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Knee Jerk Advertising Won’t Grow Your Business

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Are you feeling the crunch of the economy? Seeing less and less customers come through your door?  Tons of great businesses have closed up shop, and others have been forced to put the little emergency marketing budgets they have into use.

Yesterday I heard a commercial for a small steel company in town and found myself wondering why they’d spend a few thousands on a radio campaign.  I think it’s simply that they don’t know.  They’re feeling the crunch just like the rest of us, and probably listen to that particular station.  So they put together an ad about how great they are, and paid the radio sales piper.

Reactive instead of proactive. Click to continue »

Posted in Marketing, offline advertising, SEO, small business | 2 Responses »

The Yellow Pages – Who Wants Those Things?

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Twice a year the Yellow Pages are dropped off at various businesses around every city in the US.  This used to be a momentous event, something that I remember a lot of people buzzing about.

“The new YellowPages are here!”

Offices would theme the event around recycling, and how great they were that they were doing their part for the environment.  “Bring your old YP so we can recycle it and you’ll get a new 1988 version” was the going phrase.

Then, around 1992 or so, a company called LitePages was born.  From what I remember, Litepages was an offshoot of Southwestern Bell.  As a webmaster for a federal govt agency at the time, I received a letter in the mail from them explaining that we could have one of their new CD White Pages in exchange for signing a letter stating that we’d order x percent less phone books the next go-round.   It was a win-win for both sides.
Click to continue »

Posted in Google Maps, local marketing, offline advertising, yellow pages | 7 Responses »
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C’mon Social Media, Help Me Create a Radio Spot

Monday, August 10th, 2009

As most of you know, I’m speaking at the upcoming Look at Me seminar in St. Louis on the 27th.  I also happen to be the guy that is (along with a very wonderful and supportive wife) juggling all aspects of the event, including marketing it, setting up the venue, agenda, everything.  It’s stressful, but I believe this event is going to bring some great awareness of the need for SEO to the STL business community.

As part of my promotion effort, I’m going to be doing a radio commercial on a local station that has a great demographic for the event.

Problem is, I’ve been so stressed about getting this all together, that I’m not feeling 100% creative at the moment.  So maybe you can help.

I need some ideas for a :60 second spot on the radio.  What do you suggest would work best, what ‘scenarios’ do you think would best resonate with my target audience (below), and what approach (two people talking/acting, one announcer, etc) do you think would work best?

Unfortunately, with the event coming up quickly, I’ve got to get a decent idea for a spot over to the radio station soon.  That means this post has a short expiration date, as in tomorrow.

Any ideas/suggestions that you have, just post below.  !

Information of Use

Seminar: Look at Me – Getting Your Business in Front of Online Customers
Target: Business owners, execs, maybe a few marketing managers, decision makers
Radio demographic: 76% male, educated, 75k+ yearly salary, ages 25-54
Summary of event: Getting targeted, buying traffic to your website
Longer explanation: Did you spend a bunch of money on a website that isn’t producing the ROI you expected? Or none at all? Are you frustrated with your competitors making so much online, but you don’t know how they’re doing it?  Hear professionals in Internet Marketing tell their secrets.

Let’s see how social media can really help create a fun and informative radio spot!

Posted in conferences, offline advertising, Saint Louis, seminars | 4 Responses »

Free Credit Score – FreeScore123.com

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

Have you heard the commercials on the radio for FreeScore123.com? Click to get the details!

Click here to get your FREE Credit Score


Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes.
- Antisthenes (Greek philosopher of Athens, disciple of Socrates, 445-365bc)

Have you heard the commercial on the radio for “FreeScore123.com“?

Posted in domain names, offline advertising | 8 Responses »

Small Town Newspapers Aren’t Going Anywhere

Friday, November 28th, 2008

We’ve got a small newspaper in our town.  By small, I mean they probably have a circulation of around 25,000.  It has been around for years, it comes to your mailbox free, and its chock-full of community information.

Many, many people are used to the newspaper, its information, and its consistence.  So its no wonder when I peruse through it each week that it’s full of ads from local companies.  The ads aren’t cheap, either.  $75 for a business card-sized ad, per week, with a 6 month agreement.

Not cheap, particularly for very local small businesses.  Yet with (what small business owners must consider) a modest circulation, they must believe that its worth it.  But I think there’s a problem.

Every week when I look through the paper to check out the ads, I’m amazed at the types of businesses that advertise in there.  Game stores, towing companies, payday loan companies and more.  I’d estimate that 60-75% of the ads are for businesses that should be targeting the 40 and under crowd.

Do you see the problem?

Posted in local marketing, offline advertising | No Responses »