If you own a retail business that relies upon customers coming to your store, one of the most fundamental things you need to know is where your customers are coming from. Many business collect zip codes, but that’s not detailed enough. You need to identify the neighborhoods and business districts they are coming from. Do that, and you can target your advertising and marketing with much greater efficiency.

The Dot Study is a simple and inexpensive marketing research tool you can use to gather this information.

Go to your nearest map store and buy two fairly good sized maps of the area around your store. The maps should be big enough so they include the areas around your store outside of where you think your customers are coming from.

Mount each map on a piece of foam core or some other rigid backing. Mark one AM and one PM and then switch from the AM to the PM map at the same time (of your choosing) every day. The reason for this is to distinguish your source of sales during the day from those during the evening. Often, people will shop from work or some other place during the day. But, will shop from home in the evening. This is important to know, especially if you have a business such as a restaurant where you need to target lunch versus dinner messages. 

Instruct your sales staff to ask each person they wait on where their shopping trip originated from. In the evening it is a little more important to establish that the originating point is their home. They don’t have to give you an address or anything specific. All they have to do is point to an area on the map. Your staff will then place a colored dot on the map with a felt pen where the customer has indicated.

It is important to do this consistently and long enough to get a distinct visual representation of where the dots begin forming clusters. After a week or two, you will begin to see patterns emerging that will provide a great tool for future marketing.

How would you change your marketing if you could see on a map exactly where your customers were coming from?

Rob Charlton

Truth is the most powerful marketing tool in your bag. I don’t mean truth in advertising, as in not making false claims and being ethical in your communication practices. That’s an obvious given to anyone with an ounce of common sense.

I’m talking about being transparently honest with your audience with regard to who you are and how you relate to your public. Companies are so obsessed with putting a positive spin on information, whether its about the company itself or its products, that the public has become numb to it. You, I and everyone else out there can spot a whitewashed PR statement or an exaggerated product claim in an instant. But, too many corporate executives and business owners continue to believe they are somehow camouflaged from their lack of authenticity.

One of the best examples of a radio commercial that embraced truth was for a telephone company some thirty years ago. It had a reputation for providing poor service. So they made a number of internal adjustments to improve their service and then ran a radio campaign to promote themselves. The commercial began with the predictable statement about how good their service was. But, then, the announcer was interrupted with gales of laughter. By poking fun at themselves they immediately identified with the listeners beliefs, which laid the groundwork for presenting their message. The campaign was a huge success.

There are other examples of unexpected truths being used to provide powerful advertising messages, such as:

• Orville Redenbacher:  The world’s most expensive popping corn
• Avis:   We’re number two, so we try harder
• Listerine: The taste you hate twice a day

There is something about being flat-out honest about something that not only catches people’s attention, but leaps out at them from the crowd. It’s not what we, as consumers, are used to. And, that’s only one of the benefits.

When you say something that might be considered potentially uncomplimentary, you create credibility. If you’re willing to say something negative about your product, then you are obviously truthful, so can be trusted when you say positive things.

I’m not suggesting that companies should go out and start advertising negative things about themselves. But, you should not hide behind canned language that contradicts commonly held perceptions. It actually hurts you more than it helps.

The truth is powerful. The funniest jokes are the ones that are based in truth, the most memorable quotes are the ones that strike our deepest sense of truth, and the most powerful advertisements are the ones that are truthful.

And, that’s the truth.

Sometimes we can overlook a marketing advantage that’s hiding right out in plain sight. A case in point is a tool that was invented back in 1876. It’s called a telephone. And, it may be on its way to becoming one of the most effective marketing tools that exists in these days of social media and web marketing.

OK, go ahead and roll your eyes at the corn-ball notion that some argument could be made for such a preposterous statement. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that a telemarketing campaign is better than an e-mail campaign. What I’m suggesting is that the telephone be used more often to connect with clients, important customers and others who are important to you.

Consider for a moment just how much e-mail has replaced talking on the phone over the last 10 years. Sure, e-mail is faster, easier and more convenient. No argument there. But, we also use e-mail to avoid even the most minor fear of rejection or having to deliver bad news. It’s much easier to craft an e-mail than it is to face a challenging conversation.

the last time I advertised for a position in the agency, I narrowed my final choices down to four people and called each one. I got voice-mail on every call, so I asked them to call me on the phone to make an appointment for a final interview. Two called and two e-mailed me. I replied to the two e-mails, again asking them to call (making sure they had my phone number). One called and the other wrote another e-mail wanting to set a time. Guess who got eliminated from the final round first?

It made me realize that we are so used to communicating by e-mail that we’ve lost a degree of our connection with some who are very important to us. If you replace just 20% of your e-mail conversations with phone calls to your important contacts, you will be making yourself different while making a difference.

Keeping good customers is more important today than ever before. And these days, your competitors are trying harder than ever to get your customers. The telephone is a great tool for maintaining that connection. Because, tagging your e-mail with “LOL” will never create the same bond as sharing a genuine laugh.

We knew industrial air filtration would be a challenge, but we didn’t know how big. After a number of obstacles on the client’s part that could not be anticipated, we were recently able to complete an altogether new web site for Filter Technology Ltd. My hat goes off to Bob Hood, who was blindsided with a severe illness which created significant challenges during the developmental process. We are now happy to report that the site is complete, but more importantly, Bob is back to his old self, 100%.

Filter Technology is a company that designs, engineers and builds industrial air pollution control systems. You can visit the site at http://www.filtertechnologyltd.com/ . After having written much, and edited all of the copy for the site, I am now more knowledgeable about industrial air filtration that I ever thought I would be. Not that I know all that much about it. But, this is a shining example of what can be accomplished when the client supplies the knowledge and the agency puts it into words.

Bob is personally, one of the most authoritative experts in the country when it comes to high temperature filtration, using air to air head exchangers. You can see the page at www.filtertechnologyltd.com/products/high-temp-filtration/ . There are only two…maybe three others in the entire country who are as accomplished as Bob in the area of high temperature filtration.

Moreover, his business isn’t restricted to the United State. He recently completed six process dust filters in Qatar. See www.filtertechnologyltd.com/products/process-dust-filters/ . More information is listed on the “Projects” page.

Consulting is an important part of Filter Technology’s service, with a large portion of the business in bringing existing systems up to date. These days, many companies don’t want to spend the money to completely replace their old systems, so the look to Bob to help them up-grade what they have. You can read more about it at www.filtertechnology.com/services-industrial-filtration/ .

We’re pretty pleased with this new site, and so is Bob. He has already experienced an increase in visits and business activity as a direct result of launching his new web site.