Advertising Ideas: Are You Missing Opportunities?

Advertising Ideas: Are You Missing Opportunities?

Opportunities Quotes Quote about opportunity.How many times have you stated I am not interested or you haven’t returned a phone call only to miss out on the opportunity to build your brand and increase your revenue. Over the last 40 years I have approached many different businesses to assist me in my efforts to help charitable causes.  I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to companies supporting causes.  I have had organizations like World Wrestling Entertainment send me items that have helped in my efforts to help those touched by cancer. I have had companies like Jimmy John’s refer me to corporate and I haven’t received a return phone call. I have had some business people tell me to leave their store the minute I introduced myself and told them about what I was doing. This prompted me to wonder how many businesses are missing opportunities for their shortsightedness? I have come to learn that there are many people who lack the business acumen to take things to a level where their brand would stand out and as a result would pick up more business. In today’s very competitive market where competition seems to be on every corner it is important to take advantage of every opportunity to stand out and create a buzz while garnering new business while also retaining existing customers.

 A few years ago I approached my local Hungry Howie’s about helping to support The American Cancer Society Relay For Life. They were very receptive and have donated 10 large pizzas each year to support the effort to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays. As a result when I think about ordering lunch or dinner I think of Hungry Howie’s Pizza, I especially like their baked ziti for one. My order averages about $20 – $25 each time I order and I order at least once a month. If you look at their return on investment from just me is very good not to mention how many other people I have told about Hungry Howie’s and as a result they have placed orders.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Pizza Hut, which I used to order from on a monthly basis as I believe in helping all local businesses to succeed. I say used to because a few weeks ago I contacted them about helping a local event to help those touched by cancer and their marketing person didn’t return phone calls or emails. His lack of response cost him my business as well as others that I have shared this with. So ask yourself the next time some one reaches out to you how not calling back or emailing back can affect your business.

Advertisement Ideas: Are You Missing Opportunities: A Case Study!

 Imagine some one calls your business or stops into your business to discuss an event that helps people touched by cancer that has 313 participants with 57 teams representing some very influential business leaders and you blow them off only to find out that this person has some great pull and is known for supporting those that support him. This is a prime example of missing an opportunity for you did not see the forest for the trees.

 

The other day I was out promoting an event and collecting donations for the event and I ran into a business that was very negative toward me. I thought wow if they had given me the time of day and understood that for 40 years I have been helping businesses with customer acquisition, customer service, and effective cause marketing campaigns. many times I can create a buzz about a business simply because I have the ability to do a very good Facebook Live Video while at the business that my followers see and as a result they support the business. Those that chose to be open to receive and listen have benefited those that gave the canned answer of we are not interested continue to struggle.

I have heard oh business is slow so many times in the last few years that I have come up with an idea of when business is slow go out and create opportunities. I recently worked for a sports memorabilia and apparel store and when business was slow I would do videos and post them across social media featuring a few items. As a result business picked up a bit. I also would take fliers out into the community after my shift and share the store and offer specials to people. I also started to interact with people in public who were wearing sports team apparel inviting them to come to the store.  I also made it a point to make sure people had a good experience when they shopped at the store. Unfortunately I was let go from my position with the store. I share this with you because many times you may be missing out on opportunities because you are stuck in a box. It is time to get out of the box and start to create opportunities and listen to people to see how you can be of service and value to each other. That is the problem with most businesses today they lack vision and when things are slow don’t look for opportunities to grow their business. Namaste!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Stop All The BS!!!

Advertisement Ideas:  How Credible Are You!!!

How do you know I am lying? My lips are moving? As I sat and watched President Donald Trump encourage people to manufacture in America buy American made products I thought wow how can he do this when his clothing lines are manufactured in Bangladesh, China, and Mexico. To me this put a real damper in his credibility. I did not vote for President Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton as I voted for The Libertarian Candidate. After watching   president Donald Trump campaign and gain election and then serve for the first 100 days I begin to think about my own credibility and the credibility of others. I realized that it is important to be impeccable with your word and to make sure that you are making decisions that are truly inline with your core values because at the end of the day the only thing that endures is your character. As an entrepreneur, marketing director, or non-profit leader it is important to be seen as credible is all aspects of your business for people do business and support those they know, like, and trust. If you are just making a sales pitch to generate money and do not truly believe in what you are marketing you will have some success but it will be fleeting and eventually your credibility will be damaged and your ability to generate revenue and strengthen your brand will be challenging. When you begin to compromise your credibility for profits you begin to lose and eventually the damage that is done is irreversible. Think about your credibility when you advertise and what you promise for there will come a time that you will have to deliver on those promises.

