Why treat your Digital Advertising spend as an unused Gym membership fee?

Happy Thanksgiving 2014-StratoServeJust as the holiday season is getting underway in the US with multiple parties to attend, people are eating and drinking more than they should. At this time 2015 seems just round the corner and everyone is firming up the  "join the gym" resolution for 2015. Wait… you realize that you already pay a monthly fee for the gym .. it's just that you don't go to the gym. So you don't go to the gym even as you guiltily look at the monthly credit card statement. Savary,Goldsmith and Dhar (forthcoming Journal of Marketing Research)  call the phenomena "self signalling," where you hate to admit that you don't go to the gym to yourself. Then why continue to pay for the gym membership that you do not use ? Well, it make you feel good…

Digital advertising spend is very similar. It's really easy to set up a digital spend program be it Google AdWords, a paid LinkedIn subscription or Facebook advertising. The  DIY ( Do it yourself) possibilities of the web encourage businesses and non-profits to think that they can do digital advertising on their own. Sure, they can. After all these are smart people and given enough time and focus on a regular basis there is really no reason to hire a digital agency. Also spending on digital advertising seems to be the in-thing to do and makes you feel both high tech and good.

The problem is that folks running businesses and non-profits have two choices viz. (a) focus on achieving your mission or (b) try to do as much digital marketing as you can – without a paid agency.

We have seen numerous Google AdWords accounts that spend between $300 to $600 a month that is charged to their credit cards- exactly like the unused gym membership.  The total per year exceeds $5000 that is not paltry. Yet entire campaigns are run with one solitary Ad for months when it does not cost anything extra to try out as many ads as you like.

So here is a toast to the holiday season that is a season of giving for non profits, buying by customers from businesses and generally a time for joy and cheer for all   as 2014 draws to a close. For 2015 here are some early resolutions for digital advertisers and all the gym dodgers out there:

  1. Eat less (if possible) and show up at the gym. Once you show up, you tend to work out because everyone is doing it. Join the closest gym possible – make things easier to do.
  2. Review your digital advertising spend. You need to just look at the itemized report of the credit card you charge the spend to. Remember that it is far easier to create advertising content including web content, photos and videos today. Deploying content in digital advertising is not a hassle at all, even if you are a DIY (Do it Yourself) advertiser. 
  3. Review your campaigns every week if you are a DIY. Make it a fixed "to-do" thing on say Friday afternoons as the week is winding down. See what is working and what is not by looking at your Analytics data.
  4. If you are too busy with your organization's mission  hire a digital agency who will do the work for you. The better agencies will spend a few minutes on your campaigns and web data every day like a daily gym workout.
  5. Set up a routine monthly review meeting with the digital advertising agency, your social media and web person every month. This way content on your website can be aligned to your initiatives, any new products or whatever you are putting on priority in your organization.

If only one could hire an agency to go to the gym on one's behalf …

We wish our readers a Very Happy Thanksgiving!

How do Google Ads start appearing almost immediately upon launch?

A recent LinkedIn post What exactly is a web landing page and why it won’t help your SEO (… psst content will) leads to the question about how is it that Google is immediately able to launch your advertising be it search , display or video ads within YouTube. Here are some thoughts:

  1. Google Search results are like editorial content in respected newspapers: Google spiders keep searching the web for content and indexes them. Google inventors Larry Page and Sergey Brin were PhD students and they figured out that it is the way academic scholarly work is done. You cannot publish academic work unless you establish what is already known (the literature review) and what is not known as you start presenting your own research questions (hypotheses). The literature review by definition covers the base of what is known about a question. This simple and brilliant insight has driven Google search. Google spiders try to do this for all the content that they can find and indexes them ranking the content in multiple ways so that as soon as you type a query Google reaches into its own indexed library of the web and presents results that are just great and getting better every day. The ranking of results on Google is based on the quality of the pages primarily based on how many other pages refer to these pages and how concise and precise the answers are with respect to your search terms. As a result we love Google results.Ranking high on Google (SEO) is therefore hard work for content creators and must  be continually updated.
  2. Google AdWords platform is well – like  typing into Google: If you think about it, the Google AdWords platform is like typing into Google. The keywords you select for your Ads immediately become available to Google and can be matched to the editorial high quality organic search results outlined in point 1, above. Thus as soon as you launch your campaign Ads start appearing because all Google has to do is to marry the organic search results (editorial content) to relevant ads. For example if you are a cruise operator you would expect readers of a travel magazine or travel section of a newspaper to see your ad. You can imagine how much and how long  a newspaper or magazine system  has to work on a) creating content b) selling advertising b) advertiser content creation before the print ad actually becomes available.In contrast when you search Google for “Caribbean Cruises” you get a bunch of organic SEO results (SEO results) that can help you learn authoratative stuff   about Caribbean Cruises than an entire day in the library. Also anyone that is marketing Caribbean Cruises at that time can have their Ads displayed within minutes of writing the ads! About StratoServe Digital Marketing Services.
What exactly is a web landing page and why it won’t help your SEO (psst…. content will) – See more at: http://www.stratoserve.com/linkedin-posts.html#sthash.MmPP1ZV2.dpuf
What exactly is a web landing page and why it won’t help your SEO (psst…. content will) – See more at: http://www.stratoserve.com/linkedin-posts.html#sthash.MmPP1ZV2.dpuf

