Do you like to gamble?  I’m not much of a gambler.  Occasionally I’m dumb enough to play the lottery.  I know it is hard to believe but I didn’t win the lottery….again.  I thought I’d try to win without playing my kids birthdates for once. Oh well.

I don’t  play every weekend.  I’ve gambled on the lottery maybe ten times in the last ten years. I don’t feel bad about it.  Five bucks now and then has about as much chance of paying off as money invested on Wall Street.

We all used to believe that we had to have a portfolio of investments.  Many of my friends and family saw their investments disappear. We’re in baffling times.

More baffling to me is why companies gamble on commercials they put on TV. Especially now, when every dollar really counts ! Judging from the ads, these companies skip all the vital steps  to making an effective TV commercial and then wonder why the TV ad doesn’t pull leads.

What do I mean by vital steps?  Well for one thing, know your target audience, thoroughly. Not just the demographic.  Know what imagery they’re receptive to. Know what they “think” about products or services similar to yours.  Know what about your product or service they will respond to positively. Know what emotion your target audience is sitting in. Know what words and phrases they agree with. These are just a few of the things we research.

If you don’t know these things before beginning the creative part of making a TV commercial, you’re going to miss your target audience. You’ll disconnect with your audience to a greater or lesser degree.  Like the guys who marketed the Chevy Nova in South America, where “No Va” means “won’t go”. Duh.

Here’s another example.  We’ve had a client come to us with a natural product  which alleviates discomfort during menstrual cycles.   Some “expert” agency gave them the name “Klimadynon”.  The client was from Germany.  They didn’t know that Americans would position this name with a dinosaur. They didn’t know their audience. We tested some alternate names and renamed the product so it didn’t communicate that it was for women who act sort of like a dinosaur monthly.

How does this apply to you? Well, if you don’t know your audience chances are you’re wasting your marketing budget.  You’re not just losing sales, you may be driving clients away.   If you don’t know your target audience you’ve reduced the chance of your ad being effective by 70% or more.

This is fine for some evil ad agencies who would love for you to keep trying and trying to reach your target audience.  The more you try the more they make.

It’s like playing darts blindfolded. If you can’t see the target how do expect to hit a bull’s eye?

We see advertisements on TV all the time that miss the target audience. They don’t cause the phone to ring.  The sponsor has wasted his money.

Is there a better way?  You bet ! We’ve used it for years on our corporate clients and we started using it on our TV commercials.  It’s proven and scientific.  It takes the guesswork out of marketing.

All advertising is a gamble. Our proprietary methods will put the odds in your favor.

Otherwise, you may as well play the Lottery.  Your chance of winning is lousy but at least you’re not throwing away so much money.

A better way to go is to find out how we can help you win at marketing.  It’s a sure bet.

This article is not about THAT WORD the three-letter word that starts with “S” and ends with “X”. But it is about choosing words and topics that people find interesting.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to exclude SEX from this discussion but I’m just pointing out that the key to getting people to open their awareness and listen to your message is by using words and images they are interested in.

Of course, SEX is a pretty easy way to get someone’s attention.  Even the letters in SEX get massive attention – X, or XX, or XXX.  This makes you wonder about the people who thought up the name Exxon, doesn’t it?

Anyway, many are using SEX to market lots of things.  We try to find keywords that will attract just your target audience and not everyone on the planet.

But where was I?  I was distracted.  Oh yeah, finding out what words and pictures to use to connect with your target audience.  This is key to any marketing endeavor.

For a successful marketing campaign the creative people must know the target audience thoroughly. Just a short simple list would include: 1) Who is the target audience, 2) What’s going through their head (what problems are they focused on), 3) What they view as solutions to that problem and what solutions they see as valueless to the solution of that problem, 4) What images they reach for, and 5) What images repel them.

For example, if I know you love tennis, and you worship slender blondes from the former Soviet Union and I’m trying to sell you a Canon digital camera the chances are that I’ve got a pretty good shot at selling you a camera if I hire Maria Sharapova.

I’ve used Maria to grab your attention and now I can deliver a marketing message.  On the other hand, if you hate blondes and blew your knee out playing tennis, my marketing campaign will probably miss.

OUR MESSAGE: Knowing your audience increases the likelihood of a payback on your investment.

Even though this is known we still see people skipping the research step and shooting in the dark. You know how many times you’re going to hit the target if you’re shooting in the dark?

Those who skip research have two choices: 1) just mimic what everybody else is doing or, 2) try totally new and never been seen before.

When you mimic your competitors you look just like them.  You blend into the wallpaper and waste your money.

When you try something “really out there” you end up with a real crap shoot.  Now you’re betting the farm on something totally unknown.

Why don’t we just jump out of the plane blindfolded. Somebody will yell before we hit the ground.

Let’s talk about “really out there” commercials. I bet you can name five commercials you’ve seen (that you can’t remember the product’s name) that were REALLY COOL and REALLY OUT THERE.  Problem is, you probably didn’t buy it. The client paid for your amusement but got no return.

If they’d known what you’re interested in, they may have grabbed you. Maybe they didn’t market to you an aspect of the product that would have made it appealing to you.

Marketing is funny that way.  If you do your homework, it will work much better than if you guess. The choice is do you want to guess what will interest your target audience or do you want to “understand” your audience so you’ll know how to engage them.

Geico has four or five TV ad campaigns running now.  I’m sure they’ve won many awards. Though extremely creative and memorable I question if they work well for the client.   I can repeat them verbatim but I won’t call for a quote. Why? I like geckos, cavemen, basketball players, Rod Serling, Charlie Daniels, Ed “too tall” Jones….

I’m not interested in the FUNNIEST insurance company. I want an insurance company who is there the day after the big storm knocks a tree down on our house.  If they’d surveyed me, they would know that.

And so, my friends, I come to the end of the article.  Let’s review.  I attracted you with SEX talk.  I showed you a SEXY picture (in the sense of athletic prowess = sexiness). I delivered my message: “Research makes for effective marketing”.

If I was writing a Pay Per Click ad, in which I’d have to pay for every click through,  I would had very specific words to only attract people most likely to be my leads.

So now that you know this, will you take action?

Will you call us? You might.

THE OFFER: What if I offered you a free Business Development Survey, which will clarify what can be done to get a payback on your marketing dollars? Hmmmm?

Getting interested?

BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE: Wouldn’t it be SEXY to really have a rockin’ 2010?  New clients, big jobs, nice car, new place, bills paid off?

You can find out how…for free.  Call now.

Now that’s good marketing. Of course, if I knew you better I wouldn’t have had to rely on SEX so much to keep your attention. I could have talked about what you were really interested in.

Try including a link to an interesting video. Here’s the lowdown.

The Association uses an email service, Constant Contact, to do our email marketing and PR.

These marketing/PR emails always include a link to a video.  According to Constant Contact, 23.7% of the people who open our email click the link to play the video. (see BLUE below).

(The Association's Video Emails outperform competitors per Constant Contact.)

So how does our conversion rate compare to others business sectors who don’t necessarily use video? Our Conversion Rate (in blue above) is 4 times higher than the industry average –(in red above), and 10x higher than Marketing/PR businesses (in yellow above).

How does all this help you?
We produce videos that make your email marketing more effective.  People love video.  They’d rather click “PLAY” than read.

So, if you want to improve your Marketing/PR email conversion rate, call us. We’re ready to PLAY.