In my many years of working with for profit and non-profit entities I have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to credibility. I have had people promise to pay me for announcing a game and I have gotten to the game and announced the game only to have the owner of the team leave and then tell me we didn’t have a contract when we had correspondence and confirmation through Facebook. As a result I now get payment in advance or I don’t take the gig. The only exception is if I have a long-term arrangement with the team. I have found that many people here in South Florida are all flash no cash and can not be trusted. I recently had a situation where a women promised to have fundraise for an event and at the last-minute backed out this affected my credibility as I signed her up. I did everything I could to help the woman to successfully fundraise and each time I was met with excuses and with 11 days before the event she backed out not realizing that we based much of the budget requests to help those touched by cancer on her fundraising goal. Now we have to find other sources to help the people who were told yes we have those services available to you. Remember when you back out of a commitment you not only hurt your credibility but you hurt the credibility of those that vouched for you.  Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Stop All The BS!!!

Advertisement Ideas: How To Use Your Donations To Generate Profit!!!

Advertisement Ideas: How To Use Your Donations To Generate A Profit!!!

As a business adviser I have always taught the entrepreneurs that utilize my service the importance of making charitable donations be them monetary or in-kind. When you support charities and donate money or good and service you can implement a strategic marketing plan that will allow you to support the community and also turn a profit. One of the best advertisement ideas that I came up with was over 20 years when I asked a local restaurant to host a charity night to raise money for The Coral Springs Jaycees Spreading The Joy Program, which provided Thanksgiving Baskets and a Children’s Shopping Spree for families in need. The restaurant asked what is in it for me and I explained that by donating 20% of his sales for one night he would attract people who wouldn’t normally come to the restaurant and have an opportunity to turn them into regular customers. He was hesitant at first but agreed and that first give back night raised $189 for the project. Meaning that we brought in bout $1,000 worth of business on that night not to mention the amount of people who became regular customers. Since my first give back night I have seen many restaurants adopt this concept and have much success because it creates a win-win situation for all parties involved. When you have  a giving plan it will turn into profit over time as people like to do business with those they perceive to be giving back to the community. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: How To Use Your Donations To Generate Profit!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Empower Your Staff!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Empower Your Staff!!!

One of the words that has been used time and time again over the last few years is empowerment. The term is defined as follows to give power or authority to; authorize, especially by legal or official means: to enable or permit. I chose to write about this today as I have witnessed so many opportunities lost due to the lack of empowerment given to staff and as a result sales have declined and brand awareness has been weakened. I have  witnessed a lack of empowerment in many areas of businesses however the one area where I think empowerment lacks the most is in the marketing arena. I have been out in the community promoting The American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Sunrise, which will take place on May 5, 2017 from 6 PM – 12 AM (Midnight) at Piper High School. I have been approaching places like McDonald’s, Subway, and Pizza Hut and each store manager at these establishments told me the same thing you have to go through corporate for that. Now I don’t mind calling corporate as I have been doing fundraising for over 40 years and I know how to present ideas that will make sense to a business. When I called corporate recently for these three businesses I was told oh we have a committee that takes care of that and you have to fill out a special request form. Again I don’t mind doing this however if the managers at these locations were empowered and given the authority to make a decision based with a marketing budget the local stores would benefit more as they would feel that they had a stake in the location and as a result would work harder. Corporate would benefit as they wouldn’t have to be bogged down in paper work and their brand would gain more recognition and their revenue would increase. Think about it we are told that people do business with people they know like and trust so what better way to get to know people get them to like you and trust you than having an empowered staff that will be dedicated to growing your business. 

Each day businesses lose out on sales because they have failed to empower their staff members and have also failed to understand the concept of cause marketing. I remember working for Brunswick Margate Lanes as a counter control supervisor and sales associate and having a charitable organization approach me about helping them with a fundraiser. I went to my GM and asked if we could give them the lanes for Free as we could write it off as a marketing expense. He said yes as a result the charity booked 10 lanes bowled 3 games at a cost to the bowling center of about $150 however we sold over $500 at the snack bar to this group and had over $350 in sales from the bar plus we booked 3 birthday parties. By empowering me to do this we exceeded our sales goals for the month. In being empowered to make special offers and create special short season leagues I was able to put 1,599 bowlers on the floor for the summer which led to the opening of a pro-shop at the center creating an additional revenue stream. The key is to empower your staff and let them make decisions that make sense for the business. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Empower Your Staff!!!

Advertisement Ideas: The Importance of Cause Marketing!!!

Advertisement Ideas: The Importance Of Cause Marketing!!!

