Ad Musings

Encourage complaints and criticism in a way that will also be seen by top executives. Often this information doesn’t filter up to the top executives who need to hear it for proper planning.

This month’s book recommendation is Positioning The Battle For Your Mind by Ries & Trout. Today, we buzz about branding but the idea of positioning and the concepts outlined in this book are branding’s foundation.

What does your business do each day that is unexpected and meant to delight your customers or clients? For example, for retailers, on a hot day, have staff hand out cool bottled water to everyone that walks in your store?

Check your “info@yourcompany.com” or general mailbox on your Website several times each day. If that’s the way you want customers to contact you, give it top attention. Too many companies, especially smaller ones, forget about this or check it infrequently.

“Everybody’s on Facebook” or are they? Your customers or clients may not be, especially if you’re B2B. Do a little market research by email or just by asking them what are their favorite social media.

Looking for ROI from your ad campaign, don’t make your target audience too broad. Most advertisers try to reach too far with their campaigns. Narrow your focus and your campaign will work better and you’ll be able to measure your results more effectively.

A photo together with your Facebook post (and other social media too) dramatically increases interest. Type-only posts generate a lot less interest.

It’s incredible the number of businesses that talk at their fans and followers in social media. It’s better to engage them in the conversation. A good formula to follow: for every topic about you, you should have four not about you, that might just be interesting.

In an age of viral reach, is frequency old school? We don’t think so. Usually a message must be seen multiple times (5-10 times) before it resonates. If your campaign can’t generate frequency, it’s missing its success potential.

Change is good. Change is bad. It is said that ad agencies & clients get tired of a message long before customers do. Be careful when deciding to change your message/brand just because you yourself are bored with it.

On the product itself, Use a QR code or Website special landing page to drive repeat business, often away from the eyes of competitors. Ask customers to check out the target page for special offers, and even change the offers each month.

(Nearly) free market research – confirm your data against that published by trade associations, chambers of commerce, the government and others, to see how well you’re doing relative to your industry and to give you goals for the future.

Long-term public relations success often results from starting as a resource rather than pushing a particular story. Offer your client, to the media, as an expert on a topic, which can lead to more expanded and focused coverage about your client.

Did you know that the new Vine video permits up to 6 seconds of video? The new video capability on Instagram permits up to 15 seconds, plus editing, filters & focus. Remember 30 MINUTE infomercials? How does this new short video trend affect your creative?