ilevel Media, Marketing and Development

Day: 27 April 2009

  • Directory Advertising for Small Businesses

    If you are looking at taking an ad in a directory then there are a few points you should consider before entering that process.

    First things first and a point that is overlooked: this type of advertising is ‘directional’, it’s needs driven. When someone picks up a directory there is a very high probability that they have made a decision to make a purchase. A directory is going to help them make a choice between the visible alternatives.

    phone_directory If you are not in that directory, then you are not going to be in that selection process. A decade ago, that may have been the case, but with the rise in online searches for local businesses, that theory is slowly being eroded. The caveat here is that a huge amount of purchasing decisions are still being made using print directories as a reference point something that simply cannot be ignored.

    Without travelling down that road of where people actually make their final decision (print or online), let’s just assume that you are going to or are looking a putting an advert in a directory here are a few pointers worth keeping in mind.

    Correct medium?

    Firstly, is a directory the medium for your business? Don’t be told it is, find out. Have a look at your relevant section -who is advertising there and are you main competitors there? If not should you bother. Don’t be lead by the nose that, because none of the competition is there, you will have the section to yourself! I would find that particularly cold comfort when the phone is not ringing.

    Reps!

    Your first point of contact will be your Directory Sales Representative (or Executive). Directory reps are very well trained and (should) follow a structure in this sales process. This process is very much the same for each directory, allowing for a few regional differences. This is a well planned and well oiled machine and it is there for one real reason – for you to close.

    Stay in Control! Don’t get me wrong, a good rep, a rep who is in the business for the long haul, will want you to do well out of his or her directory. It means that if you do well you will most likely renew your ad the following year and become a good (handy) customer.

    The point I am trying to make is that you are in control, you have the budget and you have to know what you want. You have to remain in control. Reps sometimes try an somewhat intimidate customers, they blind them figures, statements, ‘facts’ – all in the hope you will be caught in the headlights and sign.

    During this meeting should a rep make a statement of ‘fact’ like "you are guaranteed to get 100 calls from this particular advert" ask them for that in writing before you sign!

    Finally, it would be my proposition that you don’t sign on the day, ever. If you hear a line like ‘ oh, we’re closing that section this evening’ say fine, you won’t be advertising. And I would be up front to a rep,as an opening salvo I would say that you won’t be signing today – it might that a different tone.

    Size

    Size primarily depends on two factors; firstly your budget and secondly what the competition is doing. The budget is self-explanatory, you pick the largest ad that you can afford and stick to your guns on the budget. When it comes to competition study the field closely If the largest ad is the section is a competitor with a quarter page – what’s the point of you taking a full page? The size difference is excessive. If you want to be first simply take a half page.

    Colour

    You will get the line that colour is more effective and you will get the research to back that up. Colour is an attention grabber there is no doubt about that. But a colour ad is only effective if its one of the only colour ads on a page of black and white ads. If it’s on a page of colour ads, it’s not going to be at all effective. Many of the “studies” conducted use a colour ad on a page of black and white ads. That’s like shooting fish in a barrel and it’s really is not that conclusive. If you are buying a full page I would question the ‘added impact’ of colour. What more impact can you make on a full page, you have the complete attention of the viewer. In that case it’s then down to image.

    Some directories look for nearly twice the money for a colour ad over the same size black and white one. For my money I would prefer to have a larger ad than a nice shiny colour one. I would have to say that in some classifications its practically mandatory to have a colour ad because of your business, florists for example are nearly always in colour and it will make a much better impression. In other classifications, in my opinion, it’s a complete waste of money. Using colour in a furniture removal or waste disposal ad is , I think, difficult to justify.

    Your advert

    It’s such an important aspect of the process there is a post dedicated to this topic alone. So many businesses spend an inordinate amount of time negotiating the deal and little or no time in the advert.

    Close

    Close the deal If you have concluded a successful deal, give yourself plenty of time to tie up the loose ends. If you are told that you will see a proof of your ad in a week  then you can be guaranteed that its going to be two. Give yourself plenty of time. If you are giving over graphics, logos or pictures to a directory make sure that they are high resolution and a decent quality. Remember, you are stuck with this advert for a year, its your ambassador in the directory for 12 months. A low res grainy picture in your ad will be a poor reflection on your business. Don’t sign off until you are completely happy with the copy and the layout.

