The Timeless Truths in Marketing

The Timeless Truths in Marketing

by | Apr 28, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

2020 is not the year we were expecting when we were making our resolutions a few months ago is it?

State after state has issued some form of stay-at-home order to protect their citizens from Covid-19.

While I just stated the obvious, I’m going to delve into the not so obvious.

The advertising and marketing principles that are timeless.

Some of you are wondering what to do with your ads.

Should I switch to a different medium?

Should I change up my message?

Should I just stop and wait until things return to normal?

Let’s take those three questions one at a time.

Should I switch to a different advertising medium?  If you are doing online marketing and it was working for you before then the answer is probably no, if it is working, continue.  If you were using billboards there are less cars on the roads so you are probably getting less viewers than you were promised.

Speaking of viewers, has TV viewing skyrocketed with everyone staying at home?  Yes, a month ago, at the end of March, both broadcast, over the air and cable viewing jumped 30%.  But then something else happened too that is still going on.  The TV series that were still in production for this season had to end their seasons early because the virus shut down the studios.  The real benefactor of all this extra screen time has been the streaming services like NetFlix and their competitors with little or no advertising.  That doesn’t help you out as an advertiser does it…

I will tell you that with the insider knowledge and data that I have access to, radio listenership is actually up.  Stations like mine, WOWO radio with their news and talk format have seen tremendous increases and a big portion of that increase is coming from the smart speakers we all got the past couple of years.  Alexa is becoming radio’s best friend.  Contact me and I can share with you the specifics on the increased listenership to WOWO radio and how we can get your business in front of thousands of consumers every week.

The next question is, Should I change up my message?  Probably but not in the way you are thinking.  If you think your ads need to say that your business has instituted safety measures, or you are now cleaning more than before, you are just like all the others advertising right now.  That is if it’s your main message.  You need a stronger message, one that tells consumers why they should give you their money and not give it to your competitor.

Here’s the Timeless Truth in Marketing that is really important right now. You need to follow Human Relationship Principles in your advertising.

Human Relationship Principles are the principles that we instinctively are drawn to because we are human.  We want to feel good about others, to trust others, to believe that the others are going to be honest and have a good heart.  Does your advertising and marketing reflect this type of message?  Or are your ads filled with gimmicks and cliches?

Four years ago I wrote about Human Relationship Principles in Marketing and I invite you to follow this link and read it again.  It’s timeless.

Now the last question. Should I just stop advertising and wait until things return to normal?  The answer is a qualified no. If you can afford to, keep advertising.  Many companies will stop.  This means your share of voice will increase, if you continue.  Here’s an example:  Six restaurants are all advertising and dividing up the audience 6 ways in proportion to the number of ads each place is airing.  What if 3 of those stop advertising?  Now instead of dividing the audience 6 ways, you are only carving it up into 3 and everyone who is still inviting listeners to eat their food, will win.  Meanwhile the ones that stopped advertising, have a good chance of going out of business since they stopped inviting people to spend their money with them.

These Timeless Truths about Marketing have been around not just for a few years or even decades.  They are centuries old and will be even more important as we adjust to what the rest of 2020 and this decade has in store for our way of life.

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Learn From The Best

Learn From The Best

by | Apr 7, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo Sales Tips, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, Uncategorized, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s a weird and wacky world out there right now.

We are hearing stories about the record number of people who are filing for unemployment, the devastating stories of people dying from this mystery virus that we have yet to get a handle on because it is new to the medical and scientific community.

Some of us are working from home, other are at home trying to figure out how to occupy their time.

As business owners and managers, I understand you want some answers, but the answers to the questions you really want aren’t available yet.

We don’t know what the final tally will be healthwise or financially. We are living in the middle of a movie and this is not your typical romantic comedy or action flick where we know the good guys always win.  This is real life, your life, my life and the lives of the people we work with and live with.

You want answers, you want solutions, and while I wish I could give you a road map to follow exactly…

I can’t because each of you have different circumstances and variables that will determine the steps to take.