If you are a frequent reader of this blog you know how deep my passion runs for helping those touched by cancer through my involvement with Relay For Life. I do my best to share Relay with as many people as I can especially businesses that can use cause marketing as a strategy to acquire customers and retain customers. I have partnered with many business like The Tijuana Flats in Tamarac, FL, The Chuck E. Cheese’s in Sunrise, and Skyline Chili in Sunrise, FL to do fundraisers and I have been very successful in bringing people to these establishments who normally would not have gone. As a result several of those involved in Relay have become regular customers at these establishments. I have had mush success with those who understand the importance of cause marketing. The key is to partner with a cause that you are passionate about and then leverage your involvement by mentioning it in advertising, through your social media,  and in your media releases. The idea is that you never know who may come into your business because of your support of a cause.

I went to a McDonald’s located Nob Hill Road and Sunset Strip yesterday (4/1/2017) to seek support of Relay For Life and the manager told me you have to call the owner but didn’t have the owner’s number. I thought here is someone who is supposed to be looking out for the best interest of The McDonald’s franchise and should be astute enough to understand the importance of cause marketing. The interesting part of the interaction was that I was going to place and order but because of the manager’s attitude and lack of information to give me to contact the owner I left and went to SUBWAY and bought my meal there as they have supported Relay For Life.  Think about it and do the math I would have sent about $8- $10 at McDonald’s but because of the manager’s lack of understanding of the importance of cause marketing another business received my business. The reason I share this with you is to show you that you must empower your managers to make some decisions when it comes to cause marketing because you may be leaving money on the table because of their lack of understanding the importance of cause marketing. $8-10 may not seek like a lot of money to be walking out the door but think about it how many people will see this story and not go to that McDonald’s and do you think I will be going back to patronize that location? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: The Importance of Cause Marketing!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Management Gone Mad!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Management Gone Mad!!!

 About two weeks ago I went to my laundry and while I was doing my laundry I stopped by a store in the plaza, Past, Present, Future which sells comic books and collectibles as well as soda and snacks. While I went to purchase a soda and snacks I mentioned to the manager that I am involved with The American Cancer Society Relay For Life and that our theme was Superheroes For The Cure and that my team Lederman’s Heroes Walking in Memory of JDOGG’S Mom had chosen Shazam. Instead of taking this as an opportunity to possibly make a sale he told me we don’t need your solicitation I was like wow every business can use additional sales. I then did my best to give the store some added value by making a  Facebook Live Video to which the manager said that the owner doesn’t allow for that and that if I didn’t stop the video he would call the police. I stopped the video and deleted it off my Facebook page. As a past retail store manager who drove sales by being kind and caring in all interactions and acting on what were buying signals such as someone telling me some information I increased sales. When I first started working in Retail for Oaktree, a men’s clothing store I rose to be the #1 sales person in the company by engaging customers and assessing their needs so I know what it takes to build sales and customer relationships. I can fully understand that the manager gets solicited many times during the day however each solicitation is an opportunity for it is not about the solicitor but who the solicitor can reach. In my case I have over 1900 Twitter Followers, over 2900 friends on Facebook, and over 1400 followers on Instagram. So think about it had I had a good experience with this manager I would not have been writing this piece about the negative experience and exposing this negative experience to my followers rather I would have been encouraging people to shop at the store.

Don’t allow a bad manager to stifle your business. Over the 40 years that I have been involved with public and private for profit and non-profit businesses I have encountered many great managers who understand that one oh crap can ruin a 1000 of at a boys. Remember it is human nature for people to remember the bad and share as opposed to sharing the good.  The key is to make sure that your management team is creating an environment that is welcoming because that solicitor today could be a buyer in the future or that solicitor may have a very large reach and instead of getting a good review you end up featured in his blog and on his radio show. The key is to understand that you never know who is coming through your door and how they can be of value and service to you.

 When you are open to all that you come in contact with and you find ways that you can be of service and value to one another that is when you succeed.

Imagine if the manager would have taken my interest in Shazam as a buying signal and shown me merchandise relating to Shazam how the interaction could have went. I may not have bought the item that day but would know that it was available and come back for it. I have always believed that a no today is really a no for right now. I have many success stories of working the floor of a retail store and making sales because I picked up on buying signals and interacted with the customer. One day I was working at a retail sport apparel and memorabilia shop when a customer came in seeking a gift for his wife who was a Buffalo Bills fan and he was looking for a tee-shirt I didn’t have any Buffalo Bills Ladies shirts but instead of saying we didn’t have any I showed him a signed Jim Kelly Football and a Framed Jim Kelly signed picture. he Bought the Jim Kelly signed picture so instead of selling him a $28 shirt I upped the sale and sold him a $250 framed piece. In getting to know what the customer wants and interacting with them you increase your sales.  The key is to understand that everyone who walks into your retail location can benefit you in some way. It is when you look for opportunities that you avoid management from going bad. Remember it has nothing to do with the economy or the industry it has everything to do with your attitude.

