Got a great idea, but need some input?

Sometimes you get what you think is a great idea, but you're not positive and you sure could use a little input from the peanut gallery. Enter crowd sourcing websites. For a small fee, you post your idea and ask for feedback. While not quite as focused as a focus group, crowd sourcing sites are a tremendous source of opinion from a wide swath of folks who use the web.

For details about the concept, dial up this piece on American Express' Open Forum blog. http://tinyurl.com/bp7mf97

Nice package: clearing up a misconception

One of the misconceptions about advertising agencies is that soliciting help from one requires deep pockets, big boardroom meetings on Madison Avenue and hearing campaign pitches, with lots of fancy artwork atop easels.

That does, of course, exist, but smaller agencies often offer less expensive options and will customize a campaign (fancy word for “do you need a logo, a website, bus-bench signage, radio spots?”) to fit your budget (another fancy, and sometimes intimidating, word for “what do you want to spend?”).

If the thought of even a very modest campaign still sounds too expensive and complicated, there’s another option: [insert drum roll here] The Package.

Ad packages are simply various types of basic advertising, bundled into a single fixed low cost. They’re generally comprised of the kind of advertising that typical businesses need. One package option might be, for example, a logo, business cards, a one-page website and a one-page brochure. They can become more involved with print advertising, sales kits, promotional items, maybe even a Facebook business page, depending on your needs and … gulp … budget. The point is that an ad package created by an agency will yield cost-effective creative design and professional production versus going with that place in the strip mall down the street, Floyd’s Printing, Design and Knick Knacks—We’re Not Good, But We’re Slow. You also know up front exactly what you’re getting and how much it will cost.

If you’ve never worked with an ad agency but are considering it now and want to wade in slowly, inquire about advertising packages. They’re a great, inexpensive way to get to know an agency for possible future work while fulfilling a need now that we at Ryan William’s believe is crucial to any business: advertising.

We’re going to spell it out for you

At the outset, this topic might seem a little sophomoric for an ad agency blog whose readership is made up of business owners. But as we can readily attest: Sometimes it’s the most fundamental principals that get overlooked. The topic? Grammar in your marketing, advertising and PR, and in all your written communications, really.

Your written words are an extension of you and your business, and whether that business is lawn maintenance or running a charter school for advanced students, your market has a level of expectation about your professionalism. And one of the marks of professionalism is high-quality writing.

You know the message you get about a job seeker who submits a resume peppered with typos, or the feeling you get when you read “expresso” on a coffee shop menu instead of the correct “espresso.” Well, if you want to keep from feeding that perception about your own business to your market, just apply the following three concepts to all the words generated by your company and you’ll catch the vast majority of poor grammar before it gets out the door.

1. Sit on it.

Whether copywriter, journalist or a businessperson who generates 100 emails a day, the more comfortable you get with words, the faster you can whip them out. Grammatically, however, speed can get you into trouble. It leads to transposed letters, misspelled words, you name it. So, let the copy sit for a length of time, and then read it again.

In the ad agency biz, we let copy marinate from weeks to a day to sometimes an hour or less, depending on the scope and urgency of the project. But you can be sure we have a zero-tolerance system in place that involves setting aside the words for a period of time. If your “project” is an email, then sitting on it for you might mean five minutes, and that’s fine. The point is that with the passage of time, your eyes recharge and get fresher. Also, because proofing your own work is difficult, a second set of eyes is always a good idea.

2. Read it aloud.

Reading silently and reading aloud employ different brain functions. When you read silently, the tendency is to fix typos in your mind and accept poor choices in verbiage—basically correct subliminally what is incorrect on the page. Reading silently concentrates on what is said.

Reading aloud focuses on how it is said. You can hear the words independently of each other and also their rhythm in combination. Typos become more evident, as do misspellings, missing words and poor grammatical choices.

3. Turn on your spellchecker.

The number of people who don’t use the spell check feature on their computer is astounding. Is it always right? Heck no. Will it catch every error? Not even close. If you don’t know the difference between a painter’s “palette,” a wooden “pallet” and the “palate” in your mouth, for example, chances are spell check won’t catch the misuse of the three nouns either. But what it does catch makes it a powerful and handy backup.

Of course, there are a lot more tools in the copywriting trade and if you ever want to while away an afternoon discussing them, we’d be glad to oblige. However, if your hands are full running your business and you’d like RWA to worry about your marketing- and advertising-related grammar, we’d be glad to help you out there as well. Just pick up the fone. 

