Author Archives: Chuck Sink

Small businesses are getting more educated about targeted display advertising opportunities out there and some are getting fine results by telling their whole story at a glance.

I’ve been hearing from clients and other connections who’ve discovered the real power and cost-effectiveness of today’s sophisticated digital platforms. And I’ve also heard from countless small business owners who “tried it” and “got zip!” When I hear that, sometimes I probe further and discover either a lack of follow-through or a bland, unclear message, or else a combination of those factors.

Let’s take a closer look at a good display ad.

Clarity or Clutter?

When you see an ad or glance at a billboard, what do you instantly understand the second it receives your glance? Does the image and headline immediately make sense? Or do you only see a lot of words with a logo and perhaps an abstract image?

Great advertising first arrests, then quickly makes perfect sense to its viewers & listeners, and there’s a form of art behind its creation.

The term “Johnson Box” is named after a direct marketer named Frank Johnson who used a simple technique in the 1940s and 50s to make magazine ads and direct mail pieces work better. The Johnson Box is essentially a bold headline that contains the single message you want your viewer to know immediately.

Save the Details

In this digital display ad sample, notice the huge yellow headline, then the sharp visual contrast and product image. First, the ad is eye catching. You can’t miss “Heat Tools for Big Jobs” which is exactly what we want attendees at World of Concrete 2025 to know immediately. Large construction projects (“Big Jobs”) need powerful heat tools for a number of applications and lots of target buyers will be at the show.

Calls to action are obvious and direct – visit the booth or buy heat tools. The whole story is told at a glance.

Capture the Audience!

This is key to success. For example, when geo-fenced trade show attendees start seeing this SF Tools ad on their phones, notice the same striking branding and colors of their trade show booth as they walk by or visit, and then see this ad on aps and websites following the show, they will be more likely have SF Tools top-of-mind when procuring heat tools for their job sites.

Your display advertising is not the place to make people understand the details about your business or product but rather where to plant a single thought quickly and repeatedly. Repetition of your distilled value message causes recall, and having people remember your message at a glance, or the hearing of a phrase, tune or jingle is what great advertising is all about.

Your business might be in Vermont, but your lowest hanging fruit might be in Washington DC or certain neighborhoods of New York City or perhaps even Miami. Local ad targeting can get your brand noticed and purchased in very specific places.

Whom do you need to reach? Where do they live and what channels are best used to reach them?

Serving a target audience very often requires geographic considerations. And now, many companies can serve clients virtually anywhere with technology, and the temptation is to try and go national or global in distribution. Check your ambition here. That’s out of the question for most small businesses. Only global companies can afford to reach national and worldwide audiences. Small businesses need to start with local markets where they can afford to compete for media space. From there, rolling a brand out to wider audiences becomes boosted by word of mouth and ultimately, virally spread.

Small Business Giants

Small businesses can work like giants in quality service when competing against large national companies, and only a few do. They are the local businesses that stay true to their core values and principles, focusing on better quality and truly exceptional service. These companies thrive in quiet ways and when ready to make a move, have their own capital to do so.

Managed Growth

For example, can an independent local hardware and building supply company actually compete with and beat Home Depot or Lowes? Yes, they can in their local markets! My region has two very strong and growing firms that dominate the building contractor supply business across a two-state region. The big national chains are well represented in their markets, yet both of these local brands thrive!

When a small business feels they’ve saturated their local market and wants to branch out to specific markets in other cities, states or countries, they can leverage their earned capital, testimonial equity and quality advertising to reach lucrative targets wherever they may be through local ad targeting. And the best thing is, the budgets are manageable while spending to fund a national campaign would be foolhardy.

Grow Your Business in Fertile Territory

There are countless examples of highly profitable companies who have grown strategically, whether widening their own business radius or finding the pockets where their best customers are, and then targeting them from a distance.

Technology and supply chain efficiencies open up wonderful opportunities for planned growth, and the planning can start with local targeting.

Reach out to us if you’re interested in connecting with a target audience either within or outside your immediate area.

Always remember that your logo is only a visible part of your brand. The brand’s essence and power are in the minds and hearts of your audience. Branding a new company or rebranding a legacy business is never a one and done exercise. Authentic branding is day to day, ongoing and progressive.

Creating a brand strategy, on the other hand, should be an intensive and focused process that delivers a concrete result – a well-defined position in the market. Notice the grammatical difference between “branding” (verb) and brand strategy (noun). It’s important to distinguish these word usages. More importantly, to apply them in your business!

Your Brand Lives

It would be an error to say, “We already did our branding and now we’re in sales and marketing mode…” or something like that. Why would anyone really care about a random business initiative going on somewhere by a group of strangers? But that’s what your branding exercise (your brand strategy) is to prospective customers. Almost meaningless… unless the idea behind the brand tickles their emotions or speaks to their immediate need.

The brands you know, and especially the ones you like and purchase, won you over first by the relevancy of their message to you personally, and now by the consistency of quality in the service you receive and the products you use. Neither of these things happen immediately. They are daily operational processes that gather strength and cement in customer loyalty over time.

Authentic Branding Helps Everyone…

The one and done attitude in branding won’t be enough for the business that knows its customers and cares about them. Branding is all about making your customers know your company and understand your value proposition accurately. It serves everyone’s best interest to deliver your brand experience as promised with consistency over time.

