Is your Marketing Hot or Cold?

Doug Smith - Cincinnati Radio Marketing Consultant
Doug Smith - Cincinnati Radio Marketing Consultant

Why do heating and cooling companies advertise new furnaces in the winter and air conditioners in the summer?

The answer is obvious:  Because that is when the majority of consumers are in the market for that specific product and service.  Who in their right mind would advertise air conditioners in the dead of winter, right?  However, if an HVAC company ONLY advertises when the temperature drops below 32 degrees or tops 90 degrees, they are missing a BIG opportunity.  Their competition will also start advertising and then it becomes a price point contest, and whoever offers the best deal (aka….whoever cuts into their profit margin the most) wins!

Think about this for a second…… On the first sub-freezing day of winter, you get home from work and your furnace is out.  Your home feels like an ice box and your family is ready to head to a hotel for the night.  Do you know what heating and cooling company you are going to call?  If you answered “YES”, what made them come to mind?  If you answered “NO”, how are you going to find one?  You would want heat NOW and you would pay a premium to get it.  If there was an HVAC company who connected with you before now, they would have a great chance of earning your business.

The goal of marketing is to be top-of-mind with your potential customers so when they need you, they know you and that can only be achieved with a consistent approach to your marketing.  Social Media and radio are two great ways to achieve this in a cost effective manner.

Now, take the HVAC example and change it to your business.  Is your current marketing plan going to help your potential customers say “YES” to this question:  If you needed (insert your product/service here) right now, do you know who you would contact?

Consistently tell people who you are before they need you and you have a much better chance of earning their business.   Advertising during your products peak season makes sense, but advertising your product outside of your peak season makes even more sense.

Doug Smith is a Senior Account Executive for WREW Rewind 94.9 and www.cincysavers.com in Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky.  You can contact Doug at  (513) 535-9123 or dosmith@hubbardinteractive.com

Do your reps understand ROI or your clients goals?

Matt Plapp Family Pictureby Matt Plapp

Recently the topic of ROI (return on investment) has been in the news more often.  It’s pretty easy to figure out why.  Companies are getting smarter and more frugal with their dollars.  Not just for marketing but for everything they do in their business. I remember a few years ago when I was running our family business I got some great advice from a friend and accountant, Scott Malof. We were looking at buying some large equipment.  In the past we would buy it based on the demand of our customers and making our employees jobs easier.  Scott agreed with that, but encouraged me to look deeper and at the ROI on the machine and the time it would take to pay back the investment.  Sad to say I had not done this before, and for this particular purchase it was really clear that we did not need to buy this machine.  It would have taken 10 years to get back the investment and by that time we’d be using a dinosaur.

Onto my reason for this article.  Recently I’ve seen upwards of 100 media presentations for my clients.  We’re putting together 2012 marketing plans and in this process, meeting with anyone and everyone who has an idea that will drive sales and profits.  What’s really apparent to me though is that most sales people don’t understand their clients needs or business model.  The investment levels of their proposals many times are no where near where they should be and their sales pitches only benefit one person….THEM!  How do I know this…I DID THIS MYSELF early in my career.

Back story, in 1999 I was on one of my first radio pitches.  I was presenting to a roofing company.  I was working for WGRR Oldies 103.5 in Cincinnati.  The client had told me their average roof sold for $5,000. So I went back, put together a schedule that I thought met this clients needs.  I came back a week later with a $20,000 6 month radio campaign. My thoughts were of the 120,000+ homeowners our station had… surely we could sell 4 roofs!  Wow, I was green:)  Looking back I laugh and think about the # of sales reps across the industry that are not trained on what their clients need.  In hindsight, my campaign would have probably needed to bring in 40 roofs over 6 months to just recoup their investment and for it to really payoff around 80-100.  I would have probably still thought we had 100 listeners in the market for a roof.  But once you go DEEPER and factor in reach, frequency, competition, etc, the facts are we would have had to have 700-1,000 customers in the market for this client to see the 80-100 deals to have a great ROI.   Looking back I’m confident this would have been a bad deal for the client.

Recently I was meeting with a rep for a media company.  He’s a pretty good rep, he understands how to build a relationship, he knows his product, he’s not pushy and over persistent, but he does need a lesson in ROI.  His presention was for a client whose average purchase is $30.  His plan called for a monthly spend of around $6,500.  Now I don’t take all marketing dollars and expect an ROI that month.  I give credit for branding and purchases down the road.  But for this type of client, around 70% should come back that month.  So based on his proposal, his station would need to bring in 5 -7 new customers per day or approx 152 per month.  THAT’S NOT HAPPENING!  Could they bring in a few customers per day, yes, but not 5-7.  In this instance reps tend to look at their budgets and commissions before they do their clients needs.  And they are looking at their budgets because their managers are looking at the stations budgets.   HOW DO I KNOW?  Been there done that.   Most of my friends are media reps. I know exactly what they are thinking, and typically it comes from a lack of training and the fact that a stations budget is hammered into their heads more than sales training.   They just want to succeed and too many times they’ve put trust in their managers who have never worked in a small business.

In closing, don’t let this be your reps.  Take the time to train them on how to find out what the client really needs.  Better yet, ask some of your best clients to come in and talk with your staff  about how to create packages that will hit their needs and what questions to ask.  Don’t let your rep go in a meeting with a $100,000 pitch to a client with a $50,000 TOTAL media budget.  Give them the tools they need to help their clients succeed.  Once they start looking past commissions and budgets everyone wins!

Retailers save $7 Billion! R U getting your share?

Brad Arnott - Credit and Debit Card Processing

New Federal Debit Law will save Retailers $7 Billion!  How to get your share…

By Brad Arnott

Omega Processing Solutions

Did you see the Cincinnati Enquirer article on Sunday, November 6th “Banks Look for New Fees”? There has been much discussion over the last month about new fees the large banks may be charging.  Bank of America received a lot of negative press lately because they intended to charge their debit card customers $5 per month!  Well, there is a reason the large banks are looking to make some money……..it is to offset losses from the Durbin Amendment passed as part of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform package.  This new law caps the fees the large banks can make on debit card purchases, basically a $7 Billion per year loss.  The $7 Billion is being transferred to the retailers and other businesses that accept and process debit cards.

Good news if you own a retail business! My business gets to help pass out some of the $7 Billion in savings!  Since we process credit and debit cards, our costs as a processor has gone down on debit cards from this new law and so we can pass along these savings to our clients.  As you may know, businesses that accept credit/debit cards must pay processing fees.  If you own a business that caters to consumers then you are

debit card

probably receiving a lot of debit cards (swiped or key entered) and qualify for some lower costs.

How do you make sure you are getting your share? Many processors’ (bank and nonbank) margins have been squeezed the last several years and they may not be passing on the savings to the business owner.  Some of Omega’s customers are seeing a significant reduction in fees of hundreds and even thousands of dollars per month.  However, since Visa & MasterCard utilizes a complicated pricing structure you should work with an established local processor and experienced representative that can educate you on the best pricing system to implement.  Don’t fall for the out-of-town telemarketer’s promises though or you may get locked into a contract that is not good for  your business.

Brad Arnott is a partner at Omega Processing Solutions, an award winning local credit/debit card processing company that performs no obligation analysis of merchant’s current processing fees.  Brad can be contacted at 513-755-6501 or brad@omegap.com. $50 gift card if you mention Matt Plapp when switching over your processing services to Omega!