Instead I am going to take a moment and share with you some resources that I shared with my team.

Near the end of February, I was offered and accepted a promotion to become the General Sales Manager of WOWO Radio. WOWO is one of a dozen stations owned by Federated Media in Indiana  and the past few years the WOWO Local Sales Team has been the largest producer of revenue for our company.  I’ve been part of that team for nearly 7 years.

Less than 4 weeks after the promotion to lead, manage and coach our team, Black Friday hit.  It was my wife’s birthday March 13th and the orders to stay at home were causing businesses to scramble and try and figure out what to do next. 

One of the things I prepared for my team was a list of some resources that have helped me over the years. With the extra time you have and your desire to find some answers, this list of resources could spur your thinking and creativity.

In 1986 I made the switch from having fun and being creative as a radio personality in the programming side of the business, to needing to learn how to apply that creativity and fun to the money making side of the business, the advertising, marketing and sales side.

Roy H. Williams:  https://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/  I subscribe to this and have fun digging into the “rabbit hole” in each memo.

 

https://harveymackay.com/ Has a bunch of resources and I’ve read and recommend his first two books, Swim and Naked.

 

https://www.gitomer.com/ has free stuff you can sign up for.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Positioning-Battle-Your-Al-Ries/dp/0071373586  Is a book I bought when I first started in the advertising side of radio in Detroit.  Great stuff.

 

I subscribe to Art’s emails: https://businessbyphone.com/

 

And circling back to Roy Williams, some of his partners also write great stuff that you can subscribe to: https://wizardofads.org/articles/

 

I  also have over 1400 articles and over 150 podcast episodes that I’ve created at my own website: https://www.scotthoward.me/ and I update with fresh material every single week.

I have been learning for over 30 years and continue to soak up wisdom from others.

I also have a weekly newsletter called Sound ADvice that is free and delivered to your email Wednesday mornings if you sign up for it.

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Work From Home Tips

Work From Home Tips

by | Mar 31, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Preparing for WFH

If you google search “WFH”, you will learn that there are approximately 16 different acronyms for WFH. But due to our recent events, the two most recognizable are “Work from Home” or “Working from Home”. 

Before COVID-19, it was estimated that 8-million US employees worked from home regularly.  Today, that number has multiplied many times, and some say that it may be the “new normal”.

WFH sounds simple.  However, if it were, wouldn’t everyone be doing it? The fact is, it’s not simple. It’s not convenient. It’s not always feasible or the best situation, and by most standards, it’s not as productive as working in a normal office or work environment.  

Because of our current circumstances, today many business owners have either chosen to or have been forced to take the office home.  Whether you have already made the transition or are considering it, it’s imperative that you keep the days as normal and as productive as possible.

WFH comes with many distractions. Getting the most out of every hour and every day is critical, even if it’s a short-term situation.  To help you get the most out of your employees, I have a list of 8 rules for working at home.  Applying these rules in some shape and form will not only help you be fair to your employees but at the same time, keep them productive.

Rule #1 is Hold them Accountable.  While you don’t want them feeling untrusted, it’s only fair that you expect a good day’s work for a good day’s pay. 

Rule #2 is having them Set a Schedule.  WFH comes with many easy distractions. Having a set schedule will keep them on task and give them daily goals.  

Today’s technology (Google Hangout, Zoom, GoToMeeting, YouTube videos and many others), many of which are free, allows us to have face to face meetings and conversations.  Rule #6 is Start each Day Off with a Video Conference. Make this a positive experience. You might consider starting every morning with a short online meeting.  They can be brief with an agenda that looks something like this:  

1) Good Morning with a positive quote

2) Good news from yesterday (positive comments about customers or work situations, celebrate positive things that happened)

3) Challenges that they are facing by working at home or with customers, etc. 

4) Share positive ideas and comments (ways to improve – what they are thankful for)

5) Motivational or training videos

Everyone hopes that our current situation will be short-lived. In the meantime, if you would like to see all 8 Rules for Working From Home click here. We hope you find them helpful.

