The Digital Customer and RV Advertising

September 20th, 2010 -

The digital customer is becoming more and more important to your business.  

The digital customer continues to  evolve.  How they shop and how they use the internet should be of great interest to you.  Just having a website isn’t enough.

Your RV Advertising needs to evolve with the shopping habits of today’s consumers.

If you need more insight and marketing ideas give me a call.  A good marketing program needs to incorporate traditional advertising, digital and social media.  Just remember market share is up for grabs.  

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Leave a comment   Email Marketing, Internet, Media Buying, Social   , , ,  

RV Advertising and Facebook Ads!

April 20th, 2010 -

Is this a good idea?  Well that depends!

 The value of any ad is based on the strategy and the intent of  the ad.

NOTE:  If you’re not engaged in social media with the right platform facebook ads will be on no value to you.

Here’s what you get straight from facebook. 

Connect with Real People

  • Filter  your target audience from over 400,000,000 facebook userws
  • Offer a relevant value to your target audience for increased success
  • People respond to relevant content

Create Your Facebook Ad

  • Ads are easy to create
  • Advertise your own web page or something on Facebook like a Page or an Event.
  • Choose to pay per click (CPC) or impression (CPM) in your local currency.

Optimize Your Ads

  • Track your progress with real-time reporting.
  • Gain insight about who’s clicking on your ad.
  • Make modifications to maximize your results.

Here is the main reason I think this can work for you and your dealership!  Below are the list of filters you can use.  

Target Your Audience By:

  • Location
  • Age
  • Sex
  • Keywords
  • Education
  • Workplace
  • Relationship Status
  • Relationship Interests
  • Languages

I have used this program with good success.  The costs are very reasonable.

But like anything involving your RV advertising make sure it is well thought out  before you spend any money. 

It is not a silver bullet!   Just another good tool.

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One comment   1, Media Buying, Research, Social, Social Tools   , , ,  

How Much Are facebook Fans Worth To Your RV Advertising Budget?

April 19th, 2010 -

Let’s do the math!

 According to a recent study by Virtue your facebook fans is worth $3.6 to you in advertising value.  This is a general number and in a niche market like RVing the number is higher.

 A general wall post to a fan ratio has been determined to be equal to a 1: (.96 ratio).  The actual range is .44 to 3.6 depending on the niche market.  We’ll use a 3:1 ratio since RVing is the ultimate niche market.

 This means one fan is equal to three impression with each wall post.

If you have a two wall post strategy you would double the impressions.  So what is a fan worth to an RV dealer?

 Here’s an example:

 2000 fans = 6000 impressions

6000 impressions x 2 posts per day x 30 days = 360,000 impressions

360,000 impressions / 1000 x $5 CPM =  $1,800 worth of monthly value  or

$21,600 annually.

 With good content you can hope to even double this number.

 This means you could actually be getting close to $43,000 worth of on line value.

 This means each fan in a well executed social program could be worth 2000 / $43,000=  $25.50

 Bottom Line: More Fans More Value. 

  So the more fans you add the more you increase your marketing value.

 Your out of pocket cost stays about the same.

 Remember, this is just one value point of a strategic social media program.  Who ever is doing your RV advertising  should be aware this additional value:

  •  Twitter Impressions
  • SEO Rankings
  • Pubic Relations
  • Word of Mouth
  • Media Connections
  • Re Posts
  • Re Tweets

 What is the overall value of a strong social program? 

Let me know what you think and I’ll tell you what I think.

 But lets just say the advertising value of social media should be very easy to justify!

 This is one opportunity you just shouldn’t miss!

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2 comments   Media Buying, Planning, Research, Social   , , ,  

Why Frequency Is The Key To RV Advertising

March 22nd, 2010 -

The question has always been which comes first the chicken or the egg?

  

In advertising the question has always been…..

Which comes first the message or the media plan?


It’s very close call!   But it really doesn’t matter how good your message is if the media plan is poor.

Imagine being all dressed up but never leaving your house.  No one ever sees you.

