Double-Oh Joe (or Bond, Joe Bond)
I once worked with a small business
that sold a product used by large
corporations and certain parts of the
government. This product was
manufactured and sold by a Fortune
500 company directly to large users,
and to resellers such as our small
business.
We knew the CIA used this prod-
uct, and our sales force had tried
for some time to contact the right
group. We wanted to sell directly to
the CIA and displace the Fortune 500
company, but we had no success at
all. In fact, it became a bit of a com-
pany joke—just try calling the CIA and
asking, “Can I have the name and
telephone number of the people who
use this product?” It’s not going to
happen.
We sent out a company newsletter,
but the CIA was not on our mailing list
because we had no contacts there.
Then one day, out of nowhere, the
CIA called us and inquired about buy-
ing from our firm.
Someone had seen our newsletter
and passed it to the appropriate people.
Flattered and full of curiosity upon
learning this, I said, “I’m glad to hear
someone gave you our newsletter. Telln
me who it was and I would like to call
and thank them.” My question was met
with silence, and then the caller flatly
replied, “I’m not allowed to tell you that.”
I quickly moved on to the busi-
ness at hand. We finally did connect
with the right contacts at the CIA, and
I never did learn how they acquired
our newsletter.
Once a newsletter is printed, it’s a great idea to post it on your Website. It
will need to be translated into a format understood by Web browsers, however,
which involves a little more time and money.
The cost of printing a well-designed color newsletter may range from $1,000
to $3,000 per issue, plus maybe 10 to 20 cents per copy, plus mailing costs. It may
be tempting to save on these expenses and produce just e-mail version of your
newsletter; however, a large portion of the recipients will hit the delete key be-
fore reading it. Although it is easy for readers to forward a good newsletter to
others, most are too sensitive to the spam issue these days to do that, so it is
increasingly unlikely.
Spam, er...E-Mail Marketing
E-mail marketing was once seen as the great new frontier in advertising.
Brilliantly designed pieces can be produced easily and cheaply and sent to mil-
lions for about the same expense as e-mailing to just one person. In addition,
buyers can click a link and be directed straight into e-stores to complete a sale.
It’s all true. Many legitimate companies have set up carefully designed databases
where potential buyers see only the information relevant to their interests, and
others may easily opt out. Theoretically, e-mail advertising should rule the world.
Marketing: Artillery for Sales
Unfortunately, e-mail ads are also a cheap and easy way for spammers to
produce and send millions of e-mails to disinterested parties. As a result, recipi-
ents trust neither the seller, the product, nor the opt-out provisions. It is in-
creasingly difficult for busy e-mail users to distinguish spam from legitimate e-mail
marketing, and as the level of spam increases to over 80 percent of all e-mail
sent, most recipients simply hit the delete key before reading all unfamiliar e-
mails. Worse, legitimate e-mail offers sent by your small business to carefully
selected recipients will be regarded by some as spam, and the effort may do more
harm than good. Or, your small business may be labeled as a spammer by Internet
deities, and all e-mails sent from your company could be stopped.
The industry has discussed and tried all possible ways to stop spam, includ-
ing legal efforts, technical means, and other strategies, but none have seen sig-
nificant success. Spam continues to plague and dominate e-mail marketing.
The new world of e-mail marketing has been challenged by spammers, and
the battle is over: The spammers have won.
For that reason, e-mail marketing is an unlikely source of new customers for
your small business and is therefore not recommended.
Internet Marketing
Promoting your products and services through the Internet is the rage these
days. Visitors to major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Lycos, MSN, and
Netscape learn of your small business, click through to your Website, and then
either spend lots of money on-line or call directly to spend even more.
This subject is so important that an entire chapter of this book is devoted
exclusively to designing, building, promoting, and operating your Website and
e-store. Please see Chapter 5 for more information.
Yellow Pages
such as plumbers, electricians, and insurance brokers. Just about every home
and business keeps a copy of the Yellow Pages around, and when they open the
book to your section, they are looking to buy.
As always, check the competition: Do similar companies advertise here? If
yes, it’s a sure bet that you should piggyback on their success and do the same.
Customers are in the habit of looking here.
An interesting characteristic of Yellow Pages advertising is that an ad may be
effective for years, because many consumers keep copies around for a long time.
This is quite unlike other media, such as newspaper advertising.
Yellow Pages advertising is expensive, though, so think this through before
giving approval. Ad reps will increase the tab by suggesting listings in several
sections of the same and, of course, a larger ad, in color, attracts more
THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER'
attention. In larger metropolitan areas, ads also must be purchased in several
books to reach different geographical locales. Still, none of this may be neces-
sary. If your small business seeks a niche market on a national scale, for ex-
ample, the Yellow Pages will do little good.
Also, be aware of the many scams out there, where Yellow Pages look-alikes
attempt to trick busy small business owners into buying an ad in the wrong book.
The Yellow Pages offered through local telephone companies is really “the”
Yellow Pages. Similar offerings like “Local Metro Yellow Pages” or “Horizon
Yellow Pages” may actually contain a directory with yellow-colored pages, but
distribution and usage may be smaller because many consumers throw away all
but one book. Before buying, know what you are paying for.
