Author Archives: Chuck Sink

Discovering the New Media

Retiring the Old

The new media we discuss here isn’t as technologically new as you may be thinking. But there’s a new and growing trend toward an underused digital media resource.

Ever feel a pang of guilt when realizing you’ve been glued to a screen for 20 minutes and gained nothing? That’s how I feel every time I tune into any corporate media network or social media platform lately. There’s just nothing much of value there, in my opinion. And this opinion seems to be getting more pervasive among successful people.

Network television, cable television, and the typical hodge podge of selected streaming services cobbled together; all of this is old and dying media, similar to the decline of newspapers, but for different reasons. Social media have proven to be no great options as the corporations that run the platforms have their own agendas that largely control your newsfeeds.

Exhaustive Targeting

Advertisers are wondering where they can confidently invest to reach their target audiences and get a profitable return. Some are settling for lightweight “conversion” data or promised “brand lift” as their messages become diluted in a sea of competing ideas.

The really diligent advertisers spend a lot of time and money on sophisticated digital targeting, constantly dialing it in to deliver better conversions resulting in real sales. This approach surely works but it can be exhausting, keeping up with the constant technology and algorithm updates. Now content creators are using AI to literally generate robotic, knock-off content that offers little or no originality. It’s a chore to find great creative executions.

Am I being negative? No, I’m observing my industry carefully and honestly.

Consumer and Media Changes

There is a gradual shift happening in advertising, promotion and public relations that has a lot to do with sensory overload and the hyper-competitive digital media space. Clients have been shifting away from the AOR (agency of record) model for years, trying more of a hybrid approach using referred boutique talent in a number of different specialties. These include brand strategy, design, video production, web teams, search marketing, media buying, etc… Results seem to validate moves to these hybrid marketing models. I sense no rush of clients running back to the large national and global agencies.

Now, advertising clients are becoming more cautious about which media channels and platforms they should be on, and where their messages will actually make it to their audience’s eyes & ears. Those audiences are less and less captive to any given network as people are seeking new and more independent sources of entertainment and information. Many are opting for more privacy, hence blocking ads and avoiding digital trackers when possible.

Abstract Facts with Concrete Realities

We live in an era of agenda-driven and often fake information, constantly hurled at us from every direction. Some folks are wisely disassociating themselves from the daily noise of mainstream corporate media. Instead, they are having conversations and sharing useful, factual information in more intimate or focused settings. And they are not missing out on anything. They are improving their lives while mass media consumers fritter away time.

The New Media Unfolding

Some of us are now subscribing to channels with voices proven to offer honest information and valuable content, voices we can trust. We can do very well in our businesses without always plugging in to stay up on trends. Instead, we tune in to the great minds and influencers of our choice, leaping ahead of our competitors in getting real insights on current affairs as well as learning and practicing proven success principles. And principles do not change. Ideas and theories change but principles cannot, or they aren’t principles at all.

Have you heard of Substack?

What about Medium, beehiiv, Mirror, or Ghost? These are widespread, community-focused blogging platforms that give users great tools for connecting, learning, sharing, networking, and of course making money. I’m not saying they will replace broadcast and social media, but they offer a fresh and more rewarding media experience for many of us.

When compared with the inescapable brand barrage or agenda-push in virtually all of mainstream corporate content, the new media blogging platforms offer thoughtful insights, advice and information in an interactive multimedia environment (sounds like website promotions in the late 1990s, LOL!).

Perhaps the best feature is you get to choose what authors, journalists, celebrities, and cool people you want to follow and learn from. The screen environment is more personal, intimate, custom, and engaging than all the social platforms. You don’t have to hear the identical, dubious default headlines and spin coming from CNN-NBC-CBS-ABC-FoxNews-NPR-WAPO-NYT!

Content is short form, long form, photography, video, slides, chats, podcasts, you name it. It’s modern, dynamic and thoughtful. The contributors have no power agenda to push. The only agendas are for the producers to share what they’ve got whether for free or for a fee.

There’s a culture of self-honesty and transparency that tends to govern the quality of content on these platforms. The contributors get you thinking in more positive ways about what’s really going on in the lives of folks. They are both anonymous and famous people who offer their ideas, knowledge and experiences for consumption. To me, it’s a place to spend quality time online, building on knowledge and inspiring ideas that can be applied in my life. All the other media are just too cluttered.

