Media Archives - Page 9 of 12 - McLellan Marketing Group

It’s too much you – why you shouldn’t be in your own commercials

November 9, 2007

A day or so ago, I donned a Kevlar suit and stated the truth.

99% of business owners should not star in their own marketing – especially TV and radio.

As I predicted, the article generated many phone calls and e-mails. Lots of people took it personally.

Exactly.

You see, when you start in your own commercial, your message, by default, is about you. How long you've been in business, how many XY or Z you sell a month, that your granddad started the business at the turn of the century, etc.

Here is a harsh but true fact. Your potential customers could care less. They care about themselves. And what they need and want.

When they see a TV commercial or print ad or website – they want to see themselves. They want to see their problems solved or even better, averted. They want to see how their lives could be better, easier, faster, more posh or sexier. They do not want to see your grandkids. No matter how cute they are.

I mentioned that you look a little uncomfortable and stiff in your spots. But it's more than that. It goes beyond that fact that while you're great at what you do, what you do isn't acting in front of a camera.

It is much more than the reality that spokespeople are prettier than most of us average joes or janes. It boils down to a fundamental reality. Your customers are only interested in you because you can do something for them. That's why they will give you their most precious resources – their time and attention.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Sometimes, you and only you can star in your marketing. We'll delve into that one next.

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Hey Good Lookin’ — should you really be in your own TV spot?

November 6, 2007

This might ruffle a lot of feathers, so let the comments fly. With very, very few exceptions (and I mean very, very) you should not be in your own TV spots. And in most cases, you shouldn't be in your own radio ads or voiceover work either.

I know…but you are different. People tell you how good you are.

They are lying.

They aren't being mean. They either have no clue how to evaluate if you are good or not, or they are being polite. Honestly, in most cases, they are being polite. Either way, you are not good.

You look uncomfortable. You sound uncomfortable. Frankly, you come off a little stiff and uptight.

If I have not brought a curse upon my house with the above statements, let me add this. Your kids and grandkids shouldn't be in your ads either. They may well be cute as a button but that doesn't mean it's a good choice.

I recognize how intoxicating the attention and comments are. "Hey, saw you on TV. You looked great!" But you are paying a pretty penny to garner a compliment or two, aren't you?

Let's try to be objective here. If you saw an ad where the spokesperson was awkward, uncomfortable, stiff or just looked amateurish, would that give you a sense of confidence about their product or service? You've got enough competition and obstacles when it comes to selling your wares.

Bottom line – don't let your ego or an overzealous sales rep tell you it's a good idea for you to star in your own commercials. Use professionals in your advertising. It's worth the investment.

Unless I know you. Then, you look great.

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Are we becoming a world of snackers?

October 29, 2007

I’ve long said we’ve become a USA Today world. Bite-sized chunks of information, a pretty chart and we’re good.

I recently wrote about the power of downsizing how much information you try to cram into any marketing tactic. We’ve also talked about how being long-winded can hurt your effectiveness. And the value of offering bite-sized test drives to our prospects.

So, I was excited when Connie Reece tagged me on a meme that was started by Jeremiah Owyang. He asks the question — do you respect media snackers and if so, how?

So I’ll play along. Here’s where I think I am holding my own:

I write posts like the ones listed above, trying to not only walk the talk, but teach it.
I keep my blog posts short. (for the most part)
I write a weekly marketing column that tops off at 300 words.
I use solo visuals to help tell the story.
I use Twitter and other micromedia.

Here’s where I need to get even better:

Adding more categories so topic-specific readers can find content easier.
Introducing my readers to more resources for just in time searching.
Continuing to hone my messages down to their essence.

So, as the game is played…I tag David Armano, Chris Wilson, Tim Siedell, Gavin Heaton, Mark Goren and Doug Meacham.

Even if you weren’t tagged, feel free to jump in and play along. How are you modifying your communications to accommodate media snackers?

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Now that we’ve decided blogs are potential PR engines…

October 15, 2007

Ah, the good old days. PR pros bombarded reporters, news directors and radio jocks with their pitches, releases, and freebies.