Free Brand Awareness on YouTube: Add a 3 second clip of your brand

Free Brand Awareness -StratoServe

How soon do you decide to skip an in-stream video on YouTube? In three seconds….and as an advertiser,you don’t pay for advertising unless the video is watched for 30 seconds. It is pretty surprising that many advertisers don’t seem to mention the brand or URL till about the end of the video, by which time the viewer has skipped the ad. Hence this post.

YouTube is the second most searched website on the web with some interesting YouTube stats:

  • 1 Billion views a month.
  • 80% from outside the US.
  • More US viewers in the 18-34 age group can be reached by YouTube than any cable TV network. If they actually watch your video for 30 seconds or more, you pay between 6-12 cents- if they skip before, you pay nothing.
  • A million advertisers using TrueView In-Stream Videos with 75% videos that are skippable.

If you got your brand in front of your audience, before they skipped, there is data that supports that many YouTube viewers would simply search the brand later and arrive as organic visitors on your website. In other words, folks would simply skip the Ad in 5 seconds and get to the video content that they want to watch. If you can get your brand and URL to them in the first three seconds, it would help- a lot.

The way to add the 3 second brand infront of every video on your video channel is rather simple, and is explained on this how-to video here.

Given that it is really difficult to reach the younger US audience on TV, it seems like a great idea to advertise on YouTube when your goal is to generate brand awareness. Brand awareness is the early part of the sales funnel and starts the customer engagement process.

The best part is that even as viewers skip your in-stream video ad you can get your brand name out there.- for free. Remember you do not pay for most video advertising unless the viewer watches 30 seconds.

About StratoServe.

Making B2B marketing go viral on Facebook-why “Likes” may help more than “Shares”

Facebook Like or Share -StratoServeMaking your product message go viral is the ultimate holy grail for  social media marketers today. But is "sharing" on Facebook better or is "liking" better for B2B Marketers?

Since this blog gets this question ( eg. How to use Google AdWords and make your video go viral) here are some thoughts:

  • B2B purchases are for a business purpose: Unlike many B2C purchases that are for fun (eg. a video game, a movie ticket or football game) B2B purchases are for a business purpose and whatever is purchased is used to meet the business goals of the buying company. Businesses tend to avoid risk in buying while marketers keep emphasizing value.
  • Academic research on "viral marketing" : It turns out that academic marketing researchers are grappling with "how do you make your brand go viral" question for the last several years and and an article in the Journal of Marketing (January 2014) by Christian Schulze, Lisa Schöler, & Bernd Skiera provides a nice summary of "viral marketing" research  and interesting insights.They differentiate between Facebook apps  that are fun (like games) and utilitarian (more serious stuff like business,money) and find that in a fun social media platform like Facebook viral strategies that work, are different. If you are trying to improve virality for a fun product sharing,incentives and company broadcasts are better. On the other hand if your goal is to promote viral sharing of utilitarian products broadcasts (on fun platforms like Facebook only) it is better to promote "Likes" and avoid unsolicited company broadcasts.
  • B2B Marketing on Facebook: If you think about it, B2B marketing comes up with a solid review process in your customer firm involving the buying center and products are closer to utilitarian products in the B2C space. Facebook "Likes," particularly among the buying center member community can greatly help your brand awareness as decisions are made. Imagine trying to reach electrical engineers with details of a new switch, if a current user likes that switch you can expect great traction among that engineers Facebook electrical engineer friends. Expect awareness that can greatly help, do not expect leads and orders right away.
  • Banner Advertising on the web: Banner advertising can work for products like electrical switches when the ad is in context i.e. on the open web at forums that discusses switches. Reaching the open web is better with the Google Display Network that comes with  Google AdWords.