Radio, Television, and CATV (Cable Television) Ads
Broadcast advertising has a place in many small business situations. Through
this technique, a great deal of information may be conveyed quickly to a large
number of potential customers. Nevertheless, broadcast ads are expensive and
ephemeral.
For these reasons, small business owners should approach this form of ad-
vertising by asking the following questions:
Who exactly are my potential customers? (This may seem obvious,
but think about it, because the cost of reaching unlikely customers
may dramatically increase the price of your campaign but lessen its
effectiveness.)
Are my competitors using radio, TV, or CATV advertising? Have
these ads run for a long period of time?
Will the products and services offered by my small business be
complimented by the imagery (for example, shots of your beautiful
premises, large inventory, special equipment, or a map of your great
location) available from broadcast advertising?
After obtaining rates, decide how this form of advertising compares with
alternatives (for example, newspaper ads).
There are, of course, major differences between radio, television, and CATV
advertising. Here are some to consider:
Radio is more of a background medium than TV, which dominates
the attention of the viewer.
Radio may reach working people during the day and during drive-
times, whereas television generally does not.
Television is watched by just about everyone at night.
Marketing: Artillery for Sales
The format of television allows advertisers to take advantage of the
creative qualities of sight, sound, color, and motion. This is a powerful
way to convey information and elicit emotion.
CATV can provide extremely detailed information on the demo-
graphics of viewers, and small businesses can reach almost surgically
defined geographical areas. In contrast, the reception and reach of
broadcast television, and especially AM radio, may vary between day
and night and depend upon the weather.
To move forward, speak with account executives from local stations as well
as with local colleagues and customers. Learn whether companies like yours
have advertised, and for how long? Was it a one-shot experiment, or a longer-
term affair?
In all cases, account executives from the various broadcasters will provide
detailed demographic information on the reach and impressions of each spot,
using industry jargon such as AQH Persons (average number of persons esti-
mated to have listened to a station for a minimum of five minutes during any 15-
minute period, and AQH Ratings (the estimated number of listeners (AQH
Persons) as a percentage of the survey area population). This can get compli-
cated. Be attentive, because most advertising vendors have a way of presenting
the numbers to show that they are the best. It’s up to you to make the final
decision.
This is where brokers come in. Radio and television advertising brokers know
the market and can cut through the hype, providing your small business with:
An overall advertising strategy
Direction on what to say and help in writing the scripts
record it. This increases the professionalism and credibility of the message. Be-
ware of offers in which the radio or TV executive wants you to be in the ad,
unless you’re in this for ego-gratification purposes.
Most stations now use digital recording techniques, so MP3 files may be e-
mailed back and forth until the message is just right. If you want to pay more and
fancy it up a bit, add sounds and music from prerecorded libraries available to
the stations.
Producing a local television or CATV advertisement may cost $500 or more,
but most can be capped at around $2,000. This is negotiable, however, and adver-
tisers who agree to longer campaigns may get the ad produced for free.
Most small businesses want to test a broadcast advertising campaign before
committing to a large expenditure. If you choose to do this, capture the benefits
of repetition by selecting a limited time of the day, and just one or two stations.
Depending upon the results, adjust accordingly and try again.
Ad brokers are aware of techniques that will measure ad effectiveness, such
as using special toll-free (“800”) numbers that forward to your office. The statis-
tics are then available through Web-based browsers.
Once the ad is produced, economies are realized only when it is played over
and over again. Make sure your budget allows for the production of a good mes-
sage, and lots of spots. As with all forms of advertising, repetition is critical.
It’s often a good idea to piggyback on the success of your competition by
mimicking their advertising strategy. Your competition may have spent a great
deal of time and money perfecting this strategy, so why reinvent the wheel? If
customers accept a competitive ad, it’s likely they will accept your ad, too.
Trade Shows and Conventions
If you’ve ever been to the vendors’ exhibition hall at a large trade show or
convention, attracting new business seems like a turkey-shoot. Exhibitors just
seem to stand there as new business prospects queue up in line. Nevertheless,
this form of marketing is more expensive and draining than it looks, and small
business owners should analyze carefully the benefits that really accrue.
Standing at a table and signing up new customers may look easy but the
reality is different. Let us take, for example, the actual costs paid by a small
business that recently attended a computer trade show in a different city. At
first, the $6,000 show fee seemed steep, but that was just the beginning as shown
in the list on page 75.
The show continued for four days, but that is really six days when you in-
clude travel time, or 24 days for four people. The convention hall, however, was
open for only 18 hours. Because show attendees were in classes most of the time,
there were only about six hours of significant traffic. The rest of the time was
spent in special meetings with an occasional customer and throwing toy footballs Counsel on how to reach your market, thereby transcending the
complex and confusing demographic information provided by
advertising account executives
Advice on an advertising schedule that makes sense (frequency, time
slots, duration). This alone is a huge issue. Given a certain budget and
objective, should your spots be spread over the day or appear only in
the morning? On one station or several? Should your first test
campaign last for one week or 10 weeks?
Here’s the big one: Buying through ad brokers will often result in less
expense, because they are adept at hammering the local broadcasters
for better rates, which they pass on to you.
Unlike the big national players, small businesses normally do not need to
spend large amounts of money to produce an ad. For radio, carefully write your
30- or 60-second spot and record it yourself a few times. Then e-mail the script
to your grateful radio account executive, who will have a local radio personality
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