Research by the Kelsey Group indicates that more and more small and medium sized businesses in the home and trade services categories will develop online presences in the coming years.

According to Matt Booth, SVP and program director for interactive and local media at Kelsey, this group of small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs) has been slow to move online due to a housing boom that delivered plenty of work. Now that the housing market has collapsed and economic conditions have worsened, such companies will be more aggressive in advertising and marketing.

Specifically, that means advertising and marketing online - where more and more consumers are looking for home and trade services. According to the study, SMBs in the home and trade area spend 83 percent of their ad budgets on traditional media (largely on Yellow Pages ads), while SMBs in general spend 68 percent of their ad budgets on traditional media.

Email marketing is another area of potential growth. Currently, email marketing represents 3 percent of home and trade services ad budgets, compared with 13 percent of ad budgets of advertisers in other categories.

All in all, the report predicts 60 percent of home and trade services companies will have an online presence in the next 12 to 24 months, up from just 33 percent now.

Source: Douglas Quenqua, “Housing Market Could Send Small Home Services to the Web”, The ClickZ Network, October 29, 2008

Interesting article by Rich Harshaw. He suggests, rather convincingly, that conventional television (TV) advertising isn’t about selling… and has never been about selling. Not since the advent of the 30 second ad spot anyway…

Rich claims that because, over the years, the duration of television spots has declined - from 2 minutes to just 30 seconds (due to rising ad prices) - and because the huge costs have limited the number of marketers able to advertise on TV - advertisers have not only had less time to sell, but have effectively given up trying.

Instead, they now focus on trying to grab the viewer’s attention… or create ‘brand awareness’.

This in turn, has meant the emphasis of TV advertising has shifted from trying to sell to being ‘creative’ which, among other things, has led to the widespread use of slogans:

“The idea was to get into the consumer’s brain with something creative that would stimulate them and cause them to recall the product later on when they needed it.”

Because TV advertising has become all about grabbing attention (rather than selling), the creative approach has come to dominate. It has also ended up spreading to other types of advertising media, including radio, newspaper, magazines, billboards, yellow pages, and so on.

Problem is… creative advertising doesn’t work for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs). (It may not work for large companies either.)

For one thing, SMBs typically don’t have the budgets to spend the kind of money required to grab and keep consumers’ attention (it takes several, not just one, ad spot). For another, it’s unlikely to be cost-effective. SMBs typically need to make sales and generate cash as soon as possible… pouring money into branding that doesn’t pay-off quickly enough is likely to jeopardize their very survival.

None of this is to suggest that advertising used by SMBs shouldn’t aim to grab prospects’ attention. It should and must. It’s just that such advertising should strive to do MORE than that. It should aim to persuade prospects to take a specific action…

Hence, the idea of direct response advertising. And that’s really the only kind of advertising that small and mid-sized businesses should engage in. Perhaps large companies too… If that rules out running 30 second ad spots on TV, so be it. Depending on the product, service or offer, it certainly rules IN infomercials, long-form sales letters and other kinds of ads designed to sell.

Source: Rich Harshaw, “Blame Television For Everything That’s Wrong In Your World”, MYMOnline, October 27, 2008

Ad network Federated Media is hoping to endear itself to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with a pair of initiatives aimed to make it easier for SMBs to advertise online.

Firstly, FM is extending its self-serve ad platform to SMBs, which will give them access to FM’s premium content, and give them more control over their ad campaigns.

Secondly, FM is launching its ‘Online Marketing Idea Exchange’, a virtual community for business owners to discuss advertising issues with each other and ask developers, vendors and FM questions.

Source: Douglas Quenqua, “FM Unveils Tools to Bring in Small Advertisers”, The ClickZ Network, October 8, 2008

Visit the marketing section of a bookstore and you’ll see numerous books extolling the virtues of ‘branding’. Talk to ad agencies and branding consultants and they’ll all say that the most important thing a business can do is to ‘build the brand’.

So you could be forgiven for diligently following their advice and plastering your company logo and slogan all over your website and marketing materials.

After all, you want your customers to know – and remember – who you are, right?

But what if I told you that including big graphics of your logo and slogan is, at best, confusing potential customers… and, at worst, turning them away? That no one actually cares about the name of your business, your logo or your slogan? That building your brand could actually be costing you sales?

Whoah! What am I suggesting here?

That you don’t have a catchy name, or an attractive logo, or a slogan that represents your unique selling proposition (USP)? Or that I don’t believe in the value of branding?

How could I suggest such things – after all, doesn’t my business, Kikabink, have a catchy name, a cool logo (well, I think so) and a meaningful slogan that reflects our USP? And don’t we recognize the importance of branding?

All right, let me explain…

Firstly, I do believe in the value of branding.

Branding is the ’silent marketer’ – the means by which people are attracted to, and trust and buy from you, because of who you are, not the specific products or services you sell. And branding effectiveness does rely on being recognized through a strong visual identity and powerful statement that describes what you stand for – your USP.

However, for new, small and medium sized businesses, branding isn’t the CAUSE of loyal customers and healthy sales and profits – it’s the RESULT of effective marketing that generates loyal customers and healthy sales and profits!

In other words, if you’re a relatively unknown business, emphasizing your company name and identity is useless – because your prospects don’t know who you are!

Instead, you should focus on four (4) CRITICAL marketing goals that are aimed, primarily, at generating sales and profits, and secondly, building your brand. We’ll go through these four goals - as well as some major DOs and DON’Ts in tomorrow’s issue of Kikabink News.