But it’s a new day my friends and suddenly PR firms, publishers and business owners have decided that blogs are as viable as the daily paper, when it comes to getting out the word about a new product, book or idea.

All that is well and good. When it’s done right. But most often, I get e-mails like this:

Hello Drewsmarketingminute,
I found your site http://www.mclellanmarketing.com/ and I wanted to
know if you could Blog or write an article about XYZ (changed because I am a nice guy)! You can write your own article; alternatively you may use this recent press release below. You also take a look at the XYZ samples and information on our site at http://www.XYZ.com Thanks!

This guy has never read my blog. He found me on a list or technorati search. He didn’t use my actual name (unless I have become Drewsmarketingminute) and he insults my integrity, suggesting that I would just run his release verbatim.

I get several of these a day. I ignore several of these a day.

Ogilvy PR has the right idea. They’ve created a bloggers outreach code of ethics. I, and many other colleagues think they’ve got the right idea. I hope that all of us who live in the marketing world and may be pitching bloggers take note. If you want to reach out to a blogger…this would be a fine primer to study before you make that first contact.

We reach out to bloggers because we respect your influence and feel that we might have something that is “remarkable” which could be of interest to you and/or your audience.

We will only propose blogger outreach as a tactic if it complements our overall strategy. We will not recommend it as a panacea for every social media campaign.

We will always be transparent and clearly disclose who we are and who we work for in our outreach email.

Before we email you, we will check out your blog’s About, Contact and Advertising page in an effort to see if you have blatantly said you would not like to be contacted by PR/Marketing companies. If so, we’ll leave you alone.

If you tell us there is a specific way you want to be reached, we’ll adhere to those guidelines.

We won’t pretend to have read your blog if we haven’t.

In our email we will convey why we think you, in particular, might be interested in our client’s product, issue, event or message.

We won’t leave you hanging. If your contact at Ogilvy PR is going out of town or will be unreachable, we will provide you with an alternate point of contact.

We encourage you to disclose our relationship with you to your readers, and will never ask you to do otherwise.

You are entitled to blog on information or products we give you in any way you see fit. (Yes, you can even say you hate it.)

If you don’t want to hear from us again, we will place you on our Do Not Contact list – which we will share with the rest of the Ogilvy PR agency.

If you are initially interested in the campaign, but don’t respond to one of our emails, we will follow up with you no more than once. If you don’t respond to us at all, we’ll leave you alone.

Our initial outreach email will always include a link to Ogilvy PR’s Blog Outreach Code of Ethics.

What do you think?

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It doesn’t have to be fancy…or star Tom Cruise

September 26, 2007

Video is a powerful medium. It's a storytelling medium. We've seen that with the explosion of YouTube.

There's been a lot of discussion about production quality. Now do not misunderstand. I firmly believe there is a time and place when you need high end production and wouldn't allow a client to skimp.

But sometimes, you can capture the spirit and the story telling…and not spend a fortune.

Check our The Marketing Minute's friend Phil Gerbyshak tell us about a webinar series. It makes you smile. (Had me actually laugh out loud) It gives us a hint of what the webinar series might be like.

It's the first chapter in a story…

For more information about the webinar series, follow Phil's instructions and head to the website.

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Don’t leave THIS out of your media releases!

September 7, 2007

In today's age of the digital media release, I find this statistic from BusinessWire amazing.

Less than 1% of press releases submitted contain hyperlinks.

Adding a hyperlink does several things for you:

It adds valuable links back to your website or blog
The links are SEO juice
You shift your media release to a useful, connective tool for consumers
It allows you to enhance the story with background or related information
It opens the opportunity to communicate with your audience

Make a rule for yourself right now. You will not send out a media release without at least 2 outbound links. But don't overdue. Anything more than 1 link per 100 words runs the risk of being labeled as link spam.

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The next generation of social media specialists

September 3, 2007

…are already in training. Sure, there’s MySpace and Facebook, but look out because here comes SugarLoot.com.