To summarize, if you are a B2B marketer it is useful to generate genuine "Likes" on Facebook  for say a new product. If you have millions of  fake "likes" for a specialized electrical switch, it can harm your brand, for the simple reason that all those millions cannot be electrical engineers, purchasing folks and  machine operators! Contact StratoServe.

If Scotland secedes from the UK what will happen to exporting scotch?

Nine out of ten bottles of scotch whiskey is exported out of Scotland at the rate of 36 bottles a second!. The industry supports 35,000 jobs in Scotland and has intricate distributor relationships across the world that provide employment to many thousands more, worldwide.Through vigorous lobbying over a century,  the industry has ensured that no one can sell "scotch whiskey" unless it is actually produced in Scotland and aged at least 3 years in oak barrels there. It is difficult to think about any other "country brand" in any other category that is "globalization" proof at least from a competitor country angle.

Important global scotch marketing and distribution considerations  include:

  1. 270 UK Diplomatic posts: These diplomatic posts have been able to successfully keep competitors at bay in 200 world markets. An independant Scotland will have 70 missions to start with and it will take several years a governmental presence will start making an impact. The enormous clout and goodwill of the UK in former colonies via institutions like the Commonwealth, Queen and the English language does help the "Scotch" part of the "Scotch Whiskey" country brand. It is said that Winston Churchill, the legendary UK Prime Minister during the second world war, favored Scotch Whiskey which helped the country brand marketing significantly.
  2. Currency and trade agreements:  The free trade in the European Union and the relative stability of the British pound helps the Scotch industry in Scotland and there is general alarm in business circles about exactly how the currency issue will be resolved should Scotland really separate from UK on Thursday. In addition, all Scottish exports worldwide, including Scotch are now governed by the UK trade treaties and it is unclear about how long the process will take. Years is our guess, even with email and video calls because treaty country governments are by definition, slow as organizations and this kind of secession is not a common occurrence.
  3. Secession and business: Secession has a long history but examples of economic and business success are difficult to think of except say West Germany and South Korea who had fundamental economic system differences with their counterparts. In any event, just as corporate mergers and spinoffs are time challenging  to manage, so with Scotland's proposed secession. If companies take years, countries take decades to settle down with the new governance format.

Whatever way the vote goes on Thursday in Scotland, the relatively amicable nature of the debate is inspiring to the numerous secessionists, worldwide. Check out John Oliver's humorous take on the Scottish independence in this rather long but thoroughly enjoyable video.Contact StratoServe.

LinkedIn Posts

Why Budweiser made the “Removing No” mistake
Don’t assume that people read your email
Do you call your resume file “CV”? the cardinal photo SEO sin
Organic Google Search vs. Paid Search Ads: Do you care?
What exactly is a web landing page and why it won’t help your SEO (psst…. content will)
Why are B2B sales cycles so long?
NYT Mars Mission Cartoon and Hi Tech Outsourcing
Welcome to America,Indian Prime Minister Modi
A Google nonprofit grant helps clarify mission and services
Bill Gates,George Bush and the ALS #icebucketchallenge
Why I took the Google AdWords exams
Sharpen the Saw, cut the Tree or look for non-Trees?
Non-Profits must deliver value and communicate value
Does your organization have a Marketing Doctrine?
How my Dad insured Tenzing

CPSM Blog and CPSM Certified

StratoServe LLC sponsors and maintains the CPSM Blog (www.cpsmblog.com) as a free resource for the Global Supply Management Community.

Dr. Subroto Roy is a CPSM and a certified CPSM trainer.

Subroto Roy CPSM Certification to 2017

 

Burger King, Tim Hortons coffee and Budweiser beer -will consumers care ?

