Marketing tips from today's presentation

I had the pleasure to speak this week at the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast. It's a solid group of local businesses representing a wide range of products and services. I was very impressed with the energy and effort these people put forth in networking.

I spoke about my new company, Ads for Edmonds (http://www.adsforedmonds.com/) . It's a full service agency focused on helping local businesses. They asked some excellent questions, and I touched on some key things to consider in today's varied media-choice market.

1. Make sure your web site is working for you. It should be clean, simple and have a menu that's understandable. I have seen some horrible sites lately, and it's a huge turnoff. But I've seen some good ones, too, from establishments I frequent:
http://www.jazzalley.com/; http://www.portaliswines.com/; http://www.rays.com/. These sites have lots of information but well organized, easy to find and pleasing to the eye.

2. Set up your email address to mime your web address. Why have a hotmail, yahoo, gmail or other account? Make it john@smithrealty.com.

3. Make your ad/marketing expense a line item in your budget. And keep it there. Cut that in a down economy? Are you kidding? There are ample studies that show market share gain for people who maintain or increase their budgets when things get slow.

4. What should that budget be? Something you are comfortable with, and if business improves, increase it. When I deal with small businesses, I don't tell them what their budget should be, but I do tell them what strategy I would employ, and we go from there.

5. Social media and PR are not free. Yes, if you can do this yourself you can save money, but it still costs you time. And if you are not good at it, you need to hire someone to help you. If you buy ads, you know they will run and people will see them. You don't always know that about social media or PR.

6. What media should you use? Good question. Radio and TV are still the most cost effective, but you do have to expend a healthy expense to make them work. I love radio with internet ads. There are good pieces of research that hit on the value of running these together: the recall, the branding, are very positive.

I'll offer some more tips next week on internet advertising.

David Watkins
Ads for Edmonds
A division of Team Watkins Advertising and PR