Stay Safe – Stay Healthy – Stay Strong!

What I just shared with you is from my weekly Sound ADvice email newsletter that is sent every Wednesday morning to people like you who request it.  Each week there are either some marketing tips, business tips or often some of both along with a link to get more details.

I lead a sales team for one of Federated Media’s radio stations in Fort Wayne Indiana.  Because we already had a hybrid Work From Home business model for our sales teams, some of what the WOWO Radio sales staff has been doing hasn’t changed.  However we are also tasked with having regular face to face in-person meetings with our advertising partners and prospective clients.  That has changed and we are working to adjust.  No, I’m not doing daily video sales meetings with our team because that would be too disruptive since we weren’t meeting daily in person previously.  Your business environment and set-up could be different. 

Behind the scenes, those of us in management are having twice weekly Zoom meetings to brainstorm with each other ideas and how to implement them.  We are living in the middle of history right now, like being in the middle of a movie and not knowing how it will end.

I do know this however:  The term Short-Term Pain for Long-Term Gain seems appropriate as we all make adjustments.   On the programming side of our radio operations, my afternoon talk show host, Pat Miller and our anchor of Fort Wayne’s Morning News, Kayla Blakeslee are both broadcasting from make-shift home studios.  We have limited staff coming to the radio station and we are closed to the public so prize winners are being mailed their winnings.

But life goes on.  We are launching new advertising campaigns for new advertising partners.  We are updating and adjusting the messages from our long time advertising partners and if you or your business wants to be on WOWO Radio, contact me.  Scott@WOWO.com is my email and we’ll get it done.

 

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Leadership Lessons from Jack

Leadership Lessons from Jack

by | Mar 24, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Lead Like Jack

Considered one of the greatest CEOs of all time, Jack Welch passed away on March 1st, 2020.  Jack was the CEO of General Electric (GE) from 1981-2001.  He is known for changing the way leaders lead.  His style was to hire the best people, let the people do the work, and get out of their way.  

During his tenure as CEO of GE, the value of the company grew from $14 billion to $400 billion in just 20 years. In 1999, Fortune Magazine named him “Manager of the Century”. 

While he did have his adversaries and not every deal he made was a winner, in the end, Jack Welch is most noted for his management style that turned GE into one of the largest companies in the world while under his guidance.

In his “8 Rules of Leadership”, Jack’s Rule #1 says, “Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence”.

The lessons taught and used in a mega-company like GE can and should relate to all businesses of all sizes.

If you would like to see the complete list of Jack Welch’s “8 Rules of Leadership” as published in Inc. Magazine’s November 13th, 2017 issue, click here.

Last year my company had the opportunity to upgrade their team. Federated Media is a privately owned company based in Indiana with radio stations and digital marketing divisions.  When an opening for a new leader for the Fort Wayne, Indiana division of Federated Media was announced, the search began nationwide to find the person most capable of not only leading our team for the next year, but also for the decades ahead. 

After multiple candidates went through the process, our CEO selected Ben Saurer to become the VP/General Manager of Federated Media’s Fort Wayne operations.  Ben is no stranger to the company, he has been the General Sales Manager of my station WOWO for years.  Ben was also responsible for leading the sales teams of our sister stations WKJG (ESPN) and WBYR (98.9 The Bear). Ben was also the local favorite for leading us, even though those of us who worked for him directly were a little nervous about who would and could replace him as General Sales Manager of those three stations.

One of Ben’s first roles as the Fort Wayne VP/GM was to hire his replacement General Sales Managers. Again a national search was conducted and within 8 weeks of Ben officially in his new position, he filled all three G.S.M. seats with two people.  Initially hired to become the Sales Manager of our ESPN station and our Classic Hits station (BIG 92.3) Kassie Taksey in January, it was announced that she would also take on the General Sales Manager role for 98.9 The Bear.  Kassie is a Federated Media veteran, having worked for us before and is an excellent choice to lead those sales teams.