Burger King Tim Hortons -StratoServeThe proposed takeover of Tim Hortons by Burger King (BK) has left large sections of Americans and Canadians aghast. For just as Burger King is quintessentially American so is Tim Hortons a storied and beloved Canadian brand. There is a general sense of dismay among pundits accross both sides of the border for Americans feel that the proposed move of BK's headquarters to Canada for "tax inversion" is an act of betrayal while Tim Hortons attempt to expand in America and global markets with the real estate presence of BK will somehow dilute the charm of Tim Hortons coffee, according to Canadians.

Just as Americans fire up their grills for the Labor day weekend with chilled Budweiser beer, there is talk of boycotting Burger King. And by the way, Budweiser is a Belgian company as mentioned in an earlier post. The larger question is – will consumers care?  Here are some thoughts:

  • Consumers care about value: Marketing is about creating,communicating,delivering and pricing for value. The marketing (4 P's in the definition of marketing).  The question is whether the combined entity be able to deliver value.
  • Competing in American fast food is tough: All manner of financial manoeverring is great, but competing in the American fast food or cofee is tough. That is why Burger King is no. 3 after McDonald's and Wendy's. You not only have to get your supply chain right but you have to mobilize franchises and front line service employees to perform- at minimum wage.
  • Dunkin Donot is tough coffee competition in America: Walk into an American office or college classroom in the morning and you see folks carrying Dunkin Donut coffee cups. Franchisees tell you that even at $1.5 million there is such huge consumer pull that hard work (16-18 hours a day) pays off as people start driving through for cofeee at 4 am.
  • Consumer pull is through long years of brand building: Long years of brand building through advertising, franchise motivation and sustained efforts on the micro-level moving parts of a fast food business is the well known secret of the fast food business.
  • Ownership does not matter: So long as the beer is Bud, consumers don't seem to care if the owner is Belgian. And by the way the owners of the combined entity for Burger King-Tim Hortons is Brazilian !
  • Merger strategy is easy to come up with- implementation is hard: Merger strategy is easy and elegant, but it is much harder to get the combined entity to perform as numerous research shows.

Call it the hegemony of the corporate finance function where changing columns of an excel spreadsheet is the easiest thing to do, compared to getting a franchisee to buy into the vision of a combined entity. And it is at the franchisee that the rubber hits the road. Will the consumer feel the glow of the brands as they deal with the powerful synergy of Tim Hortons and Burger King? Time will tell. Contact StratoServe.

Why the ALS “#icebucketchallenge’ is a social media and fundraising success

The ALS  Association has reportedly received $1.35 million in donations between July 29 and August 11 compared to $ 22,000 during the same period last year with the ice bucket challenge. This is quite remarkable, but first some background.

ALS is a neuro degenerative disease that causes progressive paralysis of the patient as family, friends and medicine watch helplessly. Pete Frates, a Boston College baseball player, only 29 years old was diagnosed with the disease in 2012 and challenged his friends to take the ice bucket challenge. You took the ice bucket challenge within 24 hours of being challenged by a friend and posted on social media(#icebucketchallenge). If you did not take the challenge  you needed to donate to the ALS Association to raise awareness for ALS. Whether or not you took a friend’s  social  media challenge to raise  ALS awareness, you were very likely to donate to the ALS Association.

The #icebucketchallenge has suddenly gained huge visibility with Martha Stewart and NBC host Matt Lauer doing it on TV. Ethel Kennedy 86, took the challenge and has  asked President Obama to take up the ice bucket challenge as well.

Apart from the fundraising at the ALS Association, you can be sure that the NIH, medical schools, biotech and pharma companies will all be freeze- jolted into more action to cure this dreadful, but relatively rare disease.

Non-Profit development folks must wonder about how they could gain more traction for their worthy causes. For every non-profit has a worthy cause and  rarely a “total” solution to the problem that needs funds and importantly: awareness. Here are some thoughts as to why the “#icebucketchallenge” is working.

  •  Brief discomfort- specific friends:  Although it is summer, actually it is at least briefly uncomfortable to douse yourself with ice water. You are not asking your friends for too much on Facebook and you are asking only selected friends.
  • Donations are easy: The online donation page at the ALS Association starts donations at $35 and the downloadable form starts at $ 25 if you want to mail your check.
  • The baseball connection: In 1939 Lou Gehrig abruptly retired from baseball due to the disease. In the US the disease is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Many folks are probably noticing that Pete Frates, who is ailing with the disease, is also a baseball player.

There are no better spokespeople for the cause of non-profits than the beneficiaries you help.

Contact StratoServe.