    Measure

    A great line used by advertisers either not wanting to renew or trying to get a deal is ‘we didn’t get a response for the ad’  – but how do you know. The response mechanism in the advert is your main switch telephone number which is printed everywhere! Say you spend ?10,000 on an ad, would good insurance for that money not be to spend, say ?200, on getting either a dedicated Freephone or Low Call number, only to be used in the Directory ad? You can monitor the number of calls to that dedicated number and at least at the end of the year you would have the exact response rate for the ?10,000 investment.

  • Marketing Mobile Coupons and Mobile Tickets

    Dominos (www.dominos.com), in the USA anyway,  have taken a real leap forward in my opinion with their new mobile coupon offering.

    For some time now, Dominos have encouraged customers to ‘opt-in’ to their mobile medium i.e. give details of nearest store, mobile number and permission to be contacted via text. They have partnered with www.air2web.com/ who look after the mobile coupon marketing for them. Opt in customers then receive ‘mobile coupons’ which they can use when they are buying online or online via dominos mobile site. As dominos know the geographic location of customers (because of the store location) they can offer local specific offers through their coupons.

    Last year Dominos signed up one million people to opt in to receive mobile coupons, three times as many signups as the previous year showing their customers acceptance to that type of mobile couponing.

    Franchise operators will be encouraged to use the new mobile couponing, but it’s up to the local businesses to decide on the specific offers as tastes and products will vary geographically. Their wap site – mobile.dominos.com looks as if it’s only set up to accepts orders from the States and I wonder if they will be adding this to their arsenal here locally. It’s really a step in the right direction for mobiles, mobile coupons and mobile marketing.

    So many people have tried to crack the mobile coupons with different levels of success. There are plenty of applications available for mobile coupons, but some of them limited and quiet unexciting. Many of them simply send codes to opt in customers for particular products. The recipient then goes to a participating outlet and, when making the purchase at the till, shows the code on the phone to the assistant to get the relevant discount.

    Whilst I think it’s getting there, it’s far from perfect as the assistant has “erase” the coupon on the phone for control purposes. US company Cellfire have been pushing this particular system for some time and with some success it has to be said. Some investors feel that that have the right business model as they recently raised a cool $12m in funding.

    But I think that to really see take up on couponing the last mile would have to be changed. Handing your phone to a sales assistant is really the same as handing in a printed coupon.

    Devices should to be available at the till where the mobile phone can be scanned, the discount noted and automatically erased from the phone – all without the phone leaving the customers hand.

    This system is available for mobile ticketing and is being adopted by a huge number of event venues and transport businesses. Event attendees or passengers leave their mobile numbers when booking a ticket and a 2D barcode is then sent to them as a MMS. They simply ‘scan’ that MMS picture in custom build ‘barcode readers’ for the ticket to be activated. SAS Scandinavian Airlines currently have 10% of their passengers using the 2D barcodes tickets and their target is that by 2011 that 80% will be processed using that system.

    Mobiqa (a site well worth looking at if you have an interest in that area) are the company with momentum in mobile ticketing/coupons and have encouraged a many companies and events to move to mobile ticketing.

    And just to get the brain in gear, here’s where it gets really exciting.

    Nokia have a little know phone the 6131. Built in to this phone is near field communication (NFC) technology. We have all used that, trust me! Any swipe card to get access to a building or cashless payment for the Luas for example uses NFC.

    Companies could potentially send you discounts, coupons, offers and tickets directly to your phone that would be stored in the NCF system. To access the offers or tickets, you would simply brush your phone off an in store pad and the POS system would do the best. It’s would automatically delete the offer once processed and the technology is (should be) very well encrypted.

    NFC embedded onto mobiles would be a nirvana for mobile marketing and cashless payments. However, considering that we can’t get integrated ticketing across the Dublin fragmented transport system – maybe it’s up to private enterprise to get this kicked off.