The Lonely Marketer

It’s October, my phone is ringing off the hook, and sales pitches are starting to roll in which means it’s time for 2008 media planning and buying. This is sort of becoming a Fall ritual for me as we work on our media plan and figure out what mix of print ads, paid search, banner ads, white paper postings, webcasts etc. we want for the upcoming year.

As a small business media planner the art of media planning and buying can be a bit intimidating at first, but as you learn the ropes you find ways to put yourself in a good position to make the right decisions and stretch your dollar as far as it will go. Here are some guidelines I’m following for this year:

• Treat Reps With Respect: Admittedly, the cold calls I receive get a bit old after awhile, but I believe the caller should be treated with respect - and get a call back when they get my voicemail. I’ve developed some great relationships with ad reps and I like to continue doing that. Many times the better relationships make for better business deals.

• Have a Basic Media Plan in Mind: I like to have a basic idea in my mind come October what I want in my media plan for next year. What verticals will I hit with print, what types of online ads will I be buying, will I be trying video are just a couple of the answers I like to have ready. This way you can give eager sales reps some guidelines for what they can include in their proposals. Which, in turn, saves you time wading through endless options.

• Get The Stats: If you’re purchasing banner ads or any kind of online ad placement, ask for basic statistics from the rep. Try to get such stats as visitors, impressions, average click-through-rates, and site page views. I’ve purchased ads in the past from reputable companies only to find that their web traffic was very low.

• Know Your Budget: I always assume that my budget will be the same as the previous year (but make sure you ask for more!). Knowing a basic budget figure for media planning and buying will keep your sites set on a goal of getting the most out of what money you do have to spend.

• Keep Track of Contacts: I’m dealing with many different media types and vendors so there are quite a few contacts to remember. Start a spreadsheet or database with contact info from everyone with whom you speak - even if you don’t think you’ll do business with them. This saves time when you’re ready to go back and finalize contracts.

• Negotiate Value-Ads: Let’s face it, print advertising is declining but not dead. Many of us still need to place print ads for branding purposes. One trend I’m seeing though is many magazines are cutting back issues or decreasing in size. Use this trend to your advantage by asking for value-ads to be thrown in with print ad purchases. I like to ask for banner placements on websites (more links for SEO!!), subscriber lists for sales campaigns, or free white paper postings. You’d be surprised what you can get thrown in.

• Try Something New: It’s easy to get stuck in a rut from year to year, but every small business marketer should be looking at trying new mediums each year. We may take a stab at video this year! Remember Universal Search is playing a much bigger role these days.

• Leave Some Padding: Don’t commit every last penny of your 2008 media plan. Leave some wriggle room for events or ads that you might want to run mid-year. Remember, things change!

Does this seem daunting? Don’t let it. Have a plan, stick to that plan, and don’t get tempted to stretch the budget. There has never been a better time to be working on media planning and buying - the options for positive results are endless!

I’ve been pretty heavy on writing about search engine marketing recently so I thought I’d switch it up a bit and do a small feature on a print advertising method used by Marriott Hotels that I found to be unique. The ad is actually highlighting Residence Inn’s Chicago hotel which is part of the Marriott Hotel chain.

If it’s possible to transform the trend of Local Advertising from search engine marketing into a print advertising format, Marriott has come pretty close. I see alot of their advertising in many of the business and finance magazines I read, but this one stuck out.

As you can see below, the typical advertisement is on the left followed by a very useful insert that can easily be removed. It’s a perforated piece that has a map of the Magnificent Mile area in Chicago with icons pointing towards destinations they’re highlighting - including the Residence Inn Marriott Chicago Hotel.

The back of the insert has the destinations’ descriptions as well as address, phone number, and relevant date information. It’s a well rounded list of Arts, Entertainment, Sightseeing, Food & Wine, and Sports attractions that would appeal to any visitor to that Chicago area.

I thought Marriott did a nice job with this. I’m sure since I’m in the Midwest my insert focused on Chicago. Other areas of the country probably saw destination information for major cities in their geographical area - or at least I hope that is the way Marriott did it.

Given the fact dates are included for events in the near future says that they’re going after leisure and business travelers planning a trip to Chicago in the next few months. They’ve also highlighted the LaSalle Bank Marathon which draws close to a million spectators. Not a bad target market if you have a hotel in that area!

Too bad they aren’t running paid search ads on the keyword “LaSalle Bank Marathon”!! They’d have no competition as no one is running ads on that term right now. It probably would get the same conversion rates at a much lower costs that the print ad spot.

But, I’m a huge fan of Marriott Hotels and don’t want to take away from what I think is a decent print ad campaign. The insert stuck out, forced readers to look at it, and provided very useful information for people heading to Chicago in the near future.

I’ve seen a couple instances this week that leave me wondering if we are really seeing the decline in print publications and print advertising. I’ve been well documented on this site as saying I much prefer online marketing, but I still do believe there is a place for print ads.

I missed the story in the Star Tribune, but Paul Jahn ran a quick post about the fact the Tribune here in Minneapolis is losing 145 positions - 50 of those in the newsroom. Are advertisers shifting their funds elsewhere?

