause you to think the majority of your customers care only about price. Seldom is this the case.

2.) Relational Customers
     – Want a salesperson or expert they can trust
       – Need help and advice
       – Are more loyal to brands and businesses
       – Are less demanding and more profitable
       – Become repeat customers

Relational customers make fewer visits per purchase than transactional customers but generally account for a minimum of 50% of sales and more than 70% of profits.

The Bottom Line

We attract the kind of customers, relational or transactional, by design. If you would like to design a more profitable business and attract more relational customers, click here to see our Profitable Customer Marketing Checklist.

What I just shared with you arrived in a few hundred peoples email this morning. It’s this weeks edition of my Sound ADvice newsletter and you can have it delivered to your inbox too by filling out the info in the Sound ADvice newsletter box below.

Let me take a moment add a few more insights.

All of us have a little bit of transactional and relational buying habits in us as consumers. All depends on the item or service we are considering spending money on as to what our priorities are. The problem I see that too many businesses don’t understand is that they think price is a higher priority than trust when we are spending money.

Several years ago, I was doing a Customer Needs Analysis with a HVAC dealer and he was talking about their quality and experience and all these great things that were relational. But his marketing was focused on offering discounts and I asked him if he liked giving away money. He was a little insulted until I challenged him to market his company the way he talked to me. He was afraid to because his competition advertised price discounts and he was playing follow the leader.

I talked to another HVAC dealer and got them to minimize the discounts in their marketing and focus on trust and expertise. They took my advice and saw their sales double over time.

Want help figuring out how to market your business and you are in northeast Indiana? Contact me. I’ve been doing this successfully for years and am currently the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio. My team and I will be glad to help. Scott@WOWO.com is my email.

Radio is Back On The Road

by Scott Howard | Jul 28, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s back.

Radio is back on the road.

In case you haven’t noticed this summer, a lot of us have been doing what we were discouraged from doing last summer.

Spring and Summer 2020 was the year of cancelled vacations, limited gatherings and working from home.

2021 has been much different. Forbes magazine proclaimed:

As The Country Opens Up, Radio Listening Is Returning To Pre-Pandemic Levels

And it’s true. Here’s more:

The pandemic forced millions to stay-at-home as businesses were temporarily closed, curtailing commuting hours. As working-remotely became a way of life, some office workers moved away from central cities to sparsely populated outer suburbs and second homes. These workers relied on Zoom calls, emails, chat rooms with more “personal time” to consume media.

I decided to ask my team about the way they have been doing meetings now and 90% of the meetings that they would have done in person in 2019 they are doing in person in 2021. What about the other 10%? Zoom meetings have created another option that they can used for meetings that is convenient in situations where time is a premium and distance would be challenging.

The Forbes article also addressed another issue that I’ve been hearing for years.

Even with the increase in web enhanced connected cars, the most popular source of audio infotainment in cars remains AM/FM radio. According to Edison Research in first quarter 2021, terrestrial radio accounted for 87% of all ad-supported in-car listening, followed by SiriusXM (6%), podcasts (5%), ad-supported Pandora (2%) and ad-supported Spotify (1%).

Our Federated Media radio stations, including mine, News/Talk WOWO have multiple methods for listeners to listen. WOWO can be heard on 1190am in the Indiana, Ohio and Michigan Tri-state area and if you are local to Fort Wayne, Indiana, you can also listen to WOWO at 107.5fm. Streaming online is another way WOWO listeners tune in, either on the WOWO App, or any of the other popular audio streaming apps, or by going to WOWO.com and click on the listen now button. There’s even a WOWO Skill for Alexa and our other Federated Media stations.

Yes, I’ve wandered off the subject of radio is back on the road. When you going wandering on the road this year, turn the radio on like nearly 90% of Americans are doing. And if you run a business and want to explore how to get these commuters to drive to your place, contact me, Scott@WOWO.com

Brand Building in Dollars and Sense

by Scott Howard | Jun 30, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Did you notice the title of this article has a play on words?