Advertisement Ideas: Walk In Your Truth!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Walk In Your Truth!!!

Over the last few days I have observed many people professing that they are making six figures and when I asked them for donations to help support the efforts to create a world with less cancer and more birthdays they made every excuse as to why they were unable to donate. This really had me thinking so you want me to join your organization and market your product and services but you can’t donate to a cause that is near and dear to me. It was at this time that i realized when marketing to people you must walk in your truth and be passionate about your belief and purpose.  When you market your products or services or ask for support of your charitable endeavors people must be able to know you, like you, and trust you. In all interactions it is important to walk in your truth and be honest and up front with people. I have witnessed so many people trying to be something they are not or making claims that they can not back up that they have stiff;ed themselves from growing personally and professionally. The key in business is to be your authentic self and make sure that in all your marketing people are seeing your authentic self and not some facade. The idea of faking it until you make it doesn’t work as people will see right through that. It is important in business to be authentic and to follow the four agreements.

So many people make promises and then do not keep them and then wonder why their business is struggling. I have experienced people saying one thing to you and then doing the complete opposite and then pointing the finger at you. When this happens I step into my power and walk in my truth and say thank you and then I think too bad so sad don’t let the door hit you where GOD split you. If you are preaching about walking your talk you better be taking the action to back it up. If you are talking about marketing and advertising you should be marketing and advertising. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Walk In Your Truth!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Forget The President!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Forget The President!!!

I have learned over the years that in business it is important to leave politics at the door if you are going to succeed because when you engage in a political discussion it can go bad real fast and adversely affect your business. In today’s marketplace with the advent of social media it is important to forget the president and simply go about your business planning your work and working your plan making adjustments along the way. In the scheme of your day-to-day operations who the president is should not have an effect on your ability to market and attract new customers while also retaining your existing customer base. I have  seen many businesses over the last 16 years suffer because they didn’t forget the president and as a result left money on the table or lost money. Such was the case for a local restaurant who is a staunch supporter of The Republican Party a large group from The Democratic Party was going to book an event at the restaurant however when they saw the photos of the republicans from the area on display they went elsewhere.  I share this so as to remind you that many times your political views can hit you the hardest in the wallet for you never know why someone may choose to do business or not to choose to do business with you.

The key to remember when you are implementing a marketing campaign is to leave your politics aside and forget the president. I have witnessed so many people making political posts on social media when they should have been making posts about who they are and what they do and why you should do business with them. The way you choose to advertise is up to you however remember many potential clients/customers and many existing clients/customers read your social media posts and may be swayed not to do business with you because you have a different view than they do. You may think this is trite however people today are so wrapped in their ego that if they feel you bruised their ego they will look elsewhere to get products and services. The key is to forget about who the president is and to continue to strengthen your brand and increase your revenue by acquiring and retaining customers/clients. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Forget The President!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Important P Words!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Important P Words!!!

When you decide to open your business the most important p word that you need to have in you vocabulary is profit. When you open your business you must have a goal in mind as to how much profit you want to make so that you can take action to exceed this goal with the idea of utilizing other important p words.

 People is a very important p word for you will need to reach the people in your desired target audience and have them do business with you. Remember people do business with those they know, like, and trust. In giving people what they desire and building awareness of your products and services you will increase your profits. You may have  need to hire people and hiring the right people who are in alignment with your core values will lead you to having success when it comes to customer acquisition and retention.  Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Important P Words!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Prioritize This!!!

Advertisement Ideas: Prioritize This!!!

photo get-your-priorities-straightWhen you opened your business today what were your priorities? Did you write down your priorities and make sure they were in sync with your goals and objectives? So many times when working with entrepreneurs I find that many do not set priorities and thus continue to be on this endless hamster wheel that creates a struggle. The end result of this struggle is that they fail to thrive and eventually close their business. I always ask people who I work with what did you do to promote your business today? Many times the answer is nothing people will come because they are in the plaza anyway or they are by where we are located and will see us and come in out of curiosity.  I give the people I work with the strategy to do out reach to potential customers daily while also having a retention program to keep existing customers.  I have worked for people over the last 40 years and I have seen that the successful ones are innovative and seek to stay ahead of the curve while those who close up their business get set in their ways and are closed-minded. I have also found that many business owners do not get out of their own way and as a result they believe they know everything. I was told by a very prominent business coach, Bert Oliva, that “The Day You Think You Know Everything Is The Day You Start To Lose Everything,” this is so true as you begin to alienate those that truly want to help you.  What are your priorities today? How do these priorities fit with the over all core model for your business? Are you listening to the people working with you? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Prioritize This!!!