What do you do once you and your business get discovered?  How do you maximize the fame, the exposure, the screaming fans?  Yes, I know it's a bit far fetched, but let's pretend for a moment that all your wildest dreams actually do come true.  What would you do?  How would you react?  Your answer says a lot about your current business state.

Milwaukee Burger Company, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, blazed their way to the national sporting spotlight this past week with an invitation to burn one of Brett Favre's jerseys at halftime of the Green Bay Packers – Minnesota Vikings football game.  Of course the proceeds of the contest ($10 for every article burned) went to a charity, but the real subject that interested the media was Favre.  Do you hate him?  Do you love him?  Do you care?

For those of you who are in the “I don't care” category, Favre used to be the beloved quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.  After 16 years of dazzling Wisconsin fans with his incredible arm and Super Bowl appearances, things fell apart.  Favre considered retirement.  Management decided they preferred their talented backup to an aging superstar. 

It was messy.  Both sides got blamed.  Favre played with the New York Jets for a season, retired and finally came back again to play for the Packers hated rival, the Minnesota Vikings.  As last night's Monday Night Football game between the two approached, the media found Milwaukee Burger Company's jersey burning night to ramp up publicity for the game.

First, local television station WQOW covered it, plastering pictures of Milwaukee Burger Company's logo all over their nightly news story.  That's the kind of free attention that every business craves.  They deserved it for their great promotional party idea.  Seemingly all of Wisconsin buzzed with the news of the Favre jersey burning.  Milwaukee Burger Company had struck it big with Packer nation.  Then it came time for a different kind of news story, a live interview with ESPN reporter, Dana Jacobson. 

Owner, Kent Letnes, and general manager, Julie Kolk, appeared on September 30th, dressed and prepped for the occasion with hair gel and makeup generously applied.  I remember watching the video and wondering, “what sports bar is this?  Where is it?  Is it any good?”  During the entire 3 minute interview, neither one of them ever said their business name.  They explained their motivation, the cause to benefit charity, even the participation of both Minnesota and Green Bay fans.  They just forgot to give people a message that could turn the Milwaukee Burger Company into a tourist destination.

It reminded me of an artist or writer telling the entire story behind their work without ever mentioning where to find it, what it's titled or anything else that people interested in buying it would really want to know.  It got me wondering what you should say when the spotlight turns your way.  If you don't have someone else telling everyone about you, you have to promote yourself.  Turns out it's the same thing you would do if you were writing an ad or your own bio.

First, open with a strong mental image.  Say something like, “We're known at Milwaukee Burger Company for making burgers the size of your head, but our regulars suggested we turn the flames toward some Favre jerseys for the game.”  Woah, burger's the size of your head!  Is that true?  It turns out it is.  The bottom of their on-line menu sports a 1 ½ lb. “Defibrillator” burger and even the 2 ½ lb. “New Big Milwaukee”.  Mentioning your most compelling message first might get a reporter to ask about it, as well as the story they're interested in.  At the very least people watching will remember your name and what you're known for, which leads me to my second point.

Know what your most compelling message is and make sure everyone can easily find it.  I don't think Kent and Julie just forgot that day to talk about “burgers the size of your head”.  I don't think they even know that it's their most compelling message.  It doesn't appear as the central theme on their website, and I only found it with some super-sleuth digging.  When I did it made me want to try out these monster burgers, or at least get one of their smaller, but still amazingly good sounding, specialty burgers.  Had Kent and Julie known what people care most about Milwaukee Burger Company it would have come out somehow during their interview.  As it ended up they talked in detail about the Wisconsin Alliance for Fire Safety and probably got them some great publicity.

Make sure that you answer the reporter's questions and don't just plug yourself.  No reporter appreciates trying to get a story and only getting an ad.  They'd rather discover a secondary story (like a big as your head burger) while getting all the information for the subject they're currently pursuing (the reaction of Wisconsin fans to the Brett Favre saga).  Kent and Julie did a great job doing this.  In fact, they did too good of a job.  They let the ESPN reporter lead the entire interview, and she got everything she wanted.  She never found out what was really special about them.

Finally, close with an image just as powerful, if not more so, than your opener.  They could have asked Dana if she was going to send in a jersey to burn, or opened the event up to people who wanted to donate jerseys, with a $10 check of course, for them to burn.  They might have even thrown in a free “big as your head burger” coupon to anyone who sent something as a way to say “thank you, on behalf of Milwaukee Burger Company”. 