Or did you think it was just a typo?

Brand Building in Dollars and Sense with the word Sense spelled not like the cents we use to refer to money but as sense, as it makes sense or common sense which people say isn’t common anymore. I wonder if my grandparents said that too back in their day.

Anyway, I was reading a couple of different online articles, one from Roy H. Williams, the self proclaimed Wizard of Ads. Roy is a couple years older than me, and has created quite a reputation for media and marketing over the past few decades. He has a free weekly email called the Monday Morning Memo that I subscribe to and if you click on the picture in the email, you travel thru the rabbit hole created for that week. It’s an interesting journey most weeks.

On Monday June 21st, as I traveled thru the rabbit hole of the Monday Morning Memo, Roy shares the story of a client of his. I’m quoting Roy here:

One of my clients asked me to explain our marketing strategy to a guy from a private equity firm that is hoping to buy a chunk of my client’s company for a few hundred million dollars.

When we were retained 7 years ago, the company was bringing in barely $9m a year. Using radio as our primary driver of new business, we did nearly $250m in 2020 and are tracking to surpass $300m in 2021.

Did you catch that? In 7 years this company grew from 9 million in sales to over 300 million dollars this year and advertising on the radio is the primary driver of new business.

Here’s more of Roy’s story:

The private equity guy suggested that we should redirect our radio budget to online advertising because, “no one listens to the radio anymore.”

Now Roy goes into a lengthy and detailed explanation of how radio ratings work and how they know from the ratings service that the private equity dude is wrong. Then he decides to use not just statistics, but the real life example of this particular company.

“The objective of a radio campaign is to become the name the listener thinks of immediately and feels the best about whenever they need what we sell. Today’s ads aren’t meant to sell customers today. Today’s ads are just one more tap of the hammer as we drive our message into their minds. We want to achieve automatic, involuntary recall. Scientists call it ‘procedural memory.’”

And here’s where it gets really good. Roy asks the companies online marketing manager about the traffic they get to their website and she tells them there are just 10 search strings that make up most of the traffic to their website. The top 9 all include the name of the business. That is what the radio ads are doing… Branding the name of the business so when a potential customer needs the product or service, they Google the name of the company to get their contact information.

That last search string that drives people to their website amounts to just 5% of their website clicks. It uses a more generic search string that doesn’t include the company name.

Roy Williams continues:

So without the name recognition and goodwill built through radio, we would have done only 12-and-a-half million dollars last year instead of 250 million dollars.

That’s some real dollars there and it makes a lot of sense, right?

Don’t just take my word or the words of Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads. I also read about the benefits of branding from an article published in June from Nielsen that uses the classic buying funnel example.

WHEN IT COMES TO BRAND BUILDING, AWARENESS IS CRITICAL

The title of the article and the information point out why what Roy was saying works. Targeted online ads may be one of the ways that companies get traffic to their website, but unless their is familiarity of the company or product, we are not likely going to click on it. This familiarity is what brand building does and it’s at the top of the buying funnel.

This Upper Funnel Marketing is actually the foundation that will drive future sales because the future buyer is aware of the company before they have a need. 60% to 80% or more of your radio ads in most cases should focus on Upper Funnel Marketing. You may never need to spend money on the Lower Funnel Marketing which is the conversion stage because if we as marketers do our jobs building the brand reputations, the consumers will actually convert themselves when they have the need or want.

Want to know more about building your brand and growing your business for the future, not just this months sale? Contact me, Scott Howard. Drop me a note to Scott@WOWO.com.

Maybe it’s the Weather…

by Scott Howard | Jun 27, 2021 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Going to do some personal reflections on this Sunday…

You may wonder, why? I thought this website was all about business, media and marketing stuff?!

Yes that has been the focus for the past several years but I’ve sprinkled in some personal posts too.