Facebook Wants You

In the movie about Mark Zuckerberg and his partners founding Facebook—The Social Network—cofounder Eduardo Saverin is portrayed as pushing for the site to sell online advertising, which, in the early days according to the movie version, Zuckerberg apparently wanted nothing to do with. “We don’t even know what it is yet,” the Zuckerberg character says when Saverin continues to push his agenda.

Times have changed and Facebook sure knows what it is now.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has announced she’s planning a strategy similar to one she employed while VP of global online sales and operations at Google. Reports are that the largest social networking site in the world will begin offering $50 advertising credits to as many as 200,000 small businesses as early as next week. Why? Because just as at one time you probably didn’t even know what Facebook was and now you check your page multiple times a day, the brass at Facebook recognize that people’s obsession with Facebooking opens up a whole new advertising opportunity.

Word is Facebook will set you up with an ad that racks up a cost per click—say 5 or 10 cents—and spot you the first $50. According to Sandberg, that’s enough for a typical small business to target everyone it needs to at least once, recognize that the concept is a viable way to generating ROI, and create the latest addiction among Type A business owners—obsessing over their Facebook ad campaigns while sipping their morning coffee.

No word yet on how Facebook is going to divvy out the credits, but we’ll certainly keep our ear to the keyboard for you. Because even if you can manage to keep the cyber monkey off your back and not renew after your initial credit is gone, $50 is $50, and a lot of businesses are liable to get in line fast once the program is launched.

So Saverin’s idea wasn’t such a bad one, it seems. Just his timing was off. Maybe if he’d waited a few years to push for Facebook advertising, he’d still have his 30 percent stake in the company. But, hey, maybe with a few of your advertising dollars thrown into the mix, Eduardo won’t be living out of his Bentley for too much longer.

Rebranding: A pain, an unnecessary expense, or your next step?

Businesses of all sizes bring to the table now and again the question of rebranding, and the reasons are many. Some businesses simply want to keep up with the times and so freshen their image. Others merge with or acquire another company that requires a new face to reflect a new direction or product. Still others need a rebirth to distance themselves from a PR gaffe or even to gain distinction from competition.

For smaller businesses, like many of those we at the Ryan William’s Agency represent, rebranding involves advancing the marketing and advertising components that a business initially developed on its own rather than outsourcing to professionals because of the myriad of factors that constrain new companies. Startups face issues of cost, inexperience, time, a firm understanding of their own advertising needs, and more. 

However, a few years down the road, a business owner may realize that his logo, for example, needs updating and a professional quality added to it. Maybe the same goes for his signage, print ads, brochures, media kits and the like. They may well convey the right information, but in a somewhat unsophisticated package. After some time, an astute business owner using homegrown ad materials may begin to realize that, to continue to grow, the company’s ad campaign needs to advance. Designs may need to evolve. Photography, graphics and copywriting may need to improve. Even additional mediums—radio, online components, direct mail, social media—may need to be considered.

A good advertising agency doesn’t come in and completely toss out your previous campaign. At Ryan William’s, we cherry pick what has worked for you in the past and look for ways to improve upon those already strong concepts, as well as analyze where your poorer performing dollars are being spent and reallocate that spending to better-performing products. Contracting with an ad agency to rebrand your business might seem like an unnecessary additional expense at first. But, the additional sales reaped down the line from allowing a professional to recreate and place your advertising can actually far outweigh the initial expense of rebranding now, and leave you to do what you do best—run your business.

Rebranding isn’t as much a growing pain as it is a right of passage and a sign that your business has evolved to the next level.  

A Twitter Twick

When the news of Congressman Anthony Weiner posting a less-than-congressman-like photo of himself on Twitter hit the big time, a lot of folks asked, “How in the heck do you post a picture on Twitter? I thought the medium was limited to 140 characters only.”

Well, it is. Tweeting pics really means adding a URL to your tweet that links to a posting of your photo. It’s akin to posting an image on your Facebook page and then tweeting about it and leading followers back to your post. Here’s what you do:

First, dial up www.TwitPic.com and log in using your Twitter username and password. The home page will ask you if you want to upload a photo or video (yes, you can upload video as well). Click on the link and a browser button will appear that allows you to navigate around your computer and upload the image or video you’d like to share.