The second is related to a popular trade magazine in which I advertise. The magazine, Telephony, has been popular for some time in the telecommunications industry. I received my recent copy and noticed 7 companies ran ads in the issue! That blew me away to see so few print ads in this magazine. Telephony has done a great job of developing their website and finding ways to get advertisers opportunities online. Are companies beginning to make a big shift away from their magazine and onto their website?

Although I prefer online advertising, I’m not willing to lay print to rest quite yet. Jim Logan had a good post recently about the value of combining old and new advertising in a marketing plan. There is alot of truth in that. Mark Pott’s also had an interesting look at some comments by Bill Gates and his views of the death of print.

Is this topic old news? What are your thoughts on the topic?

I’m going to step out of online marketing (kind of) for a day and throw out a tip for small business marketers who create documentation. We produce a ton of brochures and product data sheets that we use at trade shows and for sending to interested customers. Whenever we produce one of these pieces, we get a bunch printed up, but we also promote the document via email and make it available online for download.

Ever wish those customers who download the PDF or eBook document would have an easy way to get back to the site from which they took the PDF? Well, consider your wish granted. Using Adobe Acrobat Professional Edition, you can embed hyperlinks on important pieces of text or images within your PDF. (I’m kind of sounding like a commercial here :)) Before you jump up and down and think you can start doing that immediately, know that the free Adobe Reader does not have this capability. You have to purchase the Professional Edition to make it work, but I think you’ll find the purchase worthwhile. Adobe Acrobat has tons of functionality worth checking out.

Here’s a quick look at how it works. You first need to open up the Advanced Editing toolbar - it will look like this:

After clicking on the Link Tool icon, you’ll be able to draw a rectangle or square around the image or block of text you’d like to hyperlink. The “Create Link” box will appear and you’ll have multiple options for your link. Go to web page, open file, or another page view within the document are all options. For this example, I’ve chosen to open a web page. The top of the Create Link box contains formatting options for your hyperlink.

After selecting your options, hit Next. A simple box comes up that allows you to type or paste in your URL. Very easy! Hit okay and you’re done. Acrobat also allows you to change text so I typically will color my hyperlinked text blue to indicate to the reader that they can click and be taken to the web.

This is a very simple and easy way to drive traffic to your website. As eBooks, White Papers, etc. become more popular as downloadable PDFs, including hyperlinks will become a must. If you want to dig in and give it a try, here are a few tips:

• Make it obvious that text is hyperlinked. Most people are not used to being able to click on a document and open a web page. Maybe indicate with a side note on the page that images and highlighted text are linked to web sites.
• Turn hyperlinked text into a blue colored font to indicate a link
• If your document contains your company logo, be sure to link that up to your home page.
• Have a catalog you distribute on CD? An interactive PDF can be a great way to give the user navigation - thus making it easier to locate information.

I also did a quick search for some additional resources on the web to learn more about using Acrobat and similar programs:

• Tutorial Buzz
• Marco Casario Blog
• SmallBizMarketingTips.com
• creativetechs

Any other suggestions on how to use hyperlinks and related functions in PDFs?

Uniqueness in print advertising is so rare that when I see something off-the-wall, I’ll always take pause and see who published it and why. Needless to say, seeing an upside-down print advertisement in Entrepreneur Magazine caught my attention. It’s probably the third time this year I’ve seen this. A possible indication that advertisers are trying just about anything in print? Who knows, but it did catch my eyes and I’m sure other readers took notice as well.

The ad was put out by UPS who is advertising their printing and copying services. On the left side of the page they have a vertical strip ad that is paired with the upside-down ad on the facing page. The ad shows how out of place an upside-down page can look in a professional publication. They nailed it on that point!

Hats off to UPS for stepping out of the norm and producing a print ad that will make people pause and take notice. The upside-down print ad is new enough that there will be few people that will breeze by it and not at least take a second to figure out who is featured in the ad.

I did a quick search to see what others were writing about where print advertising is concerned. I was hoping to find more, but what I did find was informative and good. Check out these articles:

• Boomers, Magazines and Advertising
• When Your Memory Needs Help
• Pharmaceutical Drugs and Advertising
• The Beginning of The End for Newspapers

I was an exhibitor at an industry trade show in Las Vegas last week when an attendee came strolling up to our booth. He had a magazine in hand and he was trying to match up our company name with a company he’d circled in his magazine. They matched, we spoke about his needs and our products and he asked for a follow-up call from one of our sales people.

Before he left, I asked him what led him to our booth and he said he was looking up companies listed under a certain category of his trade magazine’s Buyer’s Guide. He also said he found and researched our company after finding us in the magazine’s online version of their Guide.

The magazine he was carrying was one in which I advertise. Every year they offer a free listing in their Buyer’s Guide where you can list your company’s products and services under corresponding categories in the Guide. This includes a reference in the printed Buyer’s Guide bundled with the magazine as well as a link to your site from their online version.

I’ve typically taken the “sure, whatever” approach to this - taking the magazine up on the free offer. But maybe I need to switch up my thinking on this. They do offer a paid version that includes a more prominent position in both the online and offline versions. But, who knows whether the paid listing would drive any more online or offline traffic? The free link from their site surely isn’t hurting anything from an SEM/SEO standpoint!