This habit of sharing words online for me began over 15 years ago with a couple of blogs. Those blogs are what launched my online reputation and then in October of 2011 I launched this website at the urging of my friend and one-time co-worker Kevin Mullett. Uncle Kevin as he became known affectionately in Fort Wayne for his wisdom and guidance in the web world, particularly social media.

Back to the beginning of my sharing online. It was in the days of MySpace, before Facebook… I launched 2, then 3 blogs plus a few more that were side projects. The original 2, were ScLoHo’s Collective Wisdom which shared articles and stories from others that I got permission to quote with a link back to my source. This was the media and marketing blog. At the same time I launched ScLoHo’s Really? which was my other thoughts and reflections. The 3rd blog I mentioned was inspired by a conversation with my wife who was encouraging me to write a book, and instead I launched The Not-So-Secret-Writings-Of ScLoHo as another marketing site that only were my own words to keep it different from Collective Wisdom.

I was cranking out a ton on content back in those days around 2010. 35 a week, I think was the tally according to the schedule I created for myself. No need to go back to those old blog sites unless you are really curious. When I started this website, I imported nearly 10,000 of the articles and they live here now too.

When I was doing multiple postings a day, I was also working full time in radio. All the online ScLoHo stuff was a non-paying side hustle, that in measurable dollars, cost me each year, out of my pocket. But it was my hobby, my passion, and it was creating my ScLoHo brand along the way. I don’t know all of the ways it has paid off, I know a few in that I’ve been invited multiple times to speak and teach at the University level which I find humorous and ironic. A long time ago I was in the running to be the Executive Director to lead a non-profit Christian radio station and in the final interviews I was asked about my college credentials.

I didn’t have the required minimum degrees, but was light years ahead of the other candidates. I told them to give me an Honorary Degree to fulfill their needs, but that wasn’t acceptable. Looking back, I am thankful for the course my life has taken.

Looking back today is sort of the theme for my writing this piece today. Outside in Fort Wayne, it’s sunny at the moment, but I’ve already been rained on. This kind of weather is expected all week.

2020 was not the year any of us expected, some are calling it the “lost year” because of the many times we catch ourselves talking about “…last year when we did______” but it wasn’t last year, it was two years ago in 2019.

My wife and I are both on our 60’s this year and it seems like time has flown by since she threw me a surprise party for my 50th. And it also seems like it could have been just months ago too.

Mental health has been a topic of conversation publically more than ever with the disruption in lifestyles and daily habits due to the pandemic. Personally, I believe I was doing fine. None of us knew what to expect but by June of 2020, I was returning to work in my office after nearly 3 months of working from a home office. My wife Kathy and I took advantage of the summer weather to live as normally as we had in years past, except with less close contact in person with friends and family.

This weekend’s sermon at our church we watched last night because it’s one of the options our church implemented in 2020. Pre-recorded online services are released on Saturday mornings and are available on YouTube. The pastor referred to a New York Times article from May, 2021: There’s a Name for the Blah You’re Feeling: It’s Called Languishing.

Many of you have felt this, and for me, it didn’t seem to fit.

Until it did.

Today.

This morning I did my usual Sunday morning run to the Firefly Coffee Shop that I’ve been doing for nearly two decades and as I was buying my coffee, I saw they taped an obit on the glass of a regular, Greg that died this month.

Except for the lost year of 2020, I would see Greg on Sundays hanging out, talking, working on the Sunday Crossword from the paper. Greg and I would chat and it was just one of those comforting pieces of your life that you don’t notice until it’s gone. According to the Facebook posts of the Firefly, Greg passed away just four days after his last Sunday visit, a shock to many.

Greg and I weren’t close, there were others that knew him much more than I did and yet, it’s rather eye opening when you realize that you’ll never exchange hello’s again with someone that was a part of your personal routine for years.

There are a couple of other regulars from the Firefly that are no longer around and their passing over the years was not entirely unexpected to me as they were pushing 80 years old or older.

