Aaron Hoos

On Facebook, a friend of mine posted a link to an article in the UK’s The Guardian newspaper. The article was written by Neal Lawson and it’s entitled “Ban Outdoor Advertising“.

As someone who lives and breathes marketing and advertising, I think Lawson’s article is frustratingly naive (with all due respect to a fellow writer, of course!)

I’ve dashed off some thoughts below and I’d love to know what you think of the topic:

WHY NEAL LAWSON IS WRONG

I think banning outdoor advertising is naive because it only removes display ads. Our world is still awash in store-front signs and brands. Lawson wouldn’t suggest that we take down all store signs or pull the brand badges off of our cars or our clothes. So he’s focusing in on just one tiny element of a much larger issue — will this one fix change everything? I doubt it.

In the 1st and 2nd paragraph of his article, Lawson describes some of the public places where outdoor advertising can be seen. Although he doesn’t describe why it’s in those places, he says it shouldn’t be there. But it’s not like the advertising has suddenly appeared there against someone’s will. Schools and hospitals (and other public institutions) need to defray increasingly higher expenses and they have a choice: Charge users more (per-use, in taxes, or through some other form of income — advertising). So if we take down advertising in these public places, there will be a financial impact on users. Admittedly, not every public advertisement is there to defray expenses. (Roadside billboards, for example, are profit centers for the billboard owners rather than to help lower costs of a public institution).

In the 3rd paragraph of his article, Lawson says that the purpose of advertising is to make us unhappy. I think that’s somewhat alarmist. It also feels like he’s suggesting that we wouldn’t have these social problems of anxiety, insecurity, and obesity if it weren’t for advertising. That’s not true. We would still have these social problems because we compare ourselves with other people. For example, long before we had billboards, people were doing dangerous things to beautify themselves. And how does advertising help to sow the seeds of mental illness?

In the 4th paragraph of his article, Lawson say: “The advertising industry exists to ensure it becomes culturally and emotionally impossible to refuse.” I find that phrase the most offensive and naive statement of his entire article. The advertising industry doesn’t exist for that purpose. Industries (in general) exist to earn a profit by filling needs (both good and bad, admittedly), and the advertising industry exists to connect those other industries with potential buyers.

In the 5th paragraph of his article, Lawson says that advertising would clear our minds “for ideas, plans, love or just to daydream.” I’m not sure what he thinks is happening in our minds. In spite of our minds being all cluttered up from public advertising through the ages, we still circumnavigated the globe, cured many diseases, and went to the moon. (Maybe he thinks we could have been to Mars if it wasn’t for that pesky billboard that I drive past on my way to the grocery store).

Throughout his article, Lawson tries to separate the motivations of advertising from its value (I hope I worded that in a way that makes sense). What I mean is: He seems to be suggesting that advertising is there because advertisers are profit-driven and looking for more ways to tear us away from our money; instead, he should be considering that advertising is there because it works. People are going to buy things and advertisers are filling a need.

In the 6th paragraph of his article, after vilifying advertisers in general, Lawson tries to show us how great one city is doing it by quoting what is essentially a branded advertisement: “Bristol: the city that said no to advertising”. Somewhat ironic, in my opinion. But maybe Lawson is okay with it as long as that slogan is never ever displayed in public.

In the 7th paragraph of his article, Lawson seems to separate citizenship and consumerism. But those shouldn’t be separate. (1) Citizenship is a type of consumerism — we buy our citizenship with our taxes and votes; (2) Consumerism is a type of citizenship — we invest in who we want to be; (3) Advertising isn’t inherently uncultural — yes, there are disruptive and even offensive ads but advertising in general is part of our social fabric. Lawson seems to suggest that our citizenship would be better when outdoor advertising vanishes. However, I think that our effectiveness as consumers doesn’t come from NOT seeing ads, but rather from choosing to buy or not to buy what we see. We vote with our wallets. Those ads would disappear if they didn’t work.

So, what do you think? Will our lives be better if we tear down the advertising in public spaces?

We tend to think of our businesses as having one sales funnel — a single process through which sales funnel contacts progress as they become customers. For simplicity, this “one sales funnel” approach works for many businesses.

But in reality, businesses have more than one sales funnel.

If your business sells ebooks and consulting, you probably have two funnels (but they overlap somewhat). For example, your ebook buyers might start out as blog readers then they click to your ebook sales page then they buy; while your consulting clients start out as blog readers then they call you on the phone they hire you. This is a very simple example but it can get more complicated.

Let’s say you own a car dealership with a range of cars from entry-level to luxury. Your funnel might be similar: The customer sees an advertisement and then comes into the dealership to buy. But the differences are:

• Each advertisement was different. The entry-level car ad showed a young person having fun with friends, the minivan ad showed a family out on a picnic, the luxury car ad showed a successful couple in front of a big house. Each advertisement had a different offer. The entry-level car ad emphasized affordability and easy loan terms. The minivan ad emphasized space and safety. The luxury ad emphasized the envy of neighbors. Effective ads display the right content for the target market.
• Each advertisement was presented to the right audience. The entry-level buyer isn’t going to read the same newspapers or watch the same TV shows as the minivan buyer, and the minivan buyer isn’t going to read the same newspapers or watch the same TV shows as the luxury car buyer. Effective ads are targeted to the right place.
• Once inside the dealership, the buyers might be expected to act differently. They will look for different things in the car they are interested in and they might operate on a different timeline. A young first-time car buyer might want a car quickly to impress friends while a luxury car owner might take their time to decide which car is perfect for them. (I’m generalizing here, just to demonstrate the differences). How these prospective buyers talk to sales people and the length of time in the dealership will all be determined by who the buyer is.

What I’ve just described above is 3 sales funnels — an entry-level sales funnel, a minivan sales funnel, and a luxury car sales funnel. The dealership would have even more sales funnels for SUVs, pickup trucks, midsize sedans, etc.

The more products or services you sell, and the broader your target market is, the more sales funnels you have. However, it’s not really practical to treat each separate product or service or target market with its own sales funnel all the time. (For example, the dealership in the above example doesn’t need to have 3 separate buildings or 3 separate sales staff). The key is to build one sales funnel and segment it appropriately.

Look at your target market and divide them up into demographic groups using lead profiles. Then figure out which marketing channels resonate with that “sub-target market” the most. Also, make note of what parts of your sales funnel would be shared between all contacts in your sales funnel.

Once you’ve done that, construct a segmented sales funnel to address how each particular group wants to buy.

In my recent blog post, I wrote that there are only 3 ways to grow your business.

The first way an entrepreneur can grow their business is through replicating their sales funnel. In today’s blog post, I want to talk about the second way that an entrepreneur can grow their business: By creating passive income.

“Passive income” is a phrase entrepreneurs use to describe something created once and then sold over and over (unlike a service or a manufactured-each-time product). An ebook is an example of a really popular form of passive income: You write it once and then resell it over and over again.

WHAT PASSIVE INCOME OPPORTUNITIES ARE AVAILABLE?

There are plenty of passive income opportunities available but they can generally be divided into two models:

• Access-to-information: This is where you create a piece of content and then sell access to it. For example, you might sell downloadable ebooks, reports, or templates; access to listen to audio files or view video files; access to knowledge centers; whatever. Your customer pays you in order to get access to information in whatever form that is convenient for you to create and for them to access it. You’ve seen these sites: There’s usually a “Buy Now” button for someone to purchase an ebook.




• Advertisements with content: This is where you create content and post ads on the content. As people click to your site and view the content, they also click on the ads and the ad revenue earns you money. In this model, you write and post the content and people view it for free and revenue is generated through ads. You’ve seen these sites, too. They’re the ones with Google ads or banners scattered throughout the content.

Of course, I’ve only described a really simplified example of each. You can mix and match and add layers to make it more effective. For example, one common way of selling digital content is with a two-step approach: Ask for your leads to become prospects by signing up for a free ezine. Then, build a relationship with these prospects and offer them your ebook.

You might want to also check out a related blog post entitled 5 levels of content monetization for a different way to look at passive (and active) content sales.

WHICH PASSIVE INCOME OPPORTUNITY IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

That depends on you and your subject matter. Here’s what I often recommend to my clients:

Posting free content with advertising is just fine but you only get paid when you send people OFF of your website to an advertiser’s site. And chances are, those advertisements are for a product or service that could be considered “competition” if you are also selling similar products or services to the same target market.

So, if you have a sales funnel that includes other products or services, don’t erode your sales in exchange for advertising dollars. Selling access to digital content is just probably better. However, if you don’t have any products or services but want to earn some income, creating content and posting ads can be a way to earn income from an industry.

Having said that, there are lots of sites out there with ads on their sites and they do just fine building traffic and earning advertising revenue. But most of my clients are real estate and financial clients and they want to build a long-term relationship with a customer, so the goal is (usually) to keep website visitors rather than send them to advertisers’ sites. The advertising model sends customers away while the access-to-information model keeps customers on your site and builds your brand’s value.

HOW DO I GET STARTED WITH PASSIVE CONTENT?

Start by figuring out if there are any services or products that you can turn passive. Pay particular attention to existing products or services that you tend to repeat. That’s a good start. This blogpost entitled Are your products and sales funnel taking up too much of your time? will help you to identify opportunities that can become passive.

• If you are creating content for the access-to-information model, check out my blog post How to sell an ebook on the web. (Note: I mention an ebook in the title but you can use this information for just about any information that you sell, no matter what the format).
• If you are creating content for the advertising model (free content on a site, plus ads) check out my blog post How to start a new business for $10: A step-by-step guide.

PASSIVE CONTENT TIPS

Be sure to create compelling, unique content that addresses a problem or issue in the industry you’re working in (I call this The Pickaxe Factor). By doing that, you’ll be more likely to attract potential readers. If they’re reading your content on your pay-for-access-to-information site, they’ll be more likely to pay to read. Or, if they’re reading your content on your freely-available advertisement-model site, they’ll be more likely to click the advertising.

If you’re creating passive content that you’ll sell through the access-to-information model, pricing your content effectively will prove to be a challenge (because it’s a challenge for a lot of entrepreneurs). Check out How much should I charge? A magic formula to easily find the best price for your product for some pricing ideas.

And remember: This might be called “passive income” but it doesn’t mean you should stop marketing. Passive income requires very active marketing, especially in the beginning. Have a plan to market like crazy so you can build traffic to your content (no matter which model you choose).

I think this was probably a video created in a UK business class. The video quality is very “classroom-like” but I still enjoy these kinds of theoretical strategic planning scenarios.

This was one of my favorite commercials in 2009. Funny premise and very clever dialogue to present what is essentially a resealable container.