Spending Limits Are Like Speed Limits

by Steve Badertscher

When asking your agency to develop the most cost-effective marketing communications campaign, the most critical word in that request is cost. As we like to say around here, “We are very good at what we do, but we’re not very good at guessing.” Let me explain.

When we are asked to develop a media plan for a new marketing communications program for example, one of the most important things to establish is a realistic budget. When given a budget figure at the outset, our account manager, creative director and media planner use it as a parameter when brainstorming creative media strategies, from which they subsequently develop a formal proposal that works within that agreed upon amount to present to the client. We don’t like surprises and neither do our clients.

We approach media planning, much like the other disciplines of our business, with a “get the most bang for your buck” perspective. In other words, we spend our client’s money the way we’d spend our own…very frugally. What we all want to avoid is spending several days developing what is thought to be a very effective plan utilizing every dollar to its fullest, only to find out when presenting it to the client that they only have a fraction of the proposed budget amount to work with.

With that being said, we think the best way to approach establishing (and communicating) budget limits with your agency is to think of them as “spending limits.” And spending limits are similar to speed limits.

For example, if you want someone to travel 25 miles per hour in your neighborhood, don’t post a speed limit sign that reads 35 mph with the hope that drivers realize children live in the area and will travel 25 mph. And consequently, drivers (read: agencies) shouldn’t ignore a speed limit stating 25 mph because they would much rather be driving 35 mph to get where they’re going faster. Another thing we like to say around here is, “Say what you mean and mean what you say.”

Post the limits. Obey the limits!

It really is that simple with communicating budgets, too.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/

Position is Important in Poker -- How about B2B E-Advertising? (Part 3)

by Brad Smith

There’s an important factor to consider before placing a B2B electronic banner ad – the same factor you should consider before placing a bet in a poker game. Position.

In poker, position is king. If you’re the last to act -- the last person to make the decision to fold, call or raise -- you’re in the strongest position. By the betting choices your opponents make, every other player at the table has to communicate to you something about the value of their hand before the action gets to you. I like to play from the best position.

When placing a B2B electronic banner ad, you also have to consider position. Is your ad at the top of the electronic newsletter, in the middle or the bottom? Are you on the B2B trade publication’s Web site homepage, or on an interior “subject” page (example – the “trailer” page of a “trucking” Web site)?

Is the top the best performing position? How about a top vertical leaderboard on the side? Remember, with B2B e-advertising you can measure performance in the number of times a prospect clicked on your banner ad.

Do the positions at the top of the screen get the most attention and readership? Apparently not – in the recent campaign we’ve been tracking for one of our clients, the highest responses, in two separate markets, have been from trade publication e-newsletters – and our ad has been at the bottom or middle positions. In both cases, these ads have been positioned below the electronic “fold” so to speak. If your results have been similar or different, I’d like to hear from you.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wrote/

Do B2B Banner Ad Results Mirror the Value of the Trade Publication Host? (Part 2)

by Brad Smith

As I covered in my last blog, we recently ran some electronic banner ads for a client, not to only sell more product, but also to learn more about the effectiveness of this relatively new B2B media option. We tracked the Web site hits that came from each banner ad we ran.

And in the back of my mind, I was thinking the tracking results could shed some light on the perceived reader value of the publications involved. After all, the “content” used on a B2B magazine’s Web site or e-newsletter often comes from the magazine itself, and is often put together by the same journalists.

Here’s an example of the results in one market segment served by three magazines. The numbers evaluation – circulation to key audiences and ad rates – is fairly close on these books. The more subjective comparison is the value of the editorial to our key audiences. (And since the content is the reason our client's prospects read the magazine in the first place, you could argue this is the key criteria. And a better way to gauge media value than artificial and often nebulous ad space rates.)

Publication 1 e-newsletter – 80 hits
Publication 2 Web site – 30 hits
Publication 3 Web site and e-newsletter – 0 hits

Guess who isn’t going to be on the media schedule next year? Think this is a fair evaluation method of a trade magazine’s perceived editorial value?

Key Words: Evaluation method of a trade magazine’s perceived editorial value. Tracking website hits from banner ads, Do B2B Banner Ad Results Mirror the Value of the Trade Publication Host.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenore-m/

A New Adage to Guide B2B Banner Ad Placement (Part 1)

by Brad Smith

Copy:
My Mom’s favorite adage is “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Well, here’s my new adage for B2B banner advertising – “It’s not what you say, it’s where you say it.”