The same thing happened with WOWO Radio. After a nationwide search and interviews, Ben Saurer announced that I would become the WOWO General Sales Manager to lead our team.  Over the next few months my role is changing as I divest myself of most of the advertising partners I was personally taking care of.  We also hired two brand new team members to replace me and to move forward in 2020. As Jack Welsh said, “Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team…” and that includes adding the right people to our teams.

If you would like to be considered to work for my team or any or the Fort Wayne Federated Media radio stations, start here: https://www.federatedmedia.com/fort-wayne-market/ 

And if you would like more business tips and insight, subscribe to my free weekly Sound ADvice email newsletter.

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The Power of Persistence

The Power of Persistence

by | Feb 4, 2020 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

Today I have a personal story to share with you and I’ve titled it the power of persistence.

The audio version of this article marks a milestone of 150.

This will be the 150th episode of the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast.

Since I do weekly updates, that means nearly 3 full years under my belt of writing and producing a weekly podcast.

If you are a new reader or listener, indulge me for a moment while I tell you the back story of the podcast.

I work for Federated Media in Fort Wayne Indiana.  I joined them in 2013 as part of their advertising sales team for radio station WOWO. In 2016, our company started a podcast initiative and a couple of our local managers approached me to ask if I would be willing to create a sales podcast.  Why me?  I’ll get to that in a moment.

Anyway, I said yes and in December of 2016 I created the first 4 episodes of the Genuine ScLoHo Media and Marketing Podcast.  However due to staffing changes, over the holidays, the launch of the podcast was delayed a few months until March 2017.  In about 6 weeks, it will be 3 full years that I’ve been doing a weekly podcast on media and marketing.

The reason I was asked to launch a podcast was because of what I was doing and what I had done in the past.  Around 2004, I started writing and publishing a few blogs including a couple focused on media and marketing.  In 2011, when I launched this website, I migrated over 10,000 articles that I had published and included them here.  Hang on, how did I end up publishing over 10,000 articles in 7 years?  I would sometimes write up to 4 times a day, 7 days a week.  This was just a hobby and passion, believe it or not.  It was not my paying job, I was working full time for another group of radio stations back then.

My online activity over the years has continued week after week, non-stop, even when I took a break from radio and worked full-time in the web world.  If you dig back into the 14,000 plus articles I have published you’ll see what I wrote about during my time in the digital marketing profession.

But there is more to my background, I also spent a number of years behind the microphone as a radio personality of sorts.  I have the technical background to produce a podcast.

The Power of Persistence in marketing myself has paid off.

Ten years ago, when I was cranking out 20 or more articles every week, I was also invited to teach some college classes.  I was also asked to lead a couple of workshops on social media, digital marketing and personal branding.  I was named one of Northeast Indiana’s Top 101 connectors by Leadership Fort Wayne and was also nominated a few times for some statewide awards in social media.

6 years ago, this website won another award for the content I was putting out every week.

I never did this for the awards, I did it and do it as a creative outlet and to help others.

A couple more examples of the Power of Persistence pertaining to what I do.  This year I have had more people come find me, seeking me out to offer advice, plan their advertising and marketing and spend money due to my expertise.  The other day I was contacted by a local medical group after they found an article I originally wrote a few years ago.

They said:

It is refreshing to hear of the integrity and passion you have for your work, that was conveyed through the article we read about advertising.

We are very much looking forward to meeting with you!

The other example is a frequent comment I get and my co-workers get about radio ads that I have running on WOWO offering marketing tips similar to what I write and podcast about.  Nearly every week, someone tells me that they appreciate what I am sharing.

The Power of Persistence can work wonders for you and your business too.  I have some fantastic advertising partners and friends who have seen the Power of Persistence pay off for them.  Some are in their first couple years of business, others are over 70 years old.  They have been doing the right thing, the right way and letting others know that they are available to take care of them with their business expertise.

My advice to you, is to first off be honest.  Honest in every way with everyone.  Do the right thing, and keep doing the right thing every day, every week, every month, every year, persistently. And don’t be shy, let others know about you and invite them to do business with you.