I lost a best friend this spring that was nearly 80 and I shared that with you too.

I’ve got another younger friend we thought was being stubborn about not wanting to see the doctor for over a week who finally went and is getting treatment and should be recovering.

I have an optimistic attitude and that includes excitement and joyfulness for the days, weeks and years ahead. We are doing a combination of living in the moment, planning for the future, and embracing the past, something that I hope and pray you do too, no matter what your current age or status is.

By the way, as I get ready to publish this, I glanced over my shoulder out the window, and it’s getting dark with clouds again.

No need to get stuck there though, sunshine will return. It always does.

Audio Insights

by Scott Howard | Jun 23, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Of the 5 senses most of us are born with, some have different filtering properties.

Those 5 human senses are

Taste
Touch
Sight
Hearing
Smell

Some of these might diminish as we get older, the most common ones are sight and hearing. Others vary depending on the individual as my wife’s sense of smell is much stronger than mine.

In the media and marketing world that I work with it’s usually the sense of sight and hearing that are most important. And there is one huge difference.

We can close our eyes and stop the visual messaging, but our ears are always listening. Even when we are dead asleep, we can be woken by an unexpected sound, right?

A recent report offers insights on different audio and why people listen to them.

Traditional AM/FM Radio, Owned Music such as CDs, Vinyl Albums, Downloaded MP3s , Music Streaming Services and Podcasts were all examined.

In my role as the General Sales Manager of WOWO radio, a news/talk station that’s nearly 100 years old, I always find these independent studies interesting and they often confirm what I already know.

There has always been an interesting relationship between music radio stations and “record companies”. When I worked for music stations we relied on the records/cds/mp3s for our programming. The record companies relied on the music radio stations to play and promote their recordings because it led to sales of their product.

There has always been a segment of the population that would find ways to get their music without either paying for it, or avoid commercials and the reality is that Never Radio group is actually a tiny percentage of the population. Most of us are consumers of multiple sources of audio.

Let’s dig in to the research.

AM/FM Radio stands alone as the audio most widely used to ‘get information’ and ‘feel connected. Podcast listeners most commonly listen to satisfy their curiosity: they listen ‘to learn something new’ but also ‘to be entertained’ and podcasts are the only audio type where many also listen ‘to be inspired.’

WOWO radio accomplishes this with our news talk format and our Federated Media Podcast network includes both archived highlights and interviews along with original content. On a personal or side note, the growing popularity of podcasts fits in with the current trend to On Demand entertainment that so many of us have been doing with TV viewing.

The top seven activities taking place while listening to AM/FM radio are: commuting by car, shopping/running errands by car, relaxing at home, working, doing chores/gardening, eating breakfast and driving kids to school/activities.

Traditional thinking has been that the most listened to times for radio stations is “drive times” because people are listening as they drive back and forth to work. Looking at the rating data I have for WOWO radio however, our listenership remains strong all day long.

AM/FM radio again carves out a distinct profile, most frequently riding shotgun as listeners commute, shop or run errands in their cars. Listeners to the other types of audio are more homebound, being most likely to listen while ‘relaxing at home.’ Many listeners to podcasts and owned music also listen in the car, unlike music streamers where data charges likely get in the way. AM/FM Radio serves a particularly distinct set of needs and use cases, reaching listeners when they are seeking information and connection and when they are out and about.

Also unique to the talk radio format is what I call “appointment listening”. Some of the most loyal talk radio listeners tune in daily to hear what their favorite talk show host has to share on WOWO. Music radio listeners are less likely to do this and may tune out if the station plays a song they don’t like or too many commercials in a row.

Want to know more about how to invite our listeners to become your customers? Contact me, Scott Howard with an email. Scott@WOWO.com is my email. I also have sponsorship opportunities for our podcasts along with on the radio, and if you’ve ever considered doing your own podcast, we have the tools and technology for that too.

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