We recently created an electronic ad campaign for a client as one of several vehicles to help introduce a revolutionary new product. Since seeing is believing, we wanted to drive traffic to the client's Web site to view a video of the product in action.

The side benefit to this was linking each electronic ad to a separate Web landing page. Of course these were actually multiple identical versions of the same page, set up solely for the purpose of measuring the hits or “click-thrus” from each banner ad.

Banner ads were placed on B2B publication Web sites and in the opt-in e-newsletters many trade publications offer. This was repeated in three different market segments.

The results of tracking after two months – of all the click-thrus received, 82% came from the e-newsletters.

Are you surprised? Are you seeing the same or different results? Let me know.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangeacid/

Can You Discount Price and Increase Brand Loyalty?

by Steve Fodor

That’s a balancing act marketers struggle with. Marketers struggle even more given today’s economy when discounting has become a means of survival to generate sales traffic. “If we discount, will we ever be able to raise prices (and our margins) again without sacrificing brand loyalty?”

If you’re wrestling with this question, think about this: Forget about price and think about your customer relationships. I’m of the belief that if you manage customer relationships…and your brand…responsibly, price becomes far less relevant.

I just saw something from Coldwater Creek that reaffirmed this belief. I got a mailer from Coldwater Creek announcing a discount. But instead of the usual “great deals to be had now” tone so many retailers are taking, Coldwater Creek did something different. Their mailer was a simple card with a personal message from the CEO, Dan Griesemer. The message simply said, “We know things aren’t easy. But they can get better when we all pull together. Since you’ve always been a good friend to us, we’ve just reduced many of our regular prices. Thank you.”

In that very simple and understated card, my perception of Coldwater Creek as a brand elevated to new heights. Instead of talking in terms of price, they talked in terms of empathy, understanding and like a real friend. The Coldwater Creek brand took on an even more likable personality in my mind.

I’ll miss this recession when it’s over. I’ve managed to get a lot of great buys on brands that I normally would not have considered because of price. And when the recession ends, so will my temporary relationships with those brands that chose to differentiate themselves on price rather than on brand relationships.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwp-roger/3186643427/

Increasing Your Odds of Winning New Customers

by Brad Smith

Every good poker player has a pretty good grasp of the odds. For example, if you make a bet, some of your opponents will fold. The fewer the opponents, the better your chance of winning.

A marketing example to increase your company’s or your product’s chance of winning is to create a blog (like the one you’re reading now). By doing this you are increasing the odds that potential new customers will find your Web site…and consequently learn more about the advantages your company and products have to offer.

Blogs add “content” to your site, increasing the odds that search engines will direct “word search’ inquiries to your blog/Web site.

“Content” on the Internet is exploding exponentially every day. You need more just to compete. So start a blog. Odds are you’ll have fun, too.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/strupler/

Hammer the Benefits

by Steve Badertscher

A wise advertising creative director once told me, “Nobody buys a hammer to own a hammer…they purchase a hammer to pound in nails.”

I’ve never received better advice to help shape effective advertising messages that really resonate with prospects and end-users. Simply put, it’s a great reminder to focus on benefits, not features. In other words, focus on what the product does for the end-user, not on what the product is.

For example, I love to take photos as a hobby. I particularly enjoy taking photos of sporting events, especially those involving my kids. But when I recently went shopping for a new lens, I didn’t do so with the intent of owning a zoom lens…I wanted to be able to see the grit and determination on my kids’ faces as they edge out their competitors at the finish line of their cross country races in my photos.

Likewise, my teenage son didn’t recently purchase a Jeep Wrangler so he could own a sport utility vehicle…he bought it to enjoy the “top-down, music-up” benefits when the summer weather arrives.

And clients don’t engage our agency’s services because they want to acquire beautiful brochures, advertisements and Web sites (although it is a nice added bonus)…they hire us because they want their sales to increase and the bottom line to improve. In other words, they don’t want tools, they want results.

So whether you’re responsible for crafting your company’s marketing messages or approving the messages that are created, always keep in mind the perspective of your target audience. Remember, your customers don’t want to own your product, they want the resulting benefit of what it will do for them. And once you clearly define and articulate the key benefit that is most important to them, all that’s left to do is hammer it home!

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinbaeder/