marketing talent Archives by Mark Murnahan

Ideas to Increase Reader Attention Span and Reduce Your “Yawn Rate”

A thought came to mind today about the frequently very low attention span of Internet users. When they come to your website, you would probably like to fix that. I will share some thoughts and handy tips to help you do just that. First, let’s consider why it is this way, by looking at how we use the Internet, ourselves.

We often must scan through a lot of dis-interesting information in order to find what we seek, so we each do a lot of scanning when we use the Internet. Just considering all the advertisements we dodge on a daily basis, it is amazing that we ever find our way. Then, adding in the huge volume of obviously false, overtly misleading, and downright dishonest drivel, it really has our information filters working overtime.

It makes a lot of sense how we can become excessively dependent on a quick scan-and-click defense of our time. Let’s face it, most of what is on the Internet is worthless, offensive, or irrelevant to any given individual. The majority is just plain boring. Otherwise, we would want to read and fully absorb every link we can get our mouse on. Of course, this is all subject to the perspective of the reader. Even toupee maintenance and Acetaldehyde dehydrogenase will be interesting to somebody. Here comes my first tip: know who that interested “somebody” is. I’ll get back to that.

Once we find what we are looking for, we make a quick jab on the brakes and we slow down enough to try and learn something. What seems obvious, but is easy for many people to overlook, is that this scanning and filtering is not just something we do … our potential customers do it, too. That’s right, they are not so different in this respect, and it is entirely possible that you are not as immediately interesting to them as you could be.

Be More Interesting, to More People, More Often

This is a prominent goal of many marketing efforts, but being more interesting, to more people, more often is easier said than done. It comes with some challenges. If not, more people would drive down the street tossing hundred dollar bills out the window because their marketing made them so filthy stinking happy.

In the Internet marketing field, when somebody just pops in and takes off without reading, we call that scan-and-click ratio a “bounce rate“. I like to call it, a “Yawn Rate” … or the rate at which people encounter a big yawn and dismiss it as useless and boring. It usually happens within only a few seconds.

The “yawn rate” creates a great challenge for online content producers. Whether it is a product description for an ecommerce website, an “about us” page, or a blog article, it is a challenge that must be recognized in order to overcome it. I have some tips that may help, but there is still no perfect answer. If you intend to be astonishingly interesting every time, it will take practice … plus a good amount of magic.

Today, as I often do, I want to offer you some marketing ideas you can put to work immediately.

Sometimes It’s The Timing

Sometimes it is just the timing of your message that fails. Not that you created or released it at the wrong time, but that a reader has discovered it at the wrong time … for them. Maybe it just wasn’t what they needed right then, but maybe they will need it later. Be sure to make it easy and desirable for them to come back later.

It is important to create a welcoming call-to-action to remember you. Maybe they will bookmark your website, maybe they will “Like” your Facebook page, or follow you on Twitter. Be sure you give website visitors good incentive, and a reminder to subscribe for more … later, when they are ready. Something is better than nothing, so give them something … a reason, a reminder, a cue for further action.

If they don’t take action, at least you have tried to help them. It is pretty unlikely for them to go away horribly offended by your effort at continued communications. If so, their neurotic episodes probably extend to other areas of their life, too.

Sometimes It’s The Delivery

This is a tough matter for a lot of people. Most people are only a fraction as good at creating interesting or useful information as they think they are. Before you start feeling defensive about your website, consider asking for advice from others.

Have you ever watched a talent show like American Idol, X Factor, or So You Think You Can Dance? Much like the many humorous failed auditions that make these television shows so interesting, many people with a couple dozen visitors to their website think they have amazing marketing talent, and refuse to accept good advice.

Don’t take it personally if somebody offers you a suggestion. Ian Benardo thought he could sing and dance, so he refused to listen to criticism. Don’t be an Ian Benardo!

If you are willing to face the truth, ask somebody else for their unbiased opinion. Maybe you need to hire it out to a professional (usually the best option), or maybe you don’t. In either case, you should be willing to listen and accept good advice.

Fix Your Yawn Rate With Audio Feedback

This is a favorite, for me, and it is a staple of providing read-worthy information. Knowing the way somebody will read what you have to say can be invaluable. When people read your website, it is like a little voice in their head, silently speaking those words you produced. Shouldn’t you know how that quiet little voice sounds to them?