The Business of Blogs

When I talk generally about blogging to clients, I get either blank looks or hear things like, “Why bother? Nobody really reads them.” I understand. Nobody really cares about dry, duplicable business content.

However, people absolutely care about bettering their lives and learning all they can from trusted sources. That can include niche expertise in just about any field. Or it can include spiritual, motivational and coaching help. Podcasts and blog subscriptions are up because thinking people are refocusing on the things that matter rather than the spin and chatter.

Those who have what it takes to blog high-value content are charging for it very successfully and some advertisers are recognizing the quality of audiences spending time with these bloggers and podcasters.

Networking is Direct Marketing

Networking and Direct Marketing may be thought of as completely different areas of business but when you marry them together, magic happens.

There’s a craving for authentic human interactions in business dealings. I know this because I see relationships develop and grow whenever I’m at an in-person networking event or business meeting. People are glad to connect closely and nurture their relationships in a deep and enduring way. Of course, there are those who prefer the semi-anonymity of occupying a controlled camera view on a screen, the safety of mute, and the convenience of staying put.

Take Your Pulse!

Intentional business networking is a skill that no software or AI can replace or enhance in any meaningful way. It takes you and you alone to make networking an effective part of your marketing mix. Should you ever lose sight of this fact, it will likely stem from a lack of curiosity, a desire to “have it now,” and most regrettably, a fading interest in serving others face to face.

Principles, Not Reverse Psychology

Networking is all about listening to others and serving them while expecting nothing in return. And get this. You might go to a few networking events, say and do all the right things, and not get a single direct sale out of the effort. And if you conclude that it was a waste of your time, then you weren’t really listening to anybody there, especially the influencers.

Do I sound like a Pollyanna or a dreamer, or does this principle make sense?

We were created to serve one another, not exploit our gifts. The instinctual goodwill of others proves this over and over again. Think about all the helping hands throughout your life, and all the times you’ve come to the aid of others, especially when they really needed a hand.

The networking groups in which I participate welcome people in all sorts of roles. We actively look for opportunities to do business or refer business to people we get to know in our groups.

Your Networking Strategy

Clearly, it’s important to join the organizations where you’ll find clients, suppliers, and influencers in your industry. The more you participate in the events, the more influence you’ll have, and the better people will know you. Perhaps you will even join the leadership to help steer those organizations.

BNI, Chambers, Trade Associations, Professional Associations including local chapters, service organizations, private groups… the list of networking opportunities is long for just about every profession.

Go to events prepared to learn and put a stopper in your mouth except for asking good questions. Then listen with both ears and take an interest in others’ experiences. Relax and you’ll be asked about your business too. Make it all about your customers, not your company.

When you have a valuable message that’s relevant to clients of your industry, those people will want to hear it and likely will spread the word. If you sell professional services, networking provides your first and best opportunity to succeed. This is because when you start out in sales or start up a new business, you cannot get far without having relationships in the market. Robust networking is the fast track to building relationships.

Grow and Protect Your Organic Audience

Let your direct marketing have the power of an actual human relationship behind it. When people know that it’s really you who are writing and sending them content, then you have just distinguished yourself among all the spammy players out there.

The best potential marketing leads in your sales database are the people you’ve met personally through networking and direct selling efforts. You’ve opened a conversation with them, and you were given their contact info. Treat it like gold. When you reach out to them, put some relevance and meaning into the message and you could experience immediate results. And don’t we all want results?

Make Your Marketing Emails Deliver

Authentic marketing emails are becoming rarer and rarer.

I’d like to acknowledge the many fine emailers out there. I remain subscribed to a good number of newsletters and promotional emails I don’t ever remember subscribing to because I get value or interesting ideas from them. To you I say keep it up!