It really works.  If you want my help contact me.  You can also sign up for my free Sound ADvice business tips email newsletter in the box below.

 

 

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Cutting The Cord and The End of Local TV Advertising

Cutting The Cord and The End of Local TV Advertising

by | Dec 16, 2019 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It was about three weeks ago when we became a full fledge streaming household.

And now the end of local TV advertising impacting us has hit our home.

It was a gradual process and our story is both personal and widespread.

If your business has been using the local TV stations to advertise, you’ve probably seen a decline in new customers coming from your TV ads.  Today I am going to share with you my families experience with TV viewing and at the end offer you some alternatives.

My wife and I are Baby Boomers and our 5 kids are all in their 30’s.  My wife and I grew up with over the air TV.  I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana with ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and an independent station (now FOX) as my 5 choices.  If we wanted to watch a show some other time than when it was broadcast, my parents would record it themselves on real video tape cassettes.  (My wife grew up in the Chicago area,where they had a few more TV stations available).

In my 20’s I had cable TV with nearly 100 different channels available for less than 30 bucks a month.  CNN was the 24 hour news channel, TBS and WGN were the two local stations that were now national and then there were things like the Home Shopping Channel, the Weather Channel and American Movie Classics that I recall getting significant viewing in my family but the local channels were still getting the majority of our screentime.  This was the 1980’s and 1990’s I’m talking about.  MTV with video jocks debuted and they actually played music videos the way a radio station would play music back then.  I worked on the air at a top 40 radio station and remember seeing all of this unfold and wondered in the back of my mind, what would happen to radio listenership now that music television was competing with us.

However as you know, the MTV of the past couple decades is nothing like that now.  It’s just another one of the 200+ video channels out there.  Music radio has had other competitive challenges but MTV and their sister station VH1 don’t compete with radio anymore.

When I returned to Fort Wayne 20 years ago, I was talking with a friend of mine who worked in TV advertising about the impact of cable TV and he said it was minimal at the time.  Despite the fact that Comcast was in 70% of the homes, people were still watching what we call Live TV.  Live TV is what the stations and networks are broadcasting live at the moment.  Well that has changed.

Just like the internet of today is nothing like the internet was when Facebook launched about 15 years ago, TV viewing is different too.  Even the terms have changed.  The words screentime and video are replacing viewership and television and for a good reason.  My first computer was a desktop computer with a dial-up connection in 1998 or so.  It was slow and clunky and you had to sit at a computer desk.  Watching video over the internet was unheard of.

Within 5 years I bought a new desktop for the family, a laptop for myself and we had flip phones now too.

Fast forward a few more years and the kids are all out of the house, some in college, some married, everyone has a phone in their pocket that is more powerful than my first desktop computer and we can now watch video on any number of devices.  The concept of the family gathering around the TV together is gone forever except for special occasions like perhaps the Superbowl.

Meanwhile there’s this company called Netflix that started out as a DVD rental company but has evolved to an internet delivery system.  Amazon has grown from the original bookseller to the seller of everything and their Prime Members are now able to watch movies and shows online too.

YouTube started in 2005 and 15 months later gets bought by Google which continues to support it and make it a huge money machine for them.  Want to learn how to fix a leaky faucet?  Watch a video on You Tube.  I give this example because the radio station I work for, WOWO in Fort Wayne had a long running home improvement show every Saturday morning for a couple of hours. Listeners could call in and talk to an expert free about their home project.  Over the nearly 20 years the show was on WOWO we started to see a decline in listener participation.  From my own experience as a homeowner, I can see how this corresponded with the growth of YouTube.  No longer did I need to wait until Saturday to get my answers,  I could search for a YouTube video on Tuesday and get the answers. YouTube has been listed as one of the top 5 search engines in recent years.

So now you know the backstory of how TV viewership converted to video screentime over the past 30+ years, there is more that has been going on in the past couple years that is hurting local TV viewership today.

It’s two things actually.  Cord Cutting and Television Programming.