For the last 20 years I have been teaching and preaching Frequency as the key to RV Advertising.  

  • Frequency is the number of times a given individual sees your ad.  
  • Frequency is what drives home your offer to the consumer. 
  • Most research agrees that an active prospect needs to see your ad 3 to 4 times for it to connect.  

Don’t fall into the reach trap.  Reaching a big audience is ideal but don’t sacrifice frequency.

 Your job as an advertising manager for your dealership should be to get the most reach with the proper amount of frequency.  But the one un-negotiable is frequency.  

  • Choose to talk to 10 people 10 times rather than 100 people once.  
  • Try this the next time you’re at a party if you don’t believe me.  Meet 10 new people and spend a lot of time with them and when the party is over those 10 people will know your name.  

If you spend your time going around and introducing yourself to every one at the party, you’ll find very few people remember your name at the end of the night.

It is all about finding the right mix of cost and frequency.

This is exactly why I am such a big believer in Lifestyle Media Buying.  It allows you to target the right audience with more spots and for less money. 

Here are some thoughts to take with you.

  • A cheap spot that doesn’t connect  with your prospect is actually very expensive.
  • Because you and your spouse watch a given show doesn’t mean it’s the right show.  
  • Don’t let the DEAL DRUG lead you to a bad media plan.
  • Frequency is king targeted at the right audience!

So look for the unique opportunities that can offer you controlled frequency and reach. 

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Leave a comment   lifestyle marketing, Media Buying, Planning   , ,  

Why Cable TV Hasn’t Worked Well For RV Advertising

March 2nd, 2010 -

Cable Television has been a mystery to RV Advertising agencies and dealers since its inception.

It’s my guess many TV have been crushed in frustration!

   Rarely have dealers seen positive results and have conclude that the audience dynamics of cable  are not conducive to a short-term retail strategies.

The Fact is perception and reality don’t match up.

It’s not that the cable audience is elusive, it’s that most dealer’s cable buys are 75% off target.  How can this be?  It’s simple, the networks being chosen and bought for the wrong reasons.  So the perception is cable doesn’t work.  

But, the reality is the tool is being used improperly.

75% Off Target

The spreadsheet above shows a typical buy based on traditional influences and one based entirely on lifestyle media.  You can quickly see that Advantage Media (lifestyle buying) is the way to go when wanting to drive traffic to your dealership

Your customers have a unique lifestyle pattern.  Demographics simply don’t allow you to target your customers and people who look like them.  Lifestyle buying is based on the simple truth that birds of a feather flock together.  Talk to your birds with frequency and the hunt will be much more rewarding.

The fact is that most dealerships are influenced by the media rep or their own perception of stations.  It’s this subject approach that leads to wasted ad dollars.  The lifestyle of your customers will drive their viewing habits.

Why leave this up to guessing when you can do a simple lifestyle study that begins with your customer base.

The above example is unfortunately all too common.  With over 30 such studies behind me the results speak for themselves. 

For more on lifestyle marketing go to:  Lifestyle Marketing Should Be At The Heart of RV Advertising

Let me know what you think.  Do you agree?

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One comment   lifestyle marketing, Media Buying, Planning, Targeted Marketing   , ,  

RV Advertising: Eliminate Your Short Term Thinking

March 1st, 2010 -

OK!  I get it.  You’re thinking  you need traffic to your dealership today.

Well what’s new.  That’s one thing that every RV business wants during  good times or bad.  Everyone wants more traffic.

The retail business leads dealers and most RV Advertising agencies to short-term thinking.

 This can be good and bad.  However, I strongly encourage you to stop and think about what I am about to say regarding social media.

In the early days relationship selling was how a dealer marketed his dealership.  Then through our help 20 years ago dealers began to use mass media and suddenly you could get your message in front of thousands of people.  

This is when retail selling took the place of relationship selling.

As time has passed a few stores were able to re-kindle the relationship based store  and turn those relationships into big sales volume.  Now that sales volumes are less mass media is taking a back seat in many stores. 

So here we are!  Back to relationship selling.   Social Media is relationship selling on Steriods.