TwitPic accepts images in GIF, JPG and PNG formats up to 10 megabytes each in size and videos in most formats up to 1.5 minutes in length. Once uploaded, add your Tweet message, which is limited to 114 characters to save room for the link to come, and voila—a tweet appears on Twitter with an automatically condensed link to your photo or video.

Okay, so the concept of tweeting pics is a bit of a misnomer because the process isn’t direct. But it’s not difficult to pull off, adds a twist to your tweeting routine and is a nice twick to have up your social media sleeve.

If you like learning about these kinds of tools as well as bigger-picture concepts to help you with your marketing and advertising campaigns, check back to the Ryan William’s Agency blog often. We’re always blogging about something useful, informational, entertaining or just plain funny. 

Sometimes it’s what you don’t say

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, and although this installment of our RWA blog might be stepping on our copywriter’s toes, in the following three examples, they’d be right. We really like these print ads. They get the message across instantly and use virtually no words, other than a logo, doing it. Concepts like these don’t come along often, so when they do, agencies like to jump on them. Enjoy.

Bose Noise Reduction Headphones. Wonder how much they paid the model.

Lazer Bike Helmets. You should see the car.

8 in 1 Dental Snacks. No animals were harmed in the production of this ad.

At Ryan William’s Agency, we know that sometimes serious advertising makes you laugh and, if presented correctly, can sell a lot of widgets. Maybe we can work a little humor into your campaign. 

Hate-Surfing

There’s a consumer statistic that has been circling the earth since dirt was invented, or at least long before anything like the Internet existed: For every one praise your business receives, there are 10 customers complaining to family and friends about your product or service. Who knows if the math is still correct? The point is that people are much more apt to express their displeasure with your business than heap praise.

Now, however, with the advent of the Internet, there are convenient online vehicles to not only bash a business, but to do it in writing and anonymously if you like, with the ability to influence scads more people than the word-of-mouth of yesterday. Review sites like Yelp and Kudzu; social websites like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter; personal websites and blogs; even email give individuals the ability to shotgun their message far and wide with relative ease. Today, dissatisfied customers don’t just seemingly disappear into obscurity.

As damaging as a posted complaint directed at your business can be, however, you can use the overall concept of consumer online ranting to your advantage in a research method dubbed “hate-surfing.”

Hate-surfing involves researching negative comments and posts about businesses similar to your own to generate insights that can help you run your business. You’ll find complaints ranging from issues specific to a single business—i.e. “my food was cold” or “there were bed bugs in my room”—to industry trends across the board.

To search effectively, you’ll want to first acquaint yourself with the typical language used to complain in your industry. Do people often write “sucks” or that they were “ripped-off” or “ignored,” etc.? Then, you’ll want to narrow down where you research. TripAdvisor, for example, is a popular travel industry site where consumers air their complaints. Amazon has thousands of product reviews. You’ll find lots of restaurant reviews on Yelp. Facebook and Twitter pretty much cover the gamut. When you get into the rhythm, it usually doesn’t take too long to spot mistakes that other businesses are making that may prompt you to implement changes in products, service and policy, etc. in your own company.

Hate-surfing is an effective tool that we use at Ryan William’s Agency to keep tabs on our current clients and to help prepare when pitching new ones. Although not scientific, it does offer insight not unlike a focus group. And it’s free. So what’s not to like about hate-surfing?

You too can YouTube

While pretty much everyone but the stuffiest among us agrees that Facebook, Twitter and certain blogs, etc. can be a lot of fun, no one can deny that YouTube videos hold the most potential for side-splitting entertainment. (And if you do deny it, reference “stuffiest” above and consider opening a LinkedIn account.)

Yes, it’s true; companies and individuals post videos of many stripes other than humorous ones. Anything from reconstructive dental surgery to personal political diatribes are fair game. But who doesn’t like to laugh? And a recently completed unscientific study by Ryan William’s Agency found that “a whole heck of a lot more” funny videos went viral last year than any other genre, except music and maybe those peeks inside the reactor cores in Fukushima, Japan.

The point is, however, that humor sells. And even if music as well as pain and suffering do as well, who has the budget to hire Lady Gaga and do you really want to associate your product or service with catastrophe? But for the cost of a video camera that you probably already have in your smart phone or digital camera and a little creative thinking, you have the potential to spread your business message perhaps worldwide.