Keep reinforcing your brand promise in your advertising. When people clearly understand the difference between options, they make better decisions and save time. You attract the right kind of customers, and they get their needs met in the way that’s best for them. It’s win-win!

…Even the Competition

Branding is obviously good for you and your potential customers. It’s good for your competition too! A worthy competitor will understand your brand’s positioning and clearly communicate its authentic differentiation from your brand and other competitors. In this way the entire market can clearly understand its options and customers can make better choices.

Pick up the phone and get it done now.

Or send an email and wait.

Does sending an email put the ball in their court or does it expose your procrastination? Of course, it depends on the situation, and it’s important to prioritize our communications.

The person asking this is a huge fan of email. Email provides me the opportunity to clearly record my thoughts and instructions for others. Clear, concise emails from associates give me good direction and clarify expectations. But that’s just me, and maybe not you or the people I send emails to. I err in expecting thorough review and detailed responses from everyone I work with. Email doesn’t work for everyone. Emails are silent and often get buried, sometimes forgotten. It’s generally the same with text messages. They may get more attention, but still, it’s “tag, you’re it…” Phone calls aren’t like that. They produce more.

When you know something is important to you and another party, having an immediate, live, 2-way conversation is your best path toward the best outcome. On the other hand, agonizing over the exact words to write in an email or even a text so you get the important points across is a waste of time because email tends to muddy your thoughts anyway. So, pick up the phone! What’s keeping you? Oh, you have someone in your office? Then why are you emailing me that fact? (This just happened.)

Appointment to “jump on a call?”

If you’re going to jump, why not just dial? That’s right, pick up the phone and call the person you need to communicate with. Why do people ask for appointments to make phone calls in recent times? Am I really that old? How did businesspeople get so much stuff done before smart technology complicated our relationships?

I believe the reason people rarely just pick up the phone is fear. Fear of not getting through, or lost time, or having to engage someone and be immediately accountable to their questions, is what keeps some of us from simply calling our business associates when important questions arise.

More Conversations = Better Collaboration

Calling up vendors or customers or colleagues whenever convenient was commonplace for over half of my career. In my recent business, it’s making a comeback. Calling without an appointment is neither rude nor imposing. If the other person is busy, they don’t have to take the call. Even if they are busy and take your call, you have advanced the ball. Chances are that your call is as important to them as whatever else they are doing at the time.

If I see a call from someone I know coming in, it’s my duty to answer unless I am legitimately committed to something else at that moment. I no longer let it go to voicemail. Answering those calls as well as making such calls and getting through have resulted in some of the most productive moments of my work life. What’s your experience with making and receiving phone calls lately?

As I look at my busy work schedule, I’m realizing I’ve got some calls to make. How about you?

Your Brand Promise at Ground Level

Does your brand promise too much? One of the most repeated rules of marketing is to sell the good result, not the product. Rather than extoll product features and service excellence, show and tell consumers how their life gets better as a result of a purchase. This idea can be taken too far. Messages can become too abstract or even dreamy and lose practical implications.

Your website’s homepage is your brand central! It’s easy to spot over-the-top brand strategies when a new website is launched. You’ll often see a picture of an idyllic scene, or people enjoying life, supposedly implying that a product makes everything better. A visitor might think, “…is this a home designer, a travel agent, an upscale furniture store, or a building supplier…?”, and search again for what they really need – a hardware store with a lumber yard, for example.

Your opening homepage message should be exactly what your customers need from you in a crystal clear and attractive light. Avoid leading with the ultimate lifestyle aspirations of people who happen to use your products & services. Of course, you should show happy results liberally where appropriate, but by all means be crystal clear about the deliverables that your customers want.

Use a Johnson Box!

Have you ever heard of a “Johnson box?” Bear with me here. The Johnson box is the area of an advertisement or direct mail piece that basically says, “Here’s what you want right now!” It’s that one bold headline, or maybe a framed word, or a clear picture with a bold caption. It closes the deal without the need for a bunch of descriptive copy. It’s the secret to better advertising and more conversions.

A website’s top image is the Johnson box of your brand. How can you tell the visitor they’ve come to the right place if indeed they are actually a business prospect searching for the right supplier? If you go too high in aspirational messaging, you may lose customers who just want what they want and know immediately they’ve found it! They are not interested in being inspired or educated, just supplied.

What’s Your Brand Promise?

The images and themes that underlie your company, products and service messages will deliver your brand promise in a way that sinks in after your audience learns your primary category and offerings. It should be written into your headlines and copy, and it can live nicely in the About section of your website.

And just how do you define your brand promise? In words, it’s really the same as your positioning statement – a concise and distilled value proposition. It sums up the value that you promise to deliver to every customer.

In action, it’s manifest in your daily operations and customer service. Your loyal customers come back because they believe they will get from you what’s promised. And they are confident to refer their friends to you. So, now I give you the secrets to create your ideal brand promise.

To be effective, your brand promise must be:

1. Simple and memorable – be comfortable with it.
2. Easily understood – distinguished from competition.
3. Credible – it delivers as promised.
4. The sole occupier of your niche position – you own it!
5. Believable – what are the real reasons to believe?
6. Supportive of growth – plenty of people can identify with it and like it.

Work on what you promise your customers. Then deliver the experience to them. And by all means, get the message out! We can help you with that.