Then there are the spammy types. If you’ve used the same business email address daily for a long time, it’s likely that address has made it onto plenty of lists that are bought and sold, and you get your share of cold emails and spam. They tend to be automated, bot-written marketing emails using spurious, sequential Subject Lines such as these:

Cold outreach – “Quick question, Sam…”
Follow up – “Sam, I know you’re busy but you’ll love this…”
Second follow up – “Hey Sam, you there???”
Third follow up – “I get it, Sam, we all get sidetracked…”
Fourth follow up – “Are you slow or just a Neanderthal? LOL…”
Fifth follow up – “Sam, your lack of response tells me you’re okay being stuck…”
And so on…

Does any of this sound familiar to those of you who are longtime business email accountholders? This kind of adolescent style approach places some “marketers” into the abyss of unprofessionalism and sleaze.

I’ve been stalked by some of the players. They market their overpromised hype to me as “white label” (opaque and undisclosed) agency services that do all the work while I just schmooze and “grow at scale.” No thanks! That model is no fit for me. My clients aren’t for sale!

Drip Marketing or Drip Torture?

The above “sales funnel” illustration is like drip torture, especially when you’re afraid to click and opt out of an email because of phishing dangers.

You cannot win a business prospect’s attention by pretending to be cordial up front and then ultimately devolving into insult, which I see all the time in these sleazy email campaigns. Unfortunately, these tactics work sometimes, either on witless victims or people who believe in fast fixes. I guess that’s why they continue.

The good news is that email marketing is still a great value that delivers easy to measure results.

Heart to Heart Beats

How would you like to be approached by a potential supplier? What gets you to click a link or reply to an email? Let your own experience and a deeper understanding of your customers guide you in how to strategize your email marketing campaigns.

The motive starts with relevance, ideally emotional relevance, and is reinforced with meaningful or valuable information. Let your audience know they are in control of their conversation with your company and make calls to action transparent.

Sales Funnel or Sales Force?

The moment I realize I’m being dragged into a sales funnel I begin losing interest in taking the next step because I know the game is on. There are requirements coming. When I open a cold email, I’m only there to observe and learn, not play… yet. Let your calls to action be invitational and voluntary, not transactional.

Now here’s the hidden gem: Consider generating phone calls as well as form submissions! That actually puts you more in the driver’s seat of the discussion. You can better qualify your prospects and still gather their data if your sales team is well trained. You might even close on the first call. Happens all the time.

Let me repeat one of my old email marketing pearls: “Email marketing is a privilege.” Treat your audience with the respect they deserve. After all, that’s what you would expect from your own associates and colleagues.

Budgeting for Marketing: a metaphor that works!

Effective budgeting for marketing is like driving a car, especially when it comes to using the gas pedal. Think about it.

First of all, and from my experience, small business owners are notorious for treating marketing budgets with a bit of disdain instead of confidence. This is because marketing is seen as a discretionary expense item when it’s really an operational investment.

Managing Your Growth

Working with the right team, approach, and budget, marketing dollars can literally be your throttle for positive results in your business. Look at marketing budgeting like driving your car and using the gas pedal. In our analogy, gas = dollars.

Follow me on this road trip…

When you start out, you hit the gas. (Robust brand identity and awareness campaign.)
As you get up to speed you can ease up a bit but keep your foot on the gas to maintain a good cruising speed. (Product advertising and promotions for managing growth.)
When you see a hill coming you get ready to give it more gas and then hit the pedal as you reach the incline, and more on steeper hills. (Responding to new competition, lower industry demand, recession, PR problem, etc.)
When over the crest of the hill you can ease off the gas, especially when going downhill. (Successful campaigns deliver positive and sustainable results.)
When back in the flats, more gas is needed to stay up to speed. (Competitive advertising and promotion to keep business steadily growing.)

The healthiest way to apply your marketing budget in a highly competitive landscape is to spend more when revenues decline, which may seem counterintuitive at first but really isn’t when you think it through. Unfortunately, too many small business owners do the opposite when it comes to planning and budgeting for their marketing campaigns.

The No-Go Approach

I can’t put a number on how many times I’ve heard business owners say, “We’ll increase our marketing budget when business gets better and we can afford more on advertising.” Hmm… When is “when?” Or worse, I’ve heard, “How about you put skin in the game and do our marketing upfront, and then we’ll be glad to pay you a lot when we get the new customers.” EEEK!

This kind of thinking is the very reason these businesses don’t have enough capital to respond to changing and sometimes negative market conditions. They lose market share, stay small, and some of them ultimately close.