Reading comprehension is not the same for everybody. There is often a language barrier to overcome, even among readers of the same native language. Something I find helps me a lot is to hear my words in audio. If I don’t have my editor handy to read it aloud, I record it and listen to how it comes across. Many times, I find errors in the flow of material just by reading it aloud, but they come through even clearer when I record and then listen. Try reading your website aloud and pretend you are speaking to the person reading it. Does it sound awkward? Would you still express it the same way verbally, or would it be better to rephrase it?

I have found the value of using a conversational tone to be useful for decades, but it became even more obvious when I started providing all of my blog articles in both text and audio versions. If you try this tip and listen to your words, I think you will agree that it can be very beneficial. I believe it is much better to have somebody else read it to you, and I thank my lucky stars to have an awesome editor, but even if you are self-editing, it is worth the time to hear what you are saying before publishing it.

A Yawning Gator ... Now, That's Interesting!

Don’t Pre-Judge or Dismiss Visual Appeal

I am a word guy, so I sometimes resent the fact that a picture can say things I cannot say. Well, I guess I could say those things, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say, my blogs would be even longer … and that may seem impossible, but it is true.

Visuals count, and as much as I stomp my feet and pout about it, they still have a strong value in making the information you share more interesting. I often consider this one of the hardest parts of producing website content. I guess that is because the words come a lot easier than hunting down a cool graphic to represent those words. It is worth it, and I think of it like setting the tone of that voice I explained. Be creative with this and see what happens. I think you may be surprised how much it can help grab and keep a reader’s attention.

Do You Feel More Interesting Yet?

Far beyond the suggestions I made here, it is critical to understand that everybody is not your best audience. In fact, I highly recommend reading the article titled “Everybody is Not Your Target Market!” to emphasize the point. They will not all love what you are promoting, and some people may even dislike it very much. That’s a good thing, because the ones who do like it will probably like it even more.

You will never get it perfect, and there is always room for improvement. It can take a lot of effort and adjustment to make it optimally effective, but isn’t it worth it? When you get it all just right, you will find that more people will read to the very end … and that’s when they take action on your words. Don’t we all want that?

What do you have to say about this? Do you have suggestions, or did you like my ideas? Please take a moment to express it.

Photo Credits:
Yawn. by Michael Lemmon via Flickr
A Big Yawn by Mark Robinson via Flickr
Yawn by Linda via Flickr

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Hypocrisy in Hiring Social Media Services

Many companies want a bigger, stronger, and more productive online audience. So, it makes sense to look toward the Internet when they need help, right? It seems a common answer is “no”.

It may seem strange that so many companies need and want help to market themselves better online, but yet, turn to an offline connection to help them do it. A lot of companies who are in the market to hire a consultant for their online marketing are seeking a warm handshake, meetings in-person, and looks in the eye. They are understandably cautious about this sort of service. It makes sense, but yet it doesn’t.

The topic came up in a conversation with a friend earlier today. He is excited about partnering with a company that provides social media consulting services. He gave me the web address, and said he had spoken to them about how I am able to help them with their online presence. It sounds crazy, right? The social media consulting company needs social media help.

What shook me was that he said they have more business than they can presently handle, but their online presence is miserable. How miserable? They have sent under 100 tweets on Twitter, their latest video on YouTube had under 50 views and was uploaded over a year ago, and more than I can express, it was simply atrocious! Even the big rage online marketers have been touting lately … Klout (the online influence measurement company) did not have a profile for them.

Oh, but they’re selling like mad, so it really made me question the logic. How can somebody be successful at something without a demonstrated ability to do it? Even if they can do it, how can they be taken seriously if they don’t practice what they preach? This may sound just a bit jealous, but for many years, I thought I actually had to prove that I know my business. I have been wrong, and I see similar instances all the time. I think they must just smell really good, but I’ll explain that.

This is one side of the hypocrisy, but I’m not to the good part yet … the buyer’s hypocrisy.

Smelling is Not Due Diligence … Research Is!

I certainly recognize and respect the human aspects of doing business. It feels good to look somebody in the eye, and a lot of people believe they can tell a person’s integrity from their body language. Of course, it helps if you have training in the field of psychology, or spent some time as an F.B.I. agent. Let me tell you, though, there are plenty of people who will fake anything for money … I’ve met some of them.

I’d like to point out some things I’ve learned from over a decade and a half in a line of work where I have met less than one tenth of one percent of my customers in person. It really doesn’t hold the benefit to the client that most people imagine and hope for. It actually turns out that it is a whole lot more beneficial to the seller than the buyer.

