One of our clients, Lilac Lane Equestrian, recently moved to a larger location just outside Stittsville on Munster Road. Kelly Hoshko is a great young business woman who works hard at her craft and takes tremendous pride in her farm, her students, and her animals.

Recently we designed a new sign to go on her property (see below) to address a core marketing opportunity. Anybody who drives by Kelly’s farm will clearly understand what she does – its a solid sign design that communicates a professional establishment with a link to her website for people to learn more.

No matter where you are located, or what type of business you are in,  you need to evaluate the opportunity that signage provides. ‘Out of home’ advertising is a great channel for driving website traffic – whether its on a bus, a billboard, or on your property – don’t miss the chance to market to the people who you can get your brand in front of.

Its no longer relevant to announce ‘we use social media’ – doing that is akin to announcing that ‘we have a telephone’ or ‘we advertise in the newspaper’ (or at least we used to ). The greatest thing that is happening to  the modernization of media is that we’re able to analyze and respond to user intent and make relevant use of all channels. The question is – what do you customers want out of each channel?

Mobile users don’t necessarily want the same content as ‘big screen’ visitors – they want addresses, map/directions, and phone numbers (and quick access to details). Tablet visitors want an experience closer to the big screen – but not as reliant on proprietary technology such as flash – and social media users are likely to want to see most recent activity, Tweets/blogs, or video (You Tube) – maybe even some interactivity with click to chat – and the ability to engage you on a ‘real time’ level.

Measuring user need is a function of intent. The internet is no longer the static repository of information. It doesn’t mean that you need to by hyperactive – but you do need to interactive – and you need to be wise about what investment will reap what return. So if you are including social media channels then simply use them as a function of your customer/prospects normal interaction with your brand and keep your eye on whether the return is positive on a relevant metric such as sales cycle, sales, website traffic, store traffic etc.

As for social media, it has matured to the point where a value proposition is now available – leverage your P1 customers (early adopters/champions) and get them to like you and talk about you on social media; even advertise if you have enough other channels in play to try and extend reach and recall.

But the same doesn’t hold true for group coupons. Why? It creates a segement of transactionally dependent customers – the ones who will only shop when a discount opportunity is available and will likely not return. I’m not against Groupon-style promotions for services like events – perhaps even for restaurants or hotels as a way to take advantage of low overhead on some items. But beyond that, it doesn’t make sense for the everyday retail Mom and Pop. Case in point, Aubrey’s Meats.

Aubrey’s meats have lost their pants on coupons. They gave ridiculous discounts on product and were overwhelmed with the response. And the coupon company took their chunk too. And promised Aubrey’s that coupon customers would spend more money than their coupons were worth. But they didn’t. And they don’t. And they never will. They are the transactionally dependent.

This is a story that is not uncommon across any retail sector. I don’t think you can say that group coupon companies are preying on fragile businesses who are desperate to meet new clients (but they sorta are). And its mainly because many businesses continue to look for shortcuts to marketing. And I don’t blame them.

Nor do I typically work with them.

If your value proposition is a match to your customers then you need to advertise at a rate that delivers the message to the right quantity of the right audience to provide enough customers for you to keep your business running. If your offer is weak then the customers won’t respond, regardless of advertising. If you don’t advertise enough with the right offer then you won’t see customers at the rate you want (and that’s not even talking about reviewing the right channels and the right message to communicate your offer to the right people).

Aubrey’s meats are likely about to go out of business because they were relying on group coupons to help them out of a tough situation. Read their story here.

Most newspapers will either force comments to be left only by people who either register for accounts or, to prove my point about being champions of social media – commenters can login using their Facebook id – afterall, it allows the newspaper to extend its reach beyond the remaining people who look to newspapers for their news by having comments posted to the user’s wall.

Last week I was reading the very important news as to whether ground hogs had seen their shadows – when I came across this gem of social reporting and commentary. I’m surprised it hasn’t gotten the person who posted it an invitation to be the editor of the paper. Then again, I’m not sure the paper is aware that most people have two accounts on Facebook – the one they let their Mother see and the one they use for posting comments like the one below.

Too many people think that marketing is about coming up with cute slogans that are funny or cute. I suppose this is as a result of the same influence that causes younger persons to forget that you don’t have to go to a place to order takeout – you can actually go to a place called a ‘grocery store’ and buy the individual components, take them home, cook them – and they will resemble exactly what the ‘window licker’  (term from a McDonalds staff person) at McDonald’s (insert any other fast food place name here) may serve you.