Follow the Leaders or be the Leader Yourself

Depending on your industry, you should be spending between 6% and 18% of total revenues on marketing. This is the spending range of the market share leaders in each industry.

So, if you are feeling a little pinch from the volatile economy or some noisy new competitors in your market, how do you respond? Do you wait until “business gets better,” or will you make your own brand roar louder and more resonantly by design?

If you want to get business moving faster and in the right direction, get intentional and hit the gas. We’ll keep your engine tuned.

Regional Brands Going Local

Gaining Market Share – One Local Market at a Time

Ever wonder why you see so many national or regional brands show up in Google searches for local businesses? In short, it’s because they want to, and they can. They don’t just show up in Google, but they construct buildings, rent offices and put up big signs in their targeted local markets.

The Sharks

Large, national businesses have the funds to dominate multiple local markets in the paid search results, and sometimes even the organic results. The search algorithms are focused on simply delivering the best answers to the search queries. If a national brand earns more organic local ranking authority than the small local companies, it’s probably because they have invested more money in that market, obviously including advertising.

Local companies that still dominate their markets have strategically known brands and understand they must compete with giants every day. That’s what I see separating the well-established, enterprising small business owners from the rest who rely only on word of mouth.

The Minnows

With the exception of retailers (who tend to get it), small business owners too often dread the need to spend on advertising, having had a bad experience with it in the past. Okay sure, you tried it for a few months one time and nothing happened. What if you invested strategically in advertising for a year and achieved record growth and profits the following year?

The Barracuda

The fact is local small businesses have the same opportunities as big enterprise businesses to compete and win in their local markets. They even have strong advantages to leverage.

Your local connections will already have some built in loyalty for doing business with you and helping you succeed. Additionally, you, can be more precise in your digital targeting, having a deeper knowledge of the local territory, the people, and the hot spots.

If you’d like to learn more about how to advertise effectively in your local market, feel free to contact us. We’ll offer you our best recommendations for winning the kind of market share your brand deserves.

Let ChatGPT Handle It!

No, don’t. Use your noggin like every wise teacher always told you.

We got here fast, didn’t we? Suddenly we live in a world where you don’t have to do any hard intellectual or investigative work, and you can’t be sure what’s real or rendered in your media feeds. Just a heads up for what’s happening now.

Practical Use

I’ve used ChatGPT and Jasper AI effectively, but strategically and sparingly for a few projects. I have found all of the output so far to be predictable and vanilla, without offering any deep insights like I get from listening to real experts. I’ve found that editing ChatGPT content includes a surprising amount of deletion.

What the AI Chatbot does is provide a rough draft or baseline content that a creative person will be eager to improve upon. In essence, the content is so boring that it will “get the creative juices flowing” in a talented human writer. I suspect it’s the same for artists and musicians.

With the aid of AI, I successfully completed a comprehensive content writing project in a somewhat complex and touchy field. I found it very helpful in generating some of the common phrase usages in the industry, and providing a draft to which I was able to add the client’s brand voice. By so doing and adding headline copy, the job came out great. The client was very happy and made almost no changes.

Your Role and Relevancy

AI robots aren’t just writing quality legal briefs and marketing content, which is putting some professional jobs at risk, but there are now field robots doing construction trade jobs like drywall installation. What does all this mean for us?

Experience matters more than ever!

People always want other people – trusted people – to guide them through the unknown and administer to those things they don’t want to deal with or spend time on. Knowing the ropes in any specific field will always be valuable to others who don’t. A machine can only offer measured value and cannot provide the human touch.

As a service provider myself, I can sense and feel my clients’ communication needs in a palpable way when we’re talking. They want a real conversation with me, not prompted outputs on a neon screen. It starts with listening and understanding on a human level what matters to them. And I don’t just let ChatGPT handle it because it isn’t good enough by itself. It needs my help.

For further insights, watch a short interview with Professor Peyman Khodabandehloo, an AI researcher U-Mass Lowell.

As I think through the future, I’m starting to wonder if the robots will ever outsource work they don’t like back to us humans. What do you think?

Know Your SEO in 2023

Do you know your SEO in 2023? You will in a few minutes.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) enables your website content to be given situational context, then indexed and ranked in authority for searchers of information. I think we all know that.