On the night of the game, their little Eau Claire burger joint was packed.  The fire department actually vetoed the idea of burning all the old jerseys, so they improvised, burned one and donated the rest to Goodwill.  I'm sure the night was a huge success for them.  Had they prepared ahead of time, they might have turned a one-time, local story into a Milwaukee Burger Company national popularity explosion.  

Read About Peter Nevland

Autos Ought to Pick Up

RADIO BUSINESS REPORT 09-04-2009

Cash for Clunkers did wonders for many automakers, but of the three big US companies, only Ford was able to effectively cash in. And it was very effective, enjoying a 17% gain in sales over August 2008. The good news for US brands in general is that consumers are thinking Buy American, and GM is poised to turn around, more so than Chrysler.

Ford alone was able to take effective advantage of Cash for Clunkers among US brands, placing two of its models – the Focus compact car and the Escape crossover – in the Clunker top 10 sellers. All of the others on the list came from overseas. According to the Detroit Free Press, Ford’s midsized Fusion is also selling well.

GM and Chrysler, focused on restructuring after receiving government bailout money, were not in a good position to react to Clunkers, and both lost money during the month of August compared to the same month in 2008.

However, there was good news for US manufacturers in general and for at least two of these companies in particular from Consumer Reports.

For starters, 81% of consumers surveyed with new car purchases in their future said they would consider a domestic brand, compared to 47% considering Asian brands and 46% considering European brands.

On a brand-specific basis, those willing to consider a Ford rose 17% compared to this point of 2008, and GM enjoyed a 6% increase. But Chrysler has a tough row to hoe – it lost 25% of its positive responses over the year.

Read About Jane Fraser

Topology is a “Wizard Word” I use to mean the taking of something that works great in one industry and arrange it to fit into the needs of your own particular business. Would you invest $400 per month if it would return $4000 a month?
Of course you would or else you should get a job being a greeter at Wal-Mart or something about equal.

Here’s my example:

Some big companies like Dish Network use “telemarketers” right? I guess that is really successful, because I signed up for the “no call list”, and I keep getting calls. They are like fire ants and terrorists: they just keep right on coming at you no matter what you do to them.

So I figured I could make this idea work for me. Maybe it could work for you too. Here’s the deal. I am spending $400 a month and calling it “advertising and here is what we are doing.

We are in the tourism business and own a Country Music Theatre by Kentucky Lake about 120 miles northwest of Nashville Tennessee.
I found a very nice lady with a very amiable, friendly, kind personality. I am giving her the list of tour bus companies that have been to our business and she is calling them first. She will just tell them we have a new computer ticketing system and we are updating our data base, which, by the way is true. Never lie to people to try to sell them something. (My mother always said a person would go to hell for lying.) One thing people detest in advertising is something that smacks of a “bait and switch”.

Our new telemarketing person is asking the group leaders if the info we have is correct, and if they would like to have a copy of our schedule of upcoming events. And would they like to be notified when we announce a new big Star like: Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and Loretta Lynn etc. They almost always want that new current information ASAP, so they can sell the trip to their customers. So we are doing them a favor in a way because they would make money on the trip.

We will also be contacting Churches with senior groups, Senior Citizens Centers, Banks that take their customers on trips, and even the Red Hat Ladies clubs. We will be offering to send them a schedule and asking if they want to be on our mailing list.

This is an EXPERIMENT! We will have her work 10 hours a week, we will pay her $10 an hour and that’s $400 a month. Now if in six to 8 months she has not found some groups to come to shows, then we can discontinue the experiment. I believe that she will bring in 10 times more dollars than we pay her. But we will keep a close eye on measuring the results.

Always remember my # 2 Rule of Business: Never expect what you don’t inspect!

Bob Parsons says in rule # 9 -Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

So there you have the idea of Topology. I am using the idea of hiring telemarketers to advertise for my business. How could you change it up a bit to adapt it to your business? I believe about any business could do this if they had a good strategy, mapped out a plan, hired the right person and monitored it carfully.

Read About Clay Campbell

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.

Most of the Wizard of Ads Partners tweet all time, and I assure you, there’s something good for your business every day.

Would you like to “follow” us?

Log in to your account, and then come back and click bellow:

Craig Arthur, Paul Boomer, Michael Drew, Luis López, Tim Miles, Michele Miller, Steve Rae, Ray Seggern, Jeff Sexton, Dave Young, Tom Wanek, Rex Williams.

Read About Luis Lopez

Craigslist can be a great place to promote your business. It doesn’t take too much time to place a simple, effective ad and the results can be phenomenal.  This is a low key way of letting people know you that your business exists.  The reason people fall in love with Craigslist is because it is the equivalent of newspaper classified ads in real time. There is no charge for the ad In most cities. The ad can be for the product or service you offer, or to post a job looking for new employees.
 