Here’s where the buyer’s perception gets screwy. Think about this for a moment: Doesn’t this seem hypocritical to imagine a company that wants to sell more online, but cannot make their own fact-based judgments online? Companies often seek the faith of their customers online, but they, themselves, do not have the faith they ask from others. They have the tools at their disposal for making rational and logical decisions, but prefer to use a less effective and less objective tool set, in their meeting room. What’s worse, it often hurts the buyer, by opening them up to whatever brand of fairy dust is being pumped into the room.

Meeting in person will not tell you if somebody knows the Internet as accurately as their demonstrated abilities online will show. In fact, it will show a whole lot less than spending some time with our old friend Google. The only thing shaking hands and talking in a meeting room will reliably prove is whether they know more about the Internet than you do. It will not prove whether they know more than your competitor, and it will not prove whether they know how to produce an appropriately targeted audience, or even a fraction of what they say. Spending time researching them online is what proves those things.

Sitting across a table will not tell you if they are a crook. Ironically, you have to look online for that! The only thing it will really tell you beyond what you can learn online, over a telephone communication, or a Skype video conference is how they smell.

I’ll just tell you right now … I smell like cigarette smoke and coffee, but I can bend a crooked online marketer over my knee and whip them like the crybaby sissy bed-wetter they are.

Rational Thinking Eludes Confused People

It may just be a little too rational for companies to seek social media services where they can actually shop and compare, and can see who has demonstrated abilities or does not. Companies are made up of people, and people are not rational and logical about things they don’t fully understand, such as social media marketing, search engine optimization, and other areas of online marketing.

I’m too deep in the online side of this equation to be objective, but I categorize this as an absurdity. It seems as hypocritical as it gets for a company to ask customers for faith in something they fear too much to embrace. My best guess is that they are just waiting for a good smelling pitch man.

What do you think? Please share your comments on the topic.

Oh, but wait … here is some bonus material.

Where Can You Find Good Marketing People, and How Will You Know?

Just when I thought I was done writing about this topic, I realized that it leaves a question open about a better way to seek an online marketing professional. I do not have all the perfect answers, because that question has a lot of possible conclusions. I’ll give you a couple thoughts that may help you.

First and foremost, consider how you arrived here. If somebody sent you here, ask them what else they know. Sure, there may be a few dummies reading my blog, but I would suggest that many of them I have encountered are pretty bright, and have a strong interest in the areas of social media marketing and/or SEO. Look at the comments here on this article and check those people out. If they have been reading for a while, they probably have some pretty good ideas about marketing online.

Of course, if you arrived because I brought you here … call me … ask questions. I am for hire! Even if I cannot help you, I’ll try to suggest a good match and avoid a costly catastrophe. I am not a good fit for everybody, and I only take on one to three clients at any given time, but I sure know a lot of quality people in my line of work.

Your best fit will depend on your needs and expectations. If you want marketing excellence, it may require more digging, and the investment will be much higher.

If you are trying to keep within a small budget, or you have a tight time frame, be sure to understand how and why it will affect you return on investment. Discuss this with any potential marketing professional you are considering. Be sure they have an acceptable answer for you.

I must suggest, just as I have previously explained about search engine optimization, many of the best marketing people are not looking for you. It is also true, in my case, and I believe many other do not enjoy the sales process of their work as well as they enjoy the work they do. So, it may be best to not expect them to do a lot of schmoozing.

In any instance, the most important factors regarding their experience and knowledge will be found online. If they are good in their line of work, they will be very easy to discover with a search for their name on Google. Look at what they are doing online. Check them out. See what others are saying about them. Read their blog … a lot! It will give you a much clearer view of their ideas and their methods.

Finding the right fit will be worth your effort. Due diligence takes patience, but it will save you a lot of money and hassles! On the other hand, a horrible mistake I see companies endure is believing that because a friend, acquaintance, or somebody in their area knows just a little about Twitter or Facebook, they are safer with that, than to risk the effort and do a little research. Maybe they really are the right one, or maybe they are not. If the way they smell is used as a primary measurement, the company gets what they deserve. It is often how companies end up with fakes like these “marketing experts”.

OK, so I’m asking again … What do you think?

Photo Credit:
NO MORE PROTESTS by hobvias sudoneighm via Flickr

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Search Engine Optimization is Not a Technology Job!