A great example of this is Blendtec, manufacturer of the “world’s best blenders,” and the company’s tongue-in-cheek “Will it Blend” videos. Company founder and engineer Tom Dickson blends up everything from cell phones to golf balls to illustrate the power of his blenders in this hilarious series. While his blender stayed intact, his videos exploded on YouTube and so did sales. You can view them on his website at www.blendtec.com or dial them up on www.YouTube.com.

Miracle Whip is using YouTube on a grander scale, creating the “Miracle Whip Not for Every Relationship Contest” where the company is awarding $25K to the best 60-second video depicting how Miracle Whip either caused couples to marry or divorce. The promo video alone (http://tinyurl.com/3gt2hwm) is hysterical.

“Yes, I understand the marketing power of YouTube,” you say, “but I can barely keep up with the day to day demands of my business, let alone produce videos.” And that’s okay. The production of videos can be outsourced or you can start yourself small-time and infrequently. Eventually, however, when you realize the value of such a strategy, the likelihood of a video campaign eventually becoming integral to your business’s advertising mix is quite high. Think about it. Then give us call if you have questions.

Quotations from some of the biggies in the Advertising Hall of Fame

At the Ryan William’s Agency, we like ad-related quotations that stand the test of time almost as much as ads themselves that are as relevant today as in decades prior. Here are a few of our favs, all from heavy-hitting members in the Advertising Hall of Fame.

“If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, and the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular." --David Ogilvy

“Advertising makes people discontented. It makes them want things they don't have. Without discontent, there is no progress, no achievement." --Morris Hite

“It takes good clients to make a good advertising agency. Regardless of how much talent an ad agency may have, it is ineffective without good products and services to advertise." --Morris Hite

“The right name is an advertisement in itself." --Claude Hopkins

“When executing advertising, it's best to think of yourself as an uninvited guest in the living room of a prospect who has the magical power to make you disappear instantly." --John O'Toole

While the team at Ryan Williams hasn’t penned a quotable line about advertising practices and philosophies worthy of the Hall of Fame-—YET—-we do have numerous award-winning campaigns to our credit that significantly increased both brand awareness and sales for area businesses. We like to think that speaks volumes. Got a question about promoting a product, a business, even an individual? Give us a call. We can help, and you may quote us on that.

Let’s be clear about transparency

Whether it’s corporate America, the government or the social media campaign for your business, the buzz is about transparency, a fancy word for honesty. Whatever you call it, however, being honest with your market, your audience and the public in general is of utmost importance in today’s society because of the current and rapidly evolving future state of communications technology.

Whether you’re a fan or not of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogging, mobile websites, texting and the like, huge numbers of people are and are sharing up-to-the-minute news and information via these social mediums. Breaking news is no longer strictly in the hands of professionals who are limited to some extent by reporting solely what they’re told. Stories go viral every day, “reported” by individuals with a smartphone or a Twitter account who just happen to stumble upon an event—events as significant as the bin Laden raid in Pakistan to as trivial as what one ate for lunch.

Individuals to businesses to entire governments can’t hide anymore, at least not for very long. (How long was Congressman Anthony Weiner’s … ahem … photo on Twitter before he came to his senses and took it down?) The point is if it’s newsworthy—and as we’ve established, virtually everything is fair game—it will likely be “reported.”

So what’s a business to do? Two things. First, don’t fight Big Brother. Embrace him. He’s watching, and in the grand scheme of things, that’s a good thing. Run an ethical and reputable business. Treat your customers and employees fairly. Be a good corporate citizen. Go above and beyond. If there’s nothing scandalous, illegal or unfair about your business practices, and, heck, maybe even some wholesome qualities to them, chances are most of the news about your company will be positive.

Which brings us to No. 2: When you get a bad online review, a negative Tweet, a bash in the Facebook—and you will no matter how snow white you strive to be—respond honestly and in a timely manner, and express a sincere effort to address the poster’s concerns. People tend to respond more favorably to a negative event when there is a caring and understandable response to it than when the negative event stands alone.

That’s transparency in a nutshell. Keep your nose clean in the first place, and when a customer becomes unreasonable or a negative event occurs, address it immediately, publicly and transparently.

Got questions about social media and the direction of your advertising? At Ryan William’s Agency, we can help. We’re a full-service ad agency serving a wide array of South Florida businesses with their advertising and marketing needs, from print ads, television, radio and collateral materials to website design, SEO and SEM, and social media campaigns. Give us a call today.