Have you had any experiences with Buyer’s Guides? Is it worth buying into a better position?

Because I live in Minneapolis, I typically fly Northwest Airlines so I’ve never had the opportunity to be captivated on a US Airways flight by an ad on my tray table. Earlier in the year I wrote a post about advertising in the bins in which you put all of your belongings before walking through security at the airport. Now I read in the New York Times, an article written by Joe Sharkey, that the aviation industry has struck again with advertisements on tray tables on airplanes.

Brilliant! Currently, US Airways seems to be the leader in this trend. There could be others as well. I think it’s a great idea and early worries about the ads being an annoyance have been eased:

“Initial worries that such advertising would annoy passengers have now been allayed, the airline and its advertising partner say. Research indicates a higher-than-expected number of passengers like and retain messages from tray table advertising, they say.”

Brian Martin, the founder and CEO of Brand Connections, said they are talking with other airlines about tray table advertising - largely due to the positive response already received:

“Both he and US Airways say the ads have generated overwhelmingly positive reaction, primarily because they are all creatively designed to convey information, often with lots of words rather than the heavily attention-seeking graphics associated with magazines.”

I know what you must be thinking - can’t there be one last spot on earth where we won’t be stimulated by some sort of media? But, this is an airplane - not a spot of natural beauty. Many years ago I spent an extended period of time in London and rode the Tube (London’s version of a subway). I lived on the outskirts of central London and had a long tube ride into the city each morning. Each car had advertising along the top edge on the inside. Not only was I often swayed by the ads, but it helped pass time and take my mind off the fact I was crushed into a corner with 10 people I’d never met before.

From an advertiser’s standpoint, this is a great opportunity. Imagine a nicely placed ad in first class - seats typically reserved for higher paying executives who have the power to call the shots on purchases. For the two to three hours they’re on the flight, don’t you think they may take a break and check out the ad?

For those of you that read this blog often, you know I tend to write more about online advertising than print advertising. Online advertising comes in so many forms and is so easy to track. I do plan plenty of print advertising each year, but mainly use the medium for branding - keeping our name out there in front of our audience that prefers magazines.

I’m an avid reader of personal finance and small business magazines and over the last year I’ve seen a rise in print advertisements in which advertisers make their one-page ad look like an article or case study of sorts. An example is shown below from Kiplinger’s magazine. On the left side is the last page of an article and on the right is an advertisement for long-term care coverage.

Now, why am I writing about this? Well, for the last year, I’ve shook my head and moved quickly past these ads figuring that this was a wasted effort by the advertiser - until I came to the page shown above. They tricked me and it worked! I recently had a conversation with relatives about long-term coverage and when I saw the page I thought it might be an informative article I could pass on. I breezed right over the small “Advertisement” tag at the top. The article was somewhat informative but got me thinking about the topic again.

So, I stand corrected. Print advertisements like this may have a place. I was so intrigued I actually searched the small print at the bottom and found MetLife was the advertiser. I went to Google and searched on ‘long term care coverage’ and sure enough, MetLife had a paid search ad there offering quotes on coverage.

Now, I’m not in the market for long-term coverage, but I have relatives who are. With many aging baby boomers, this is a hot topic and the ad provided a reason to look for more information. MetLife did a good job of throwing information out and then backing up the ad with a paid search ad offering a quote. Good strategy!

I always enjoy reading about or seeing a creative idea taking advantage of one of the last places on earth where we’re not touched by some kind of media. This time those infamous security bins at the airport in which we load every aspect of our lives for examination before heading to our gate to catch our plane will soon be infiltrated with advertising. Some people will be annoyed by this, but I say, why not? In fact, I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it!

If you’re interested in reading more behind the effort, check out this USA Today article. Here’s what might be in store for our shoes in the near future.

You may be asking what this has to do with small business? Probably, not much. But, it does show us that there are still unique, creative places left to buy advertising space.

I’ve written in previous posts about the right marketing mix. By that I mean the melding of various mediums of marketing into one cohesive plan. Whether it be print advertising, search marketing, banner advertising, etc - its the art of bringing it all together in one marketing plan. Well, because I think its so important and also because we’re starting a new year and a new media plan, I’m throwing out more information on the topic.

A recent article on the Marketing VOX website discussed the results of two recent studies on display and search advertising and the effects that one has on the other. One of the reports described was done by ClickZ News and they say:

“…found that online users exposed to both the search and display advertising campaigns purchased the advertiser’s products and services 244 percent more online and 89 percent more offline compared with users not shown the ads.”

I love seeing numbers like these. As I’ve stated in the past, I’m not a huge fan of print advertising, but I know that its a necessary expense for many companies due to its large impact on branding. Print advertising is costly and takes up a size-able percentage of an overall marketing budget, but when you see how one medium can impact another, you can more than justify the expense.

Now, does this mean you can go out and run print and search ads, let them run, and you’re on your way to an early retirement. No way! In order to achieve the success found in those studies, your messaging and strategy need to be consistent throughout. The mix between your display and online should support and strengthen each other and your overall message.