Whether you work in a large corporation or a small company, this applies to you. I am going to explain why SEO is far more than just the technology it makes use of. If you think SEO is a technology skill, or worse, you are guilty of leaving your SEO to the IT department, duck and take cover! This may hit you between the eyes.

Did somebody ever tell you that SEO is a function of IT? If so, I want to explain how terribly misinformed they truly are. If you believed them, this may be upsetting, but at least it’s the truth.

First, allow me to break away from the acronyms for a moment. “SEO” stands for search engine optimization, and it involves the art and science of helping websites to rank in the top of search engine results for given search keywords. “IT” stands for Information Technology, and one way to look at it is the people who help keep your computer network running, and who you call if your email stops working.

I just dramatically understated each of the skills involved, but that gives you an idea to start with. What I hope to explain in a way you can appreciate is that IT is a technology skill, and SEO has more to do with people than it does computin’ machines. It is a marketing skill that makes good use of technology, and not a technology that makes use of marketing.

A surgeon uses scalpels, but is not defined as being in the scalpel industry. Similarly, a search engine optimizer uses technology, but should not be defined as being in the IT industry. Use of technology is just one subset of SEO skills.

Sure, there are important matters of technology involved, such whether to use www or no www and how to do a 301 redirect, or the very important difference in a slash or no slash at the end of your web address. That is just SEO at its most basic level, but if you want to rank well in searches, there is a whole lot more to it.

How the Absurdity of SEO Being a Technology Skill Began

Search engine optimization, in its earliest days, was looked at as something to do with computers. It was all a part of that new Internet craze that told everybody to have a website. Companies who wanted a website needed “computer people” to make it happen. After all, the Internet runs on computers, and having a website was a pretty technical thing.

Websites really are very technical when they are done well. Most people who look at websites don’t understand all the programming that goes into it, the security features, or the server architecture that it all runs on. So, it looks really technical to them, and for many people it implies that everything surrounding it surely must be technology-oriented.

Let’s take another look!

Why Do Companies Have Websites?

Let us consider the most common reason any company has a website. It is to emphasize the assets of their business. Websites are built with technology, but their most common purpose is marketing. Whether that marketing is just to share information for free, increase sales, or impress investors, it is still a tool of marketing and communications. There are very few cases where a company will create a website “just for the heck of it” or to intentionally waste money. There must be a reason, and that reason almost always has its roots in being more visible to others.

Doesn’t this begin to sound a bit outside of the scope of those “computer people” who keep your email working? Sure, there are many aspects of SEO that require technical skills, but definitely not the kind that fit into an IT job role. Save your IT people for something more up their alley.

Many SEO professionals have been falsely embedded into IT departments, and they simply do not belong there. The most important and effective job functions of effective search engine optimizers have little to do with computers or technology. Sure, we know a lot about technology, because we have to, but that is not our most valuable asset. Again, I submit that a surgeon may know a lot about her scalpels, but that does not make her a “scalpel person”.

Here are a few basic examples of how technology is a part of SEO. See the articles as follows:

There must be at least a squillion more technology matters related to SEO. I think I’ve probably written something about most of them over my 15+ years in the industry. Even if you put them all to perfect use, it will never make up for the importance of understanding how to make things more marketable.

I’m not trying to fool you into thinking technology does not matter. I mean, I did write those earlier technology-related articles about SEO, and many more. I also have a significant amount of proof that I know the job of SEO. The technology does matter … a lot … but it will not trump the other magic that a truly talented SEO professional brings to the equation. Those things include defining what moves people to action, analyzing demographics, psychographics, geographics, and deeply understanding Internet usage on the human level. It also requires analyzing the competition and knowing what makes you the stronger competitor.

The many non-technology creative marketing assets of a good SEO professional with measurable marketing talent are vastly more valuable than any amount of technology.

Understanding SEO as a Hybrid Skill Set

Most companies understand that when people search the Internet for something, it is good to be found at the top of the list. People start clicking at the top of the list, and not at the bottom. So, it makes sense, right? The difference a few spots down that list can make is astonishing. See “Improve SEO Return on Investment (ROI) With Simple Math” to understand the difference.

It is a bit harder to understand SEO as a hybrid between multiple departments within a company. It involves defining and distilling the best assets of a company into something people will love. It involves putting those things to work on the Internet where people will see them and link to them from their websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking sites, and more. It involves making a company popular based on its own previously hidden merits. Within the mix, there is technology, but the technology is just to support the awesomeness. The awesomeness is not there to support the technology.

