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Should I Hire an Advertising Agency?

September 15, 2016 Advertising Questions

“Should I hire an advertising agency?” This question eventually comes to every owner of a growing, successful business. To effectively answer it, you must have a heart-to-heart with yourself, asking some tough questions in order to determine the answer.

Do I have the time to manage the advertising of my business?

This is probably the main reason that most companies eventually hire an ad agency. As an owner or principal in a company, you’ve got a lot of balls in the air. There isn’t enough time in your day to get to everything. Eventually things have to take priority, and these are generally things that have to do with managing the day-to-day functions of the business, not the promotion of the business. So comprehensive advertising strategy gets pushed to the side.

Can I come up with effective advertising messages?

You know your business better than anyone. But maybe you know it too well. Meaning, you speak the industry language all day long, but perhaps your customers aren’t as familiar as you are with the lingo. Hiring an outside company that can look at your business with a fresh perspective can pay dividends. They can create ad campaigns that talk the customer’s talk and zero in on what the customer is looking for.

Am I spending my company’s advertising budget as wisely as I should be?

Business owners get involved in advertising for their firm in the classic, referral way. That is, an industry colleague or fellow business owner you’ve spoken with said they had good results using X type of advertising. Following that advice, you’ve sunk your budget into that media, perhaps to the exclusion of other formats. If you’re having enormous success using this format, great. You may have hit gold on the first try. But an advertising agency can do a great job of looking at all potential advertising possibilities. For instance, they may know of a particular sponsorship opportunity that is perfectly matched for your firm. Most likely, you would not know of this potential if left to finding it yourself.

Am I getting the best deals when buying and placing media?

Not to stereotype too badly, but sales people for television and radio stations as well as other media can be pretty slick. Their job is to make you feel good about spending enormous sums on buys at card rate prices. You think you’re getting a good deal, but in reality you may not be. Advertising agencies know a few secrets about media buying. First, they know that everything is negotiable. You may be told that the media is sold out, but the fact is, this is almost never true. They also know to buy advertising based on ratings, not programs. A TV or radio rep may try to convince you that you need place during a particular program. This may be a good spot, but what are the ratings, demographics, etc.? They may just be trying to fill ad space.

Am I getting enough out of my in-house staff?

You may have a marketing director and staff that handles your advertising plan. How’s that working? A marketing staff can be good for a lot of things, but managing an advertising program may not be one of them. Instead, have your marketing department create a marketing plan and budget that includes hiring an experienced advertising agency—one with expertise in your niche and community—to handle the intricacies of advertising. This way your marketing team can focus on what it does best.

In the long run, your goal is to continue growing your business and its brand awareness. By taking a hard look at what you can and cannot do to promote it, you’ll be in a better position to understand which direction you need to go.

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Does Radio Advertising Still Work?

September 8, 2016 Advertising Questions

Today, businesses can reach consumers in ways not contemplated even 10 years ago. With the advent of the internet, mobile, social media, texts and more, consumers are being bombarded with promoted messages—all vying for their increasingly short attention spans.

But traditional media – especially radio advertising – is still a powerful and effective option for advertisers. A recent study by Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) found that radio advertising returned an average of $6 dollars for every dollar spent. It also showed that radio advertising resulted in a stronger consumer response close to the time of purchase.

But not all radio advertising is created equal. In order to be effective, your campaign must contain these key components.

Know your customers

Of course, this applies to all types of advertising. And it will always stand the test of time. Things like demographics – age, gender, income, etc. Knowing your customer’s average buying cycle and average purchase amount are also important.

Based on these factors, figure out the stations or channels that fit into your customer model. If you’re selling skateboards, you probably don’t want to be advertising on the easy listening stations. Conversely, if you are selling yachts, you might want to stay from the alternative or heavy-metal stations.

Compelling Ad Copy

Whether you’re advertising for brand awareness or sales, the words you use to convey your message are all important. The radio ad must speak to the consumer in a way that tells them what’s in it for them. What will they get out of it? Will it improve their life? Does it fulfill an unmet need? All these things must be made clear in the copy.

Before we can get into the hows and whys of the product, we have just a precious few seconds to grab the listener’s attention. They need to be drawn into the ad, allowing their curiosity to build. Many times this can be done through a question. “Are you tired of having to clean your gutters every few months?” The listener is hooked. Yes, they are tired of having to do this chore. They want to know what can be done to avoid it. They continue to listen.

Other important factors are things like authenticity. Does your copy come across as preachy, self-serving, or boastful? Listeners (potential customers) will be turned off and will tune you out, especially in this day and age where attention spans are the millisecond range. Instead, by showing a passion for the product or service you have and the overwhelming belief that you can truly improve people’s lives with it, your ad will help convince people that what you provide is valuable.