But did you know…

“Prioritizing valuable content is the key ingredient to success… creating high-quality, informative content that is genuinely useful to the audience should be the priority. When content is valuable, it naturally attracts links and engagement, which ultimately boosts its search engine rankings.” -Darryl Navarrete, CEO, marketing director and SEO specialist.

Keywords or Key Information?

Keyword research is still important for understanding how people search for content in different categories, but intentional keyword stuffing is a dead practice that deserves the grave. How many times do you want to see “in New Hampshire” (or some other geo target) repeated when you read about a product or service? It doesn’t matter where you use it, and the qualification sounds silly.

The takeaway: Repetition and redundancy are enemies of SEO in 2023! Keywords should be used like strong seasoning – in the right amounts and in just the right places.

Each page on your website should have a keyword strategy. Title tags, slugs, meta descriptions and on-page content should all contain the targeted keyword (or phrase) that your audience members are using to find pertinent information. Keyword research can help here. However, be very careful about forcing keywords into your website content. Make sure they flow in naturally as in an engaging conversation.

Today’s SEO is based on natural language, contextual meaning, and quality of information so it doesn’t matter if you use more industry keywords than your competitors. If your content is well organized and more valuable to the visitors, you’ll have the SEO advantage.

The Coveted Google Page One Results

Getting on the first page of Google for keyword searches is still widely misunderstood. Page one organic search results are fiercely fought for and earned.

Unfortunately, some small business owners and marketing directors are under the impression that because they do good work and have a website designer, their business “should be” showing up on page one in Google for keyword searches. In most cases, those who make it “above the fold” have worked years to get there. They’ve invested in their businesses by building excellent, comprehensive, and valuable websites that visitors use and share with others. Maybe you’re one of them enjoying the results today.

The Reality Check with Good News

If you’re looking to improve website search results, don’t fall for the smoke and mirrors that have confused business owners and marketing directors for decades. We who understand this business, and are honest about it, are constantly fighting the false notions of which clients have been misinformed.

Everyone thinks their business has what it takes to get visible Google search results. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t.

If you do want immediate results, you can pay for inbound leads with a pay per click campaign. This gives you the advantage of fast conversions and helps you gain valuable search engine data you can apply organically. And remember, your landing pages must be relevant and valuable to visitors, so content quality is ever important with paid campaigns.

If you want to succeed in organic SEO, know what it takes. With some care and focus on building out valuable content using a simple and focused keyword strategy, you can get better results in a matter of months or even just weeks.

To sum it all up, companies with enduring success in digital marketing “make money the old-fashioned way, they earn it!”

Robotic or Real: AI Chatbots – Can you tell?

Who’s writing this, AI Chatbot or Yours Truly?

First disclosure: This article is 100% human written. The illustration above is an AI-generated stock image.

Second disclosure: Yours truly and his partners are starting to use AI tools in cases where it can help our clients and us.

Given the right inputs, AI Chatbot tools save a lot of time by generating foundational messages complete with keywords, relevancy and examples. The technology is that good.

The Human Value Layer

Every time I’ve used AI commercially, adding the human value layer (me) was absolutely necessary. There are still ideas, feelings, communication nuances, and fine grammar, that bots can’t generate, at least yet. They are fountains of secondary information and can write in passable English, but they ain’t you and me, that’s for sure!

So, where’s this technology inevitably taking us? Who knows? Maybe we need to ask the Chatbots and listen carefully while they’re still being honest with us dishonest humans. Hmm. Scary stuff, eh?

The Future of Content

I feel compelled to get in front of this opportunity and potential issue so I can keep a sharp eye on its efficacies as well as pitfalls. Being a communications professor, the chances for abusing Chatbot technology and weakening critical thinking skills make me nervous. I know I’m not alone in wondering about the very near future of education.

Regrettably as I look back, I was a very early and vocal proponent of social media growth. I saw it as a liberating place for individuals and small businesses to have a voice in the public square without capital outlays for media distribution. I did not foresee the addictive and damaging nature of its design, nor the rampant censorship abuse by its technology overlords and the government’s oversight.

I pray that humanity has the grace and wisdom granted it to use the next staggering technology leaps to everyone’s advantage.