This teen-driven site hosts contests that encourage the kids to:

Upload videos
Upload photos
Participate on their blog
Create relationships that support mutual votes and “fan” rankings

The traffic numbers are staggering. Not only is this site attracting kids by the boatload, but it is also attracting advertisers. Prizes for the contests come from companies like Petco (cutest pets), Apple, Westin, M&Ms, American Express, JVC, Dell and others.

It’s also being used to hype upcoming movies. The Clique is a book series aimed at teen-aged girls. Through SugarLoot, they are running a contest where the grand prize winners will get to audition for a role in the movie adaptation of the books.

One of the contestants has over 18,000 views of her audition.

We McLellans were late to the party, but in just a couple days, my daughter’s audition has over 100 views. And we hadn’t even e-mailed the grandparents yet!

My point? If you think your business doesn’t need to pay attention to social media – think again. Tomorrow’s customers are learning it today. You’d better do the same.

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As we were saying…about watching differently

August 29, 2007

There's a new beta in town. Hulu.com

Their goal? Nothing big. Just to give you access to the world's premiere content, when, where and how you want it.

Here's a bit of the CEO's welcome letter.

Welcome to Hulu! Our passionate and growing team here has been very hard at work on a service that we're quite excited about. We'll keep you updated with news as we go along.

The first bit of news we'd like to share is that we have a name: Hulu.

Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building. Our hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world's premier content when, where and how you want it.

So do you suppose Hulu will have :30 spots?

Thanks to Jon Burg for giving me a head up on this beta release. Check out his comments as well.

You can sign up to be a part of the beta as well.

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We watch differently. We will advertise differently.

August 29, 2007

A recent study released by The IBM Institute for Business Value suggests that thanks to DVRs, we are actually watching MORE television. But fewer ads.

As DVRs and other technology allow us to skip over the :30 spot — you have to know that advertisers will find a new way.

What do you think that new way will be? Read more about the study and its implications in my post over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix.

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Make sure your mail isn’t junk mail

May 25, 2007

Direct mail, be it the old fashioned kind – snail mail or that new fangled e-mail, is still one of the most effective marketing tools around. If you do it correctly.

So let’s look at how to do just that.

Right Audience

Sending your direct mail piece to the wrong set of people is probably the most common (and most costly) error made in mailings. Spend as much time on researching your list as you do on the creative aspects of creating your piece.

Unless the people on your mailing list have a desire or need for your product or service, they’re going a pretty tough sell. Offering Marlboro products to non-smokers just won’t work. I don’t care how great the copy is!

Right Message

Before you start writing a direct mail piece, make a list of the three things you want someone to get from the contact. No more than three. Rank them. Now, eliminate one.

At best, people are going to remember one or two things. If you want them to take action or remember a benefit – don’t muddy up your message by hiding it among many messages. Be clear about the result you want. And then, don’t get in its way.

Right Timing

Naturally, you need to tell them how much it’s going to cost. And you think the price is a real steal. But, make sure you share the price at the right time.

No matter what you’re selling, a price has no meaning until your audience knows what they’re getting and why they would want it.

Once you are ready to talk money, you need to tell readers what makes your price so great – in terms of benefits to the reader. Remember, all they care about is what’s in it for them. So tell them!

Right Call to Action

As you create a direct mail piece, you should know exactly what you want the recipient to do. Call for more information, log onto your website, bring the postcard in for a 20% discount – whatever.

But be reasonable. No one is going to call up and buy a $50,000 car after one postcard. Match your call to action with where the audience is, at the moment. Good direct mail is about getting to the next step (asking for a sample, coming in for the test drive, answering a 5 question survey, etc) but to do that…you need to identify what the steps are and strategize how you are going to systematically move from one to the next.

Also, don’t assume they know what you want them to do. You should tell them several times exactly what you want them to do. Be specific. Let readers know exactly what action you want them to take — tell them, and tell them again.

Where do you need to improve your direct mail offerings? Which one of these could have the most impact on your ROI?

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