There is no greater opportunity in front of you.

  • Facebook added 100 million users in 9 months.  
  • It took television 10 years to just reach 50 million.  

If you want to build a dealership based on relationship  selling, where you have equity in the transaction and the relationship, you really need to get on the social media program.  

If you’re one of the  first to really embrace this revolution you’ll obtain a competitive edge and your competition will not be able to recover..  

Why do you ask?          Because they’re still thinking about short term marketing ideas!

 Social Media will build and secure a consistent traffic flow to your dealership. My  guess is in the not too long future the majority of your traffic will be traced back to social media.  You may not see it all today but 100,000,000 Facebook users in 9 months can’t be ignored.  The shift is taking place and short term thinking might leave you in last place.

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One comment   General, Media Buying, Social   , ,  

Lifestyle Marketing Should Be At The Heart Of RV Advertising

March 1st, 2010 -

 People buy RV’s for many reasons.  The overwhelming reason is they have the same lifestyle.  Lifestyle marketing is the most under used tool in RV Advertising.   

Clearly, no one has taken the time to explain to you how today’s technology, the access to data and  reduction of costs can provide you the opportunity to improve your advertising through lifestyle marketing. 

Back in the good ole days you had only 6 broadcast television stations and you could buy enough TV to saturate the market.

Today trying to saturation your market is very difficult because there are  hundreds of media outlets.  Yet the media continues to present analysis from the same boring  demographic position.  You know what I mean, one size fits all.  Demographic of adults 25-54 will match about every product being sold today.  

So what come into play next is peoples opinion.   This input into media selection usually provides for  an interesting and usually poor outcome.  I know many of you have fallen into this trap!

So why hasn’t the media taken lifestyle marketing to the market?  

Well the short answer is they haven’t had to.  

You haven’t required them to act any different. The one size fits all demographic presentation works for any type of business so it doesn’t focus on the lifestyle of your customers.

Lifestyle marketing begins and ends with the people who have bought from you.  

You have in your data base the perfect picture of the people most likely to do business with you.  

Their profile can be matched household by household to provide you with an audience of  clones.  

If you want to drive more dealership traffic then simply talk to the people most likely to do business with you.

The ROI for demographic buying gets more difficult every year.

 Given a choice to drive more dealership traffic without spending more money is a no brainer.  Lifestyle media buying can be implemented quickly.  Why wait?  Your burning dollars if  you don’t!

30% Improvement!  Go getter done.

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2 comments   lifestyle marketing, Media Buying, Research   , ,  

Lifestyles Should Direct RV Advertising

January 12th, 2010 -

I’m working real hard at teaching RV dealerships  that buying media, using the old standard of demographic modeling,  just might be flushing money down the toilet.

Lifestyle media buying has shown to be 30% more effective than demographic media buying.

Why are dealers slow to recognize the value?  Thats easy, it’s the economy stupid!

When business is good everyone thinks they’re a marketing guru. Right?

It’s not until we get in a tough economy that many dealers and many advertising agencies realize they aren’t as smart as they thought they were.

Lifestyle Media buying is very new.  I have been using it now for just two years.  The results speak for itself.

Here is how it works:

  • Your customer base is run through a lifestyle data base that matches each household  with one of 62 lifestyles represented in the United States.

Matches are made of clones  in your market area.  You’ll discover a small number of lifestyles represent the majority of your business.  For example, you may find that 12 lifestyles represents 80% of your business.  

 Next, the media habits of these households is analyzed using all available resources including diaries, surveys and media research from data available today.

  • The end result is a report that shows the media habits by media, daypart, drive time, network, station etc. for your best prospects that look just like the people who have bought from you in the past.  Lets face it,there are many 45 year olds who don’t look or act like your buyers.

If you’re buying with demographics you’re talking to every possible 45 year old in your market.  

In today’s market you can’t afford to follow the old school buying patterns.

 With less money available wouldn’t you like it to work 30% harder! Take the step you’ll be glad  you did.

Think about it.  Google it. It’s worth your time.  Let me know what you find out.

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