It may help to consider that the single most prominent factors for top search engine ranking is the number of other websites linking to yours, and the quality of those websites. You don’t get those links from technology, you get them from people who think you’re amazing, and you get those people by repeatedly doing amazing things.

Reciprocal link exchanges are a bad idea, and you don’t have enough friends to link to your website to outrank any significant competitors. It’s going to take more than that, so isn’t it wise to at least have the right department handling it?

Why was this stuck in my craw?

I recently wrote a proposal for a company that I really like. I like them because of their industry, and I like them because I know I can do amazing things for them. When I discovered that they are relying on the IT department to handle their SEO efforts, it made my stomach hurt.

I don’t take on projects if I am not 100 percent confident that I can help them. In this case, there should be little wonder why their websites have a miserable response. They just don’t know how much they don’t know. I hope to fix that!

Photo Credit:
Washington State Cage Fighting Championships by Kelly Bailey via Flickr

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Do You Accept SEO or Social Media Marketing Contracts Under $10,000?

I could sit here at my computer all day and tease people who are willing to take on small contracts in the field of SEO and social media marketing, or the clients willing to pay them. Many of those clients are broke, and there are a lot of bad people with an SEO and social media flag waving to attract the last of their money.

Giving them a hard time can be very fun, but it is not really all that productive. After all, there is a huge majority of small businesses who seek somebody to help them, but do not have the needed resources for a grand entrance to the online market. There are also some talented marketing minds who like working with small or short-term contracts. I prefer to help bring them together.

I don’t accept those contracts, but not because I am an arrogant jerk who thinks he knows it all. I don’t arbitrarily look down upon those companies, and I don’t automatically look down upon the people serving them. It is just not my market, and I turn away business every day because of this.

If you accept small projects in SEO and social media marketing, I have some free leads for you. I don’t mean just a bunch of shabby sales leads from people hoping to spend an hour of research online to find a free website that will earn them a squillion dollars. I mean real companies hoping to make an entrance to their market.

This does not mean that I am a bad option, or that I am expensive. I return huge profits for my clients, and I am worth many times my rates. It also does not mean that you are bad, or “cheap”. We all have our market space here, and mine is in long-term and well-funded strategic projects. In fact, you can use me as an example to show your potential clients that you are not just trying to rip them off. It really does cost a lot of money and work to create success. Bigger success takes bigger experience, bigger money, and bigger strategy. Those are the projects I accept.

I believe that we both have a similar challenge of building confidence in customers. I even expressed some troubling truths only a few days ago in a long-winded article about a short-sighted customer who has done business with me for years. Check it out for yourself: “Marketing ROI Factor: Are You a Client or a Customer?”

In reality, the upfront cost of an optimal campaign in SEO or social media is prohibitive for the majority of companies. Sure, if they could pony up the money for a well-researched campaign, they could turn over their investment at a much higher velocity. As it is, they will have a higher opportunity cost by cutting corners, but that is often the only option. It is an option that you may be able to deliver.

Even when the cost is not the biggest hurdle, putting money into an online marketing campaign is a damn scary proposition for many companies. Even when and if they can swing the money, they will dip their toe in to check for sharks before they go swimming. It is frequently not the best option, but it is a popular option. Again, it is an option that you may be able to deliver.

Note: Sharks are my friends, and whales are my clients. The other fish are looking for you. You like fish, right?

People probably ask you a lot of questions about this industry. You will sometimes need a third-party resource to help make your point. I am happy to help you ease their tension, and to help them make better decisions. My blog is always here, and there is a lot of useful information in my archive. I don’t even want a finder’s fee to send paying customers your way, or to help you explain the benefits of SEO or social media marketing to your customers. Not at all, because if you have a small budget to work with, the last thing you need is to spiff me with money.

I love spiffs, but I prefer to pay them rather than receive them. Reference my article earlier this year titled “SEO and Social Media Reward: $5,000 for Introduction“. Yes, I really do prefer to pay you a $5,000 finders fee than for you to pay me a hundred. I am a money-spending madman like that. 😉

The Caveat … Yes, The Fine Print

The first thing to do is add your comment here on this article.

Of course, I don’t just want every cockroach in the Twinkies dumpster to hold out their hand for a free crumb. I want to hear from people who actually have a quality value proposition. The big catch is that for each person with their hand out, I will be watching. Yes, I will be looking at you, and judging you. I intend to provide a small degree of vetting. If I like what I find, I may put a spotlight on you in a follow-up article.

