“I know that 50% of all my advertising dollars are wasted. The problem is I don’t know which 50%.” - David Ogilvy. When Ogilvy was the grand master of the advertising world he was routinely sought out for his wisdom, insight and creativity. He was one of, if not THE, top experts in the world of advertising and marketing for easily 30 years. That gave him access to both clients, and more importantly their unlimited budgets, to experiment, try out new ideas, see what worked and do all that came to mind in the scientific exploration of selling to the masses with the new media of television.
In that dinner party question of “who would like to have to dinner for a conversation?” Ogilvy would certainly be on my short list along with a man you’ve never heard of, Claude C. Hopkins – another advertising giant, probably Tony Robbins’, along with Mary Kay Ash, and Floyd Mayweather. I think that a dinner party of those people as we discussed the nature and potential of today’s advertising and marketing would be a roundtable of epic proportions.
Today’s internet marketing options are a world of opportunity that present local businesses a window into their clients like no other. The small business has the opportunity to see into the mind of their customers, prospects, and strangers in ways that Ogilvy and Hopkins could only wistfully dream about.
I know this because of two things, 1) I use a ton of internet marketing in my family law practice to be seen by those who are looking for representation in court, and 2) from the types of ads, email, texts, and pop-ups that I come across on an hour by hour, day by day way. My own experience as a small businessperson using Google Ads, Google Reviews, Google Local, a selection of various websites all aimed at a niche market, and Facebook Ads, Bing Ads, Youtube Videos and iTunes podcast episodes all raise awareness, and drive traffic to the channels for people to call and hire me.
The value of all this electronic data is that with Facebook ads I can see exactly the demographics of who is responding to my ads. For example, I have an ad campaign that targets women for my MensFamilyLawCenter.com website. Why women for a men’s divorce / father’s rights website? One word: Grandmothers. They are mothers protecting their sons and their own interests in seeing their grandchildren. My ads on Facebook resonate with grandmothers and they send their sons to my website and to me for business. With proper targeting on Facebook and Google I can land directly in front of them as they share family photos and go searching for grandbaby toys. I can see where they are by zip code, by age range, and by economic strata.
When I run an ad on Facebook that has a video embedded in it, I can see exactly how much of that video is regularly watched and if it converts to click throughs to my website. I can see who is watching and then I can retarget them with similar ads to let them know about my services. This allows me to segment my marketing and serve up exactly what someone needs at the exact time they need it. Ogilvy and Hopkins would likely have killed for such ability to reach into the mind on the consumer.
So then why would I want Mary Kay Ash, Tony Robbins and Floyd Mayweather to join the greats of advertising at a dinner party? Because they are the greats of modern marketing. Granted Mary Kay is no longer with us, but she was a visionary of the Direct to Consumer Multi-Level Marketing model and her Pink Cadillacs still inspire women to outsell each other. Robbins is a man who is a machine at driving sales and promotion, and Mayweather gives new meaning to “Always Be Marketing”. He’s made hundreds of millions by his relentless attitude to marketing and taking every opportunity to promote himself and his career. Just look at his last payday against Youtube creator Logan Paul. He said he could make $100,000,000 for what was essentially a good workout for him. That estimate could be just boxing industry bluster, but could be real also. Does it matter? not really because I’m talking about him.
The point is that marketing and advertising are crucial to all businesses, large and small, and with today’s technology the small businesses like Rosti on Montana can take advantage of it in remarkable ways. I see their emails almost daily in my inbox. They know whether or not I’ve opened it, and when I do, if I click on the enclosed link to a special. Rocco’s Cheesecake on Pico uses Yelp and Facebook posts to promote his Keto cheesecakes to his now huge international customer base. This sort of intimate customer knowledge allows them to target me with exactly what I want, when I want it.
Local businesses are taking advantage of this technology to overcome the losses of the pandemic and to get the word out that they are open for business, and it’s an amazing world we’re living in.
I imagine that Mr. Ogilvy’s insights would only expand the opportunities and truly wish I could have him over for dinner, perhaps at Art’s Table, if they knew what he wanted to eat.
If you have good idea for a story, or know of a company that is innovating in some novel way that should be brought to a wider audience, please drop me an email at DAVID@SMDP.COM and let’s see what the future is looking like.