Finally, a key ingredient in any copy must be a strong call-to-action. What do you want the listener to do after hearing your ad? “Call us today at 555-1212 for a free, no obligation estimate!” Repeat the number or website address again to be sure it’s locked into the listener’s mind.

Production

While the copy and the message of your radio spot are the most important factors, the quality of your production, the voice talent, and background effects/music all contribute to the success of your ad.

When we say production quality, really we mean audio quality. Is the audio crisp, clear and at the right level? Put another way, does it detract from your experience? Because the fact is, most people only notice when the audio quality is poor in one way or another. They won’t notice if it’s spot on, and that’s what you’re aiming for.

Your voice talent has to match the type of product or service you’re selling. You wouldn’t use an older female voice to talk about a very trendy, young product. Also, consider the level of trust you need to convey when selecting voice talent. If you’re selling life insurance, you want a mature voice that sounds like it has the benefited from years of experience.

The use of sound effects and/or music can also set a tone and create an “audio canvas” to set the scene for the copy to be read, especially for branding spots where you’re trying to create a mental image of the quality of your company for the listener.

While you may go into your production session thinking you’re going to bang out one perfect ad, it’s important to think about doing A/B Testing. A/B Testing is where you change on variable in the ad – for instance the call-to-action. Then you run each ad for 50% of the time for a particular period. At the end or that period, you see which ad converted better. Then you use that ad on your full-size campaign.

If you adhere to these tried and true suggestions, your radio advertising campaign will bring you the desired results – brand awareness and more business.

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What Makes an Effective Local Television Commercial?

August 30, 2016 Advertising Questions

In this era of the internet, with so many advertising choices, television advertising seems like an out of date, almost quaint medium from a bygone era. But the truth is, television viewership continues to be at extremely high levels. So before talking about what makes an effective local TV commercial, perhaps we should first talk about why to choose television advertising in the first place.

The common perception of television advertising is that it’s expensive. Most small businesses look at this first and say, “I can’t afford TV spots.” But, upon closer inspection, cost is just part of the equation. The second is, what ROI does television advertising return? And that’s where the rubber meets the road. If done right, local television advertising can be extremely cost effective, giving you a higher return on your investment than many other forms of advertising such as direct mail, pay-per-click advertising, etc.

Doing Local Advertising Right

The key to effective local television advertising, as is true for any form of advertising, is to make it memorable. And not just memorable for memory’s sake. It has to be remembered in a positive light. My favorite example is the campaign that E*Trade launched for the Super Bowl a number of years ago that featured monkeys behind a desk. Very funny. But it didn’t exactly give me a ton of confidence in E*Trade as a reputable company.

The same is true for local TV spots. If you go for the laugh and the shock value, you may be remembered, but will you be thought of as a valued company to do business with? Perhaps not. Instead, picture yourself as the viewer. What companies’ ads illicit positive messages that earn your respect and moreover, move you to consider doing business with them? Those are the ads you want to emulate.

How to keep it professional on a budget

Getting back to the money, creating and airing a television spot that returns on its investment requires two things: keeping production standards as high as you can, and expertly managing the media buying and placement.

We’ve all seen commercials that feature the owner of the business, perhaps a car dealership, being shot on the lot in front of cars. Typically, the audio for this is horrible, colors are washed out, and the message is on par with that of a carny barking out “Step right up!”

Laura Gonzales, owner of Raven Marketing, an advertising agency in Portland, Oregon says that local ads needn’t “feel” local. “Our approach to local TV advertisements is present the highest production values we can. In the mind of the viewer, this automatically gives the ad a measure of respect and believability.” Laura went on to say that for roughly the same cost as those live shot, talking head commercials, the ad can be expertly voiced, with beautiful graphics and an inspiring soundtrack. A great example of this is an ad for the Western Washington Honda Dealers. It feels like a national ad, but was relatively inexpensive to create and was very effective in promoting their clearance event.

Another option is to go with still shots rather than video. See this TV spot for Re-Bath. Professional voice-over coupled with excellent graphics surrounding still shots made for an effective commercial.

The Formula

TV commercials can have many different structures and are designed with different goals in mind. But there is an underlying formula most ads use that is the most effective for getting your message across and having it be remembered by the viewer. Say it, Explain it, and Repeat it.

Say It

With a short timeframe in which to grab the viewer’s attention, there’s not time to be cute. Get to the point of the ad in your first few sentences.

Explain it

Now that you’ve gotten your viewer’s attention, it’s time to explain the details of your first statement. If you’ve announced a sale going on, explain what’s on sale, the discounts, and how the sale lasts.

Repeat it

Now it’s time to remind them of your headline. Repeating the point of your ad will give the viewer another memory of what the spot is about. Adding a call-to-action along with this, plants a seed for behavior in their brain.

Commitment

Local television advertising isn’t a one-off exercise. Have faith that with repetition and good placement, a high-quality TV spot can outperform other media most times.

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