Because we are talking about people who looked to me for help, I am not about to mess up my reputation by referring them to somebody who will rip them off. I will watch my server logs to see how much and how long you have read my work. If you have been reading, and if you have subscribed, it is far more likely that we share similar principles. I will also notice if you have been a blog troll or lurker. If you are a non-communicating type of person, start communicating, and stop hiding in the shadows if you want my referral business.

Very Important: I will notice whether you are honest with your comment, and with your communications elsewhere on the Internet.

I welcome you to add your comments to explain your value. Feel free to spam all you like. If you seem spammy to me, I have a delete button for that. I tend to react pretty abruptly to people who annoy me. For example, don’t even think about commenting with your favorite keywords in place of a name. I am looking for people … real people with real names … who want more business.

The upside of my offer is that if you are legitimate, I would like to help my readers with appropriate options, and for us to possibly work together for mutual benefit. I am serious when I say that I want quality people to refer small project business to. If you are good and honorable, we may work together a lot in the future.

I have assembled a phenomenal team for producing massive success, but there never seems to be enough marketing talent to trust with the smaller projects.

I would also ask that in the event that you are ever over your head, that you consult me. You may find that you have enough resource to help that whale of a client after all.

Other Cost-Related Articles
Although it may seem hard to turn away a client only because of their budget, there are minimums I simply don’t work below. For more thought-provoking articles on the cost of SEO and social media marketing, and perhaps help with explaining cost to your clients, I offer the links as follows:

Photo Credit:
Broken Piggy Bank by Images_of_Money via Flickr

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NASCAR Start and Park Sponsorship is Marketing Absurdity

If you are a NASCAR fan, the term “start and park” is something you have probably heard a time or two. It has become a point of contention between many fans, teams, and NASCAR itself, but I am not here to judge. I am here to point out the challenges of marketing a NASCAR team, and particularly one that is frequently criticized for this practice.

I had a dinner meeting with the owner of a NASCAR race team last night. He is in the hunt for sponsorships, so it was right up my alley. I was very excited about the meeting, because beyond being a lifetime gearhead, I am also a highly trained driver, I have owned a race team, and I have sponsored multiple race teams. I could help him to get those sponsorships, and this is the kind of work I would take on for free. Well, except that I still have a family of five to support, and that it is hard to work for free when others wave their money in my face.

The meeting reminded me, once again, how very misinformed a lot of people are about marketing, social media, SEO, public relations, reputation management, and other online communications. You know, the kinds of communication that remove roadblocks and make something popular. It also reminded me why I once wrote an article titled “When I Go to Hell, They Will Have Me Selling SEO“. It really made it clear to me that, although I rank number one in search engines for “sell seo”, being good at online marketing and having the patience to explain it to people are two entirely different skill sets.

I have basically come to the conclusion that people will either “get it”, or they won’t. They either see the value in building a brand and giving people reasons to love their brand, or they don’t. They may even say that they want to understand this whole Internet thing beyond Twitter being for telling people what you had for lunch and Facebook being a place to swap stories with high school friends. The reality is that beyond all the education I try to give them, what they really need is confidence in their own business. So, let’s look at this NASCAR dilemma for a moment.

What makes NASCAR racing possible? I mean, in a single word, what is the thing that makes it happen? Is it the gasoline, the cars, the drivers, the adrenaline, the passion for the sport of auto racing? Sure, NASCAR needs those things, but what ultimately gets those cars around the race tracks?

A lot of people would say that it comes down to the money, and that is true, but that is still not the word I’m looking for. Sponsorship money is important. Without a sponsor to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per race, per car, many teams change careers to become professional parking teams instead of racing teams.

How Big is NASCAR Big?

To understand the importance of marketing in NASCAR, I think you have to look at how much money is involved. If you want to be competitive in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, don’t plan on starting a team unless you’ve got twenty million to invest (yes, $20,000,000). The car may just be a measly hundred thousand, but if you want it to go fast, you can expect to spend three to four million per season for your engine lease program. You will need about fifteen sets of four tires per week, and of course, some skilled people to put those tires on a car. You will need to guarantee your driver at least a few hundred thousand (actually a million and up is more like it) plus 30 percent of your take. You will need your driver and crew to have NASCAR licenses, so you will drop anywhere from fifty thousand to a quarter million, depending on how big your staff is. Each of those crew will probably need to eat, so you will need to pay them. If you want good ones, you will need to pay them very well, so plan on about $5,000,000 in personnel cost. You will need to buy a lot of race fuel, a garage, some trucks, and be ready to pay $100,000 fine from NASCAR and have your car taken away if your fender is one sixteenth of an inch too high. You get the idea, right? It is expensive.

