I've been listening to Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University" on CD. I'm learning a lot and one thing that I love is that he quotes scripture when talking about finances, debt, investing, etc. That's something I always admired about Larry Burkett. Many things I'm hearing directly relate to advertising especially when you think of it as an investment. Ramsey refers to an investment as something that you don't expect a return on in less than five years. Anything put away for shorter returns he considers savings.
When I'm working with a new client, especially if they are new to broadcast advertising, we talk about being patient and manage expectations that the phone is going to ring off the hook the minute the first commercial hits the air. That's not how this works. When you invite someone to buy from you or to be a client they rarely take immediate action.
So, when I'm looking for ways to get smarter I turn to the bible. There's thousands of years of people learning things the hard way so that we don't have to wrapped up in one source. Regardless of your religious affiliation it would be foolish not to heed some of this knowledge from the many authors of this collection of books.
Here are some quotes from Dave's site that I found particularly relative to advertising (and life in general).
Proverbs 28:20
"A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished." I have a client who likes to say, "You don't go from zero to Oprah overnight."
Ecclesiastes 11:2
"Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." In other words, don't put all of your advertising eggs in one basket. Radio stations flip overnight. TV News spokespeople get fired. Things happen, so diversify.
Proverbs 14:29
"He who is impulsive exalts folly." I've seen many, many, people make the mistake of jumping around with their ad campaigns. They try something for a couple of weeks and then pull right before their message is about to start sinking in to the mind of their target consumer. Advertising isn't an immediate get rich quick deal.
Proverbs 1:5
"A wise man will hear and increase learning, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel." Listen to an "ad guy" who's been doing this a long time.
Any other words of wisdom you'd like to share? Favorite bible quotes? I'd love to hear it!
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Do you have any of those customers or clients that you know would give you a great endorsement or reference? I can’t think of a better way to help gain trust or build up some credibility with a prospective customer than using success stories or testimonials in your marketing.
If you’re a home improvement or service company, Angie’s List has become an important place for this, but rather than let a third party manage a piece of your identity, why not put some of your biggest fans on your website? Create a gallery of your remodeling work that includes comments from the homeowner. If you’re an accountant, list some of the businesses you handle, or list some of the comments that people have said when you found an error in their reporting that saved them $100,000.
I was honored earlier this year when a client offered to not only record a testimonial about me, but run it as a :60 commercial on Newsradio KMBZ here in Kansas City. Take a listen to what Cary Hall, America’s Healthcare Advocate, had to say: Cary Hall Endorsement.
I’ve mentioned before that whether you do this on your own or not, social sites like Yelp! are already allowing your customers to write a review. Google Place pages draw from multiple directories and include the option for people to directly write reviews too. You can choose to encourage people to do this, or sit back and see what happens. Either way, people are going to talk about you. If you’re a restaurant, why not ask people to write a review for you? Offer them a free dessert or something if they do.
If you are advertising on TV or radio, why not talk more about your clients, or let them come in and do the talking for you. I’ve found that people who are really happy with what you’ve done for them often have a different perspective and will come up with benefits that you may not have even realized you did.
I thought Cary Hall would make a great radio show host because he was so knowledgeable and opinionated when it came to Health Insurance. I thought it would position him as the expert in Kansas City and grow his business. It did. His company doubled in the first year! Little did I know though, that Cary would continue to grow outside of Kansas City. His show can now be heard on stations all across the U.S. I’m really proud of him and am grateful that he cared enough to share his experience with me as a marketing and advertising consultant in Kansas City to thousands of business owners in the market.
Who are your big fans? (I’m not talking about Facebook…) Is there any way you can incorporate them into your marketing? It’s powerful when you do.
Social Media Isn’t Really SEOI was talking to a local business yesterday about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and their online strategy. They were telling me about how they were working with an agency that specializes in social media to help optimize their website. While I agreed that social media can be a tool that helps tell a search engine [...]
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What Are Your Customers Saying?I went to my son’s school for Pizza and Poetry last week where he had written a little poem about me. It was really funny to hear what the kids all had to say about their parents or siblings. One girl said that the best thing about her mom was that she drove her to [...]
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Making Your Advertising Story More InterestingI recently read A Million Miles In A Thousand Years by Donald Miller. Here’s a video review and more details and thoughts about it below. Don Miller writes about telling a better story in your life and finding true meaning even in the painful moments we experience. He comes to this concept when movie producers [...]
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I Left My Fear in San FranciscoHey! I went on a business trip with a client who asked that I help them with a presentation. Negotiating is one of my many wonderful skills! Funny thing whether our contract is accepted or not, something changed in the day that I was gone. My friend, client, and business associate, Cary Hall told me [...]
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Media Allocation Is Like Buying WineI love to have friends over for dinner and cook for people. I also love wine, so when I’m trying to figure out what to buy there’s a lot of things I need to know before I walk into a store and make the purchase. How many people am I having over? How much am [...]
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My Ad Guy’s Ridin’ SoloAfter 8 years of selling time for various media companies and 11+ years of working from a cubicle, I made the decision to go out on my own, work from a home office, and start my own company as an independent media consultant. What I do for my clients is meet with them about their priorities [...]
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Internet Marketing-Benefits of Banner AdvertisingIf you’re not familiar with terms like SEM, SEO, CTR, behavioral targeting, keyword search, impressions, unique visitors, comScore, or organic results, you probably will be very soon. Welcome to Internet marketing and advertising! Today it’s so much more complicated than just having a website because of search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo!. You need [...]
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Getting Out of a RutSomeone recently explained to me that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over with the expectation of a different result. Man, have I ever been insane! I do this with many aspects of my life, but one example is with computers and technology. I’m the guy who will continue to [...]
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Welcome to my personal reference site for information and advice on marketing and advertising! My goal is to provide resources and examples from my experience in media to help you be more focused with your marketing plans and make better decisions with your advertising dollars.
While working in media sales in both radio and TV in Kansas City, I have developed a method of discovering a client's needs and recommending successful advertising solutions that are designed to make a return on their investment.
So, what does it take to create a successful campaign? Based on my experience I have learned that it takes 3 key elements to achieve your campaign goal in any medium:
1. Research
2. Message
3. Frequency
Intrigued? Need some help? Browse through my site to learn more about me and what I do. I invite you to schedule a consultation about your business so that soon you'll be telling your friends, "Ray Martin is My Ad Guy!"
"In my first year working with Ray, my business doubled!"
-Cary Hall, President, Benefits By Design, Inc.
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