And this growing lack of understanding is becoming increasingly apparent in many pieces of creative I see. One example of this came in the form of a direct mail piece from ING (see featured image, click to expand). Recently there has been an influx of posters/images that make use of an old British War poster campaign that says ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ – its something that isn’t protected from copyright so its being used in many ways to promote an ‘attitude’ – I have a friend who has a protective screen with this image on his iPhone.

I’m sure there are many people who realize where this came from and in one way its a harmless reminder of past responses to desperate times. I’m good with that. But what I’m not good with is when somebody uses that and then tries to be cute the way that ING has. It turns the corner from being harmless – to being disgusting. Its almost a mockery of the banking industry – and a slight against customers. Its a cheap way to draw emotional connection to something that has no right in being associated with a banking marketing message for ING ilk.

Poor marketing often tries to be inappropriately cute and often time referential – in the same sleazy way that people name drop. There is a time and a place to draw connection to a past event – but it is seldom done when referencing an event that is sensitive or historically damaging to people – like using a war effort poster to sell banking services.

We need to get back to good old fashioned marketing – we need to tell people who we are, what we do, and why people should do it with us. Sure, I get that we need to assert minor differences when we compete on brand preference. And we need to be creative. I’m with you.

But we live in a time of a highly-informed consumer – and being cheap isn’t going to convert marketing ilk into business.

In many meetings we talk about how the internet is changing as far as expectations and opportunity – always with an eye to gauging the intent of visitors who come to Larco’s website. Inevitably we talk about two things – social media and video. Today was a great example of seeing where the future of video is taking us.

We have long ago passed the notion of a website being a stale repository of collateral. The thing that really came to mind today was that video allows us to shape a person’s perception of the experience of coming to a website. While we were shooting, I really began to focus on how video is allowing us to make a website behave more like what we would have thought TV would stay dominant as – there’s a formality to it – a beginning, a middle, an end. Some direction. But at the same time also finding ways to jump beyond the screen and transcend the medium to create a better experience.

I think when you see Larco’s campaign launch in a few weeks you’ll agree – we’re shaping the future of a home buyer’s experience on the internet by using video to more effectively communicate the core values of Larco’s 2012 campaign.

Many of you will recognize Gregg as a teacher who works with Kevin Haime, and who also fills in for Kevin on his Team 1200 radio show occasionally. For those of you who follow the local golf scene more closely you will also know that Gregg is a Class A CPGA Professional, a graduate of Humber’s Golf Management program, and one hell of a golfer – and teacher (still holds course record at Kanata Golf and Country Club).

Gregg is the sort of person that every golf dreams of meeting. His knowledge of the game is bottomless but his desire to help golfers find a path that they can succeed on is his winning formula. And the same desire to bring golf to people in this manner applies at his winter golf school – Gregg has  a unique set up for any golfer who wants to spend the winter working on his game. We all know how hard it is to make big changes during the golf season (Hi Tiger, still love you) – and we all suffer for the lack of golf in our great white north (well, great green north this year). So winter makes perfect sense as the time to develop a deeper understanding of our golf swings and to spend time working on the subtleties that will make us better during our playing months.

Its great to be a part of Gregg’s business – he’s on a great trajectory.

The bottom line is that online advertising with newspapers delivers visits to websites – and at a certain investment threshold they challenge search and social ads (Google and Facebook) for click through rate and cost per click. Its important to remember that in search and social you are displaying your ads to a pre-qualified audience. But in digital news display you are positioning yourself in an interruption based channel – people see your ad while looking at unrelated content.

I should add a caveat that ROM (run of mill) advertising in newspapers is probably dying more quickly than placed ads like a home builder ad in a ‘new home’ section. Newspapers may give some brand/message extension to campaigns that have a marketing mix across multiple channels – but as a sole channel, outside of vertical sections like ‘new homes’, I’d have a hard time recommending the print paper to a client.

From an article this week at Media Post it is becoming apparent that newspapers might not go the way of dinosaurs after all. Quoting a survey/study done by Pulse this past summer they unveil some data that would suggest that advertisers may choose to keep their money in newspaper – albeit digital and not the paper/print version.

Here’s some highlights:

- adults 30 and under are 60% more likely to be digital readers than print readers (39%  were print readers)

- average household income of digital readers was $65,480, compared to $53,776 for print readers (this is US)

- proportion of digital readers in households with incomes over $100,000 per year was 82% higher than print readers.