Recently a client and I started an experiment with a Craigslist employment ad. We wanted to measure the response of the ad placed in Craigslist compared to Career Builder or Jobs.com. We wanted to measure not only the amount of responses, but also the quality of candidates.  I don’t have the total results in yet, but just about every other day my client calls to tell me how excited he is with the quality of candidates he is getting from Craigslist. He says he is already so happy with the results that he doesn’t feel a need to use paid job posting sites in the future.

Most of your ads for your business should go under the Services category. People that go to these categories are looking for a specific business. Though they may not be looking for your business at this time, it is a great opportunity to let them know that you are out there.
 

Here are some important things to keep in mind when you run your ad.
 

THE POSTING TITLE HEADING IS THE KEY. The heading may be all the advertizing you need. People do not need to click to the body of your ad for it to be effective. If you are a bigger business, a headline like 25% OFF ON ALL COMPUTERS THIS JULY 4th WEEKEND AT JOE'S ELECTRONICS is usually enough information for those interested to either click for more information, or stop in your store. You also need to use specific dates to make this type of ad effective. You may also run this ad under For Sale-Electronics, but it would need a different headline as Craigslist doesn’t let you run the same ad under different categories

Give people what they want.  Most people who read your heading are not interested in your product or service at this time. Let them know what you are about and who you are in the heading. Spare them the time of having to click on the heading to find out more if they don’t need to. People don’t want to waste time clicking on the heading just to find out it is something they are not interested in, or worse, that it is just a scam.
 

Make the most of availabe space.  If you want more words in your headline, don’t use all upper case letters. You can get another 20-30 extra letters in your heading if you use lower case.

Post every 5-10 days. Don’t post too often. Some people discover what Craigslist can do for them, and flood the category with ads one right after another. If viewers notice this, they will skip you altogether, or red flag you as a scammer.  

Use a picture. People love pictures. Pictures bring validity to your offer. If you are just doing PR type of advertizing, put in a picture of your office or warehouse staff.  Maybe put a picture of your product being used in a unique situation.

Put in your real email address.  You have the option of using the private Craigslist email or your own email. Don’t use the private Craigslist email unless there is a specific reason to do so.  It’s more personal and gives legitimacy to your business.  If you want to drive traffic to you or your website, why would you use a blind box e-mail?

Make sure you put in specific city or location. If you are a bigger city, identify where you are in the city.  Put a link to Google maps. The scammers put in things like west side, or downtown. If there are a lot of scam ads in there, you will need to be more specific.

Help Craigslist. If your category has a lot of scam ads, do your part and red flag them: this will help keep your category clean and more relevant.

If you don’t feel comfortable writing your own ads, you may want to consider hiring the two guys who wrote the Craigslist ad that is working so well for our experiment above, Peter Nevland and Jeff Sexton. These guys know how to write great ads and have demonstrated that they can get results.

Peter’s next writing course will be the Young Writers Workshop held at Wizard Academy, August 4-5 in Austin.

Jeff Sexton teaches an online ad writing course, How to Write Powerfully and Clearly. He tells me that he will be offering this course again in the fall.  

Read About Steve Sorenson

I saw this headline above a few months back when I was searching the Business listing on Craigslist. Usually this category is filled with “scam” ads wanting to involve you in multi-level marketing or selling you advice on starting your own internet business - but this ad caught my eye.

Vacancy rates of commercial properties are increasing and rents are lowering. Renters can get a better location for less money and it is even possible to lock in the lower rental price for the amount of years that fit their business needs. Because of the changing market conditions, landlords need to find different ways to find renters besides just lowering their rental prices until they go broke.

Property owners are business people also. They have bills to pay, just like you and me. The landlord that ran this ad wanted to keep her properties rented and came up with a unique way of marketing them. I am not going to speculate on which way she was going to “invest” in your business; there are a lot of ways to work that out. The key point is that she came up with a way of marketing her business that set her apart from the rest.

When you consider different options for marketing your business, be sure to look at ways that make you stand out from the rest of the clutter. People will notice you. I noticed this ad. I also noticed that she isn’t running it on Craigslist anymore.

If done right, Craigslist can be a great advertising and marketing source. In a future article, I will give you some quick tips on how to use Craigslist effectively to promote your business.

Read About Steve Sorenson

The New York Times, probably the most literary newspaper of record in the US, just released some startling data.  And understanding it could do astounding things for your marketing.