Could AI tools have written these lines? Not at the moment, but time will tell.

Great Marketing Campaigns Get Out!

Why be Shy to New Business?

Holding off on launching a great ad campaign is like keeping your beautiful, prized sports car locked in your garage to avoid people seeing and admiring it. That makes absolutely no sense!

This is what too many small business owners do to their would-be customers when it comes to branding and advertising. They keep them in the dark by doing the next easy or “urgent” thing on their plate instead of investing in marketing and following through in the right media channels.

How do I know this? Personal experience owning a business. Plus, seeing firsthand what makes campaigns either fizzle or be successful.

Why do so many small business owners get cold feet when it comes to executing a great advertising or branding campaign that will help them grow? Simple, they don’t have confidence that it will work or return a profit. They’re afraid to fail, and some are even afraid to succeed!

Two Marketing Fear Factors

If you’re afraid of failure, you probably don’t really believe in your own value proposition.
If you’re afraid of success, you probably don’t trust yourself or your team to follow through on delivery to new customers.

If either is the case, you may need to address some operational or capacity issues. But of course, this isn’t you!

The Secret to Campaign Success

While no marketer can claim, “spend X and your ROI will be Y,” there are keys to consistently building and increasing results from your marketing campaigns. It’s a matter of open and constant communication.

If enough time goes by between communications, a Client and their Agency team can both get distracted, lose momentum, and execution suffers. This happens all the time.

The golden key to success is regularly attended meetings with a committed team. All you really need are a campaign, a calendar, and commitments.

Alternatively, software can help solve this common client-agency issue. In fact, marketing automation technologies are beginning to replace the traditional agency model for certain industries such as local home services.

Choose Partners and Tools

Whichever way you prefer to work, whether with human experts or keystrokes, have at it! Your brand and promotional messages are worthless if they stay parked on a static website or languish in a box of brochures.

Take action. Get the word out. Promote your value. Get some help. What are you waiting for?

Niche Specialist or Broad Market Leader?

“How many pet hotels have you worked with, hmm…?”

The category experience question comes up often in discussions about hiring business services professionals. Whether it be an architect, law firm, CPA or marketing agency, potential clients naturally want to know what you’ve done for others in their industry.

Tempted by Templates

Gaining experience serving one niche of clientele is a proven strategy for many service providers and this can allow them to scale services easier, especially when they can reach a large market base. In essence, these providers learn to apply common industry-wide applications of their specific services and repeat them for other clients in the same industry. Some may see this as a cookie-cutter approach.

The Secret of Brand Buckets

When a “niche specialty” approach is applied in marketing, clients are usually assigned one of about 6 or 7 repeatable branding categories. For example, if the agency niche specialty is banks, the client’s brand promise will always focus on one or more of these general themes:

You’re a customer, not a number…
Local decision making…
Invested in the community…
Supporting all your life’s stages…
A financial partner you can trust…
Big enough to serve, small enough to care…
Banking your way, 24/7…

By interviewing bank representatives and customers, the niche agency can quicky figure out which brand bucket that bank belongs in, and a new campaign iteration emerges. Think about it. You’ve probably heard all that stuff in various campaigns from different banks all your life.

Rising from the Pack

Consider the marketing “generalist.” He or she has a track record of doing business in their own specialized field – marketing communications. They have delivered results to diversified clientele in multiple industries by learning about each one and applying a fresh creative approach to it. This experience provides a wider vision lens on the whole market. We offer broad market knowledge to clients which the niche-focused companies do not.

Goals are seen from different angles and more creative ideas for achieving them can emerge. Coming from a broader business knowledge base, we can often create more distinguishable and attractive selling propositions. We add value with additional networking channels as well.

Would you rather follow a common marketing formula that may be shared with your competitors or your own customized, targeted marketing plan? While the former can show results, what are you really trying to achieve? What exactly do you want to be known for in your industry?

Custom or Commodity?

You already know what works for selling your products and services or you wouldn’t still be in business. By all means, keep following and repeating the sales and marketing formulas that work for you and your worthy competitors.

Now take your marketing a step further to outpace the average company in your field. This requires expanding your market reach with better messaging.

You can breathe new life into your business with a breakout marketing campaign and a commitment to following through.