Television Programming has had the biggest impact.  The shows that the big broadcast TV networks are showing are not getting the viewers compared to years ago.  Part of this is ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX have failed to recognize who watches Live TV.  It’s not the younger generations.  My kids have no need to watch.  Sure they’ll watch some PBS Kids shows with their kids, but not over the TV broadcast airwaves live.

Most of my 30 year old kids don’t have access to local broadcast TV.  But they have Netflix.  Which brings me to the Cord Cutting revolution.

With my wife and I being empty nesters, the last time we moved we had 5 TV’s hooked up to Comcast/Xfinity which I scaled down to 3. One TV in the family room, one in the bedroom and one in the guest room for grandkids.  Our internet and TV package was $200 per month and going up.  I called this stupid money.  For a couple of years I tried cutting the cord but could not get my local broadcast TV channels.  Finally in the summer of 2018, after researching on YouTube I came up with a way to boost my local TV’s broadcast reception and switch to an Internet only package from Frontier.  $40 per month instead of $200.  However since my wife wanted to watch her cable news shows, I also added another $40 to get the DirectTV Now streaming package, which made it $80 per month.  Still less than 1/2 the price of having cable.

I had to add a few inconveniences, to make it all work like Chromecast on the two main TV’s so we could send the streaming from our laptops to the TV’s but we worked it out.

Direct TV is owned by AT&T and recently they renamed the DirectTV Now streaming service to ATT TV Now and they’ve also been jacking up the price.  What was $40 became $50 and now is $65.   ATT has been losing money on their streaming services and losing subscribers too.  Millions of them have left.  Last month I left too.

Our family now uses the YouTubeTV streaming service.  I did my research and even signed up for a 5 day free trial.  After the first day, I saw a vast improvement in the user experience.  So did my wife.

On the second day, I bought a Roku Streaming Stick to convert our family room TV to the smart TV experience.  Our bedroom TV I bought last year was already a Roku smart TV.   My wife was instantly impressed with the options and quality and the convenience, considering that before I did this she had to lug her laptop from room to room and chromecast her stream to the TV.  This new experience was reminiscent of the convenience we had with cable TV but even better.

So here we have two baby boomers doing what the younger generations have already been doing and that is abandoning local broadcast TV and traditional cable TV for a streaming package that offers more at a fraction of the cost.  YouTubeTV in Fort Wayne does offer the local broadcast channels live if we want to watch them.  However the programming from CBS, NBC, ABC or FOX, we are more likely to watch later, not live and we can do that easily.  When we watch Bull, or NCIS on our own time schedule, we don’t get any local ads.  This is much different from decades ago when my Dad used to record his favorite shows and they included the local TV commercials.

Here is the advice I give my friends and clients regarding local broadcast TV advertising.  Buy the local news. Skip the rest.  However even that idea is questionable.  My local newscasts are now broadcast online live without the commercials.  Because they are doing whatever they can to find viewers.  The sad part for you as an advertiser on those local TV newscasts, is it doesn’t include your business.

Here’s the other advice I give.  Buy ads on my radio station.  WOWO radio has remained the most listened to radio station for decades for grownups age 35 and older.  You know, the people who are buying stuff, big stuff like homes and cars and kids stuff and grandkids stuff and vacations and well, you name it.

WOWO is wrapping up the year with another record breaking year in producing results for our advertising partners and I expect this to continue for many years ahead.  Sit down with me and I can share more with you.

UPDATE: I just received information that the time spent with radio each week is DOUBLE the time spent with TV. 

According to a new report from Nielsen, the ratings firm says adults 18 and older spend just shy of six hours with their TV-connected devices every week. Time spent with radio is nearly 12 hours per week. Also News/Talk (like WOWO Radio) is the most popular radio format nationwide.  Details are here: https://radioink.com/2019/12/18/radio-listening-dwarfs-tv-watching/

Also if you are looking for Sound ADvice on business and marketing, fill out the form below for my Sound ADvice weekly newsletter.  We take time off during holiday weeks but every other week, it will appear in your email Wednesday mornings.

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