The online version of the Times allows readers to look up the definition of words simply by highlighting them.  Not only is this a great service to readers, but that data (of which words are looked up and how often) is tracked by the paper.  And in this case, tracking that data has allowed them to compile a list of the 50 most-looked-up words.

If you're interested in the list, you can download it here.

So here are the marketing take-aways:

1) All those terms, concepts, and jargon you think your audience knows (or should know)? They don't know 'em.

Or at least your audience is probably a lot fuzzier on them than you think.  To a Times writer, whose adult life has been spent within literary circles, every intelligent reader knows the meaning of words like, "solipsistic."  The reality?  Solipsistic was the second most looked up word on the list. 

Are there reasons to use lesser known words rather than a more well known alternative word or phrase?  Absolutely.  Nuance,  precision of meaning, emotional associations, concision, displaying "tribal" identification, and just plain style.  Lots of good reasons to break out the occasional 50 cent word.  But they need to be weighed against the cost, which in this case involves confusing or turning off the reader - bad for a columnist, deadly for an advertiser.

For advertisers, though, industry terminology takes the place of highbrow language.  How many grill salesman assume that everyone knows what BTUs are and why a grill capable of producing more of them is a good thing?  How many vitamin stores assume customers know what anti-oxidants are and why it's a good idea to supplement with them?  I'd put money that the same holds true for your business and industry.

2) Be wary of uncritical interpretations of data.

Don't you just naturally assume that the people looking up those words are doing so because they don't know the meanings?  And therefore that The New York Times readership isn't nearly as literate as one would hope?  That was my first reaction.

Further reflection revealed that actually looking up a word is, in fact, a very literate thing to do.  And that it's likely that many of those readers may have already had a darn good idea of what the word meant, but hadn't previously seen the word used in the specific manner or context in which the writer had employed it. Maybe the reader knew the gist of the word, but had never bothered to get a real definition and, in seeking to clarify the meaning of a sentence, said reader looked up the word, just to be sure.  Kind of changes the meaning of the list a little bit, doesn't it? Using words on the edge of a readers vocabulary is entirely different than routinely using words readers have never heard of.

Uncritical interpretations happen all the time in advertising: "We tried radio and it didn't work," or "we had a website, but it never did anything for us, so we pulled it down."  Or any other number of assumptions.  Force yourself to come up with plausible alternative explanations and customer motivations. 

3) Test assumptions - force yourself to watch what people DO and not what people say!

No one likes to admit that they don't know what a word means.  So I rather doubt if anyone ever complained about the times word choice, which is why it was the online version of the Times - and not a focus group, interview, or complaint - that provided this insight into the top 50 most-looked-up words. 

The same thing goes with your advertising: test, test, test.  Measure actions, not opinion. 

4) Know when to go tribal

As I mentioned previously, the right words can signal your membership in a tribe - meaning that confusion amongst outsiders aint always a bad thing.  If you're a hard core cyclist, you don't need to have someone tell you who Lance Armstrong is.  Foodies don't need to be told what, say, Balsamic Vinegar is.  Copy directed to hard core members of a tribe would do well to use their language and cultural touchstones/allusions without apology.  Not only does this attract the hard core, but it attracts wannabes as well. 

While The New York Times probably should be concerned about striking a balance between appealing to a broad readership and maintaining a literary style, those concerns would be poison to The New Yorker.  Aimed at an even more literate audience that the Times, The New Yorker almost has to employ writers who sprinkle in SAT-type words, because seeing them in an article - and seeing them used well - sends a signal to its subscribers about what kind of magazine they're reading and what kind of tribe they belong to.
 

Read About Jeff Sexton

I hung up the phone in stunned silence.  After two days of not being able to reach the first girlfriend I'd ever had, I finally knew what was going on.  We had broken up.  No one wants to work in the middle of emotional trauma.  It's much worse if that work includes dancing and exploding with joy on-stage in front of new audiences on your first tour the night after your heart is broken. 

"Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.” said C.S. Lewis in The Horse and His Boy.  I knew what I had to do.  The lesson of so many Sunday mornings after a week of rejection and inner turmoil years before had taught me that the blues are the perfect time to release all the pent up passion of pain into a celebration of life and joy.  I danced my way through tears, shouted hope to eager ears.  People cried and thanked us for the show, and then they bought CDs and t-shirts.

Did I milk it?  Did I manipulate the audience into a financial transaction for my benefit?  No, but I refused to stop at vulnerability and pain.  I avoided letting my circumstances and feelings define my actions. 