- 7.6% of digital newspaper readers planning to buy a home in the next year, versus 5.2% of print households

Why is the digital newspaper getting traction?

I suppose one reason might be rooted in how traditional broadcast media has handled the onset of social media. You see an inordinate amount of time being spent by television news coverage on items related to social media. Just this morning I was embarrassed to see a national morning show rotfl over a You Tube video of two babies gaggling at each other. And don’t forget the shameless plugs for social media during election and disaster coverage. I’m beginning to wonder if broadcast news has an internal memo that reads “don’t bother reporting real news or interviewing people, let’s just show some video and commentary from social media.  I think there’s an argument that social media is to broadcast journalism as non-scripted shows are to prime time television (hello Survivor).

And I wonder if that’s fostering an attitude amongst enough people that they forget that news is about … well, news. Perhaps that is the opening for digital newspapers – to be a real reporting agency.

I think of this topic as a litmus test to customer service. Why? Because some owners are looking for a magical way to generate business without any effort – and others see it as an opportunity to deliver great service and develop long term relationships. I believe that the most important job on the website is to tell customers what to do next – come visit us, buy online, get a special offer by email, telephone us. All you have to do is figure out which one results in the right customer relationships.

When customers come to your website they will have varying intents. Some will be trying to educate themselves about products and product types. Some will be looking for incentives to buy. And some will be looking to get in touch with you. Every piece of collateral that you produce, every ad you place, every conversation you have with a prospect – they all can result in a visit to your website, and your website needs to manage the intent  and the expectations that come along with it.

And this is where my experience with Dymon Self Storage begins.

As a small business owner I need to manage storage for various items. Years ago I had the pleasure of working with Peter Dent at A1 Mini Self Storage and through that process I learned that many businesses use self storage as a way to manage overflow stock etc – its usually less expensive than office / warehouse space. While A1 Mini is a great company I had a specific need – a shipment was coming in for me and I wondered if there was a self storage company that could take deliver for me and put it in a storage locker. I immediately thought of Dymon Self Storage, who is inundating the city with new storage buildings and the promise of drive in bays, convenience, etc.

So I went to the website to get in touch with them (this was my intent). I found them on Google using my iPhone’s Google Search (they engage in paid and organic search marketing so were easy to find). Note, they don’t have a mobile verison of their site. While on the website I found a page for the location I wanted to get in touch with – and was presented with a big telephone number to call (assuming this is how they want to manage customer contact). Being on my smartphone I simply clicked on the number and pressed ‘call’ when prompted by my iPhone. As a consultant in designing websites I was actually feeling pretty good about the whole thing at this point, even if they aren’t my client.

And that’s when things came to a screeching halt.

The phone rings. A person answers: “Dymon Self Storage, person speaking?”. So I say: “Hi, my name is Roger. I am a small business owner and have a few questions about whether your self storage facility can help my business – do you have time to help me?”. Pretty pleasant, I thought.  And person on the other end of the phone says: “No, I am too busy, you’ll have to call me back after 6pm. Good Bye. Click.”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe that any business would talk to a potential customer like that. I still can’t believe it. How could you possible run a business and think this is how you treat a potential customer? It is the single most rude experience I have ever had as a customer. Not even a ‘can I call you back?’ prompt. Just went ahead an hung up on me. It felt like I had just been told to ‘go screw yourself, we don’t want your business’.

Unbelievable. I will talk about it in every business meeting I have with every business I talk to about website contact and the importance of getting it right – and living up to your customer’s expectations. And I will conclude each retelling of this story by saying:

This is why Dymon Self Storage Doesn’t Deserve your business.

So, perhaps its time for retail to reconsider its approach to online. I talk to many businesses who think that online shopping and pricing will impact their in-store sales.  While I don’t disagree that customer service, brand, and up-selling are impacted online – its time to re-think what the real opportunity is. I doubt that everybody needs to put their inventory online. But I think that what we’re learning is that customers want to be sold – they want to see incentives.

I’ve never been a fan of discount pricing – and its not the only way to incent. In fact I’d dare say that deep discounting may cheapen your brand and attract transactionally dependent purchasers – who aren’t long term prospects. So, why not try something else – like exclusives? Or added values? Or feature products that are unique. But put these online – you don’t have to have a full blown shopping cart. But I think its time to start letting customers know that you value the nature of the relationship. And I think you better start doing it before you get pigeon-holed as old world.