Recently my travels found me sitting in a metal tube, flying through the air on my way to Nashville.  When I opened up Southwest Airlines' Spirit magazine, this paragraph jumped off the page...

“It might seem odd to be writing about celebrations when the nation’s economy is probably in the worst shape any of us can remember. I believe that celebrating our Employees and our Company is more important now than ever.”  -Gary Kelly, Southwest CEO

If you haven't noticed, Southwest Airlines has a history of doing things opposite to what other airlines do.  It's probably why they've recorded 36 consecutive, financially profitable years.  But this quarter they posted a loss of $20 million, their first loss in 72 quarters.  So why is it that Gary Kelly is talking about celebration?  Why does Southwest continue to resist the temptation to charge extra for baggage, changing reservations and every other “hidden fee”, as they say?

Reacting to the present without a long-term focus would ruin their reputation.  Their entire business model depends on being the fun, friendly way to fly, the choose-your-own-seat airline.  And if every other airline complains about the tough economy, charges extra for bags, reduces their amount of in-flight service, and processes passengers with a haggard look on their overworked faces, I'm choosing the guys who throw parties while getting me to my destination on-time for less.  I can't remember an unfriendly Southwest employee.

In case you think I'm just talking about the airline industry and rock n' roll performances, La-Z-Boy made a fortune during the Great Depression selling a newly invented, unnecessary chair in a small town that nobody went to.  How'd they do it?  They set up a circus tent and had “furniture shows” complete with acrobatic mice, ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, leaping fish and free shrub and flower giveaways.  They turned their out of the way location into a cheap, tourist destination for a public desperate for entertainment they could afford.  When the people got there, they had a chance to sink into the comfort of an upholstered chair that whispered, “take a load off and let your problems melt away.”  People paid using any form of payment possible to get a La-Z-Boy, including guinea hens, coal, wheat and cows. 

Transcending the limitations of your circumstances will always be a compelling story.  If you need more proof, check out the Best Selling books of the 1930's.  Everyone of them, Cimarron,  The Good Earth, Anthony Adverse, Green Light, Gone With the Wind & The Yearling all deal with people who found a way to triumph over their circumstances.  Not even 1939's best selling, The Grapes of Wrath, with its misfortune stricken characters and plot, can end without Rose of Sharon nursing a dying man back to life, despite her horribly negative experience. 

We're wired for hope, yearning to believe that we can be something more, find some sort of meaning, even if, as happened in my case, pounding rejections have ripped our heart in two.  Decide what you're going to do.  Turn your own conviction and courage in the face of fear into a story that inspires others.  It will never seem pleasant to you at the time, but joy comes on the other side of doing what you never thought you could.  Besides, if you ever hope to turn that story into a successful book, business or other moneymaking adventure, it'll take your acquired strength to persevere when the only sound ringing in your ears is silence.

Read About Peter Nevland

Are skateboards anything special?  Anything worth looking at?

Well, they're certainly nothing out of the ordinary, right?  And that's the problem.  Skateboards are so ordinary it's hard to even see them.  Want to see them for real?  Take a look at this video

By injecting a little visual incongruity into the mix, this video actually allows you to SEE skateboards the way a little kid might see them the very first time he looks at a boarder doing his thing.

And this trick isn't something limited to the magic of digital editing and special effects.  All artists pull this same trick.  Cezanne rescued apples from the everydayness of apples in exactly this way.  That's why we're fascinated by a painting of something as putatively boring as a still life.

Writers do it, too.  Just take a look at how Neal Stephenson was able to transform something as boring as eating cereal into a riveting experience:

"World-class cereal-eating is a dance of fine compromises. The giant heaping bowl of sodden cereal, awash in milk, is the mark of the novice. Ideally one wants the bone-dry cereal nuggets and the cryogenic milk to enter the mouth with minimal contact and for the entire reaction between them to take place in the mouth. The best thing is to work in small increments, putting only a small amount of Cap'n Crunch in your bowl at a time and eating it all up before it becomes a pit of loathsome slime, which, in the case of Cap'n Crunch, takes about thirty seconds… He pours the milk with one hand while jamming the spoon in with the other, not wanting to waste a single moment of the magical, golden time when cold milk and Cap'n Crunch are together but have not yet begun to pollute each other's essential natures." – Neal Stephenson, from Cryptonomicon

So the next time you're thinking about your passion for what you do or sell, try figuring out a way to inject a little incongruity into the picture.  Getting your audience to see it anew is often the first step in bringing them to share your passion for it.

Read About Jeff Sexton