That sponsorship money is big … really big! Teams are paid anywhere from a hundred thousand dollars, on up to $850,000 for a single race. So, what are those sponsors getting out of the deal? That is the big multi-million dollar question. Just consider how silly it sounds to drop a half million dollars for a few stickers on a car. Well, that actually would be really silly, but it is not just about those stickers. It takes a whole lot more than that if it is to make good business sense for the sponsors. After all, just imagine how many targeted ad impressions a half million dollars will buy using Google or Facebook ads, or hiring a guy like me to handle their online marketing.

Most business people who can afford a seven to eight digit multi-race contract can also do the math and realize that their brand will not get their money’s worth from those people watching from the stands. They will not get their money’s worth if they end up on television for a few laps. They get their money’s worth when the team takes on the responsibility of marketing that brand far beyond the race track. That means it is the sponsored team’s job to do what it takes to improve the sponsor’s return on investment in every possible way.

Teams that do a good job for their sponsors will go to great lengths to put the sponsors’ names in front of the public. Many teams will spend easily over $175,000 per year to tour the USA with a show car. You’ve seen them at car dealerships, grocery stores, state fairs, and other events. It costs a lot of money to haul those cars around and pay a staff to shake hands and answer questions. They will also do more than just keep their fingers crossed and rub a lamp while hoping to be interviewed by the media. They make it happen!

The amazing thing I found is that very few of them take the Internet seriously, or they are otherwise doing a poor job of it. They don’t realize the powerful connections available for media exposure, or the ways the Internet works into, or even supersedes the value of a flash-in-the-pan moment on television. At least that is the way it appears to me, and I’ve done a little checking on this.

The Tone of NASCAR on the Internet

You can find an amazing amount of chatter on the Internet about NASCAR, if you’re looking. It should not be surprising that a lot of it is centered around arguments. Arguments about NASCAR rule changes, who did what, who is the best driver, who caused that big crash, and other rather heated discussions.

You will generally find a lot fewer stories of the good things teams are doing. Bad news travels faster than good news. Without a fair dose of good news, it is really easy for a team to either disappear, or become disliked.

One of the things many NASCAR fans really dislike are the “start and park” race teams. What is a “start and park” team, you may ask? Those are the teams that go out to the race track each week for qualifying, but once they qualify to be in the big race, they run a minimal number of laps and then make an excuse to drop out of the race early.

Why would they do that “start and park” thing? It is really easy … they get paid for it … a lot! If the car qualifies for enough races, runs the minimal laps, and finishes the season with enough points to be in last place, they still get millions of dollars in purse money. The problem is that a whole lot of people hate this kind of “racing”, because there is very little competition in it. It is for the money, and not for the sport.

The driver will radio in to the crew chief to say the car is not working right. They may say it has a strange engine noise, or a vibration. Although the drivers usually want to strangle somebody for this, they will need a good excuse. Although the NASCAR organization tries to sweep this start and park phenomenon under the rug, they don’t like it. They say it is not a problem within their organization, but they also seem far more likely to discover reasons to fine teams like this an extra $25,000 from the crew chief and $25,000 from the owner for something silly like “unapproved door braces” (true story).

When a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team gets tagged as a “start and park” team, it is really hard to change the fans perception of them. That makes it ever harder to receive a decent sponsor. After all, who wants to put their company name and a bunch of dollars on a non-racing team that fans disrespect? Although a lot of teams would never admit that this is a cause to reorganize their company and actually change their team name, it definitely happens.

This brings me back to that word I was looking for earlier, about what makes NASCAR all possible. That word is “fans”! Without fans, it is a whole lot harder to get sponsors, and harder to compete in full races. A problem that I found is that some people will get this backward and think they will get more fans after they find a good sponsor and have a chance to be competitive. The problem becomes a discussion of what came first, the chicken or the egg.

There is a really huge difference in the profit margins of teams that compete, and teams that park after twenty laps. In between the profitable comfort zone of parking the car early to avoid wear and tear, crashes, tires, fuel, and etcetera, and actually becoming a competitive race team, there is a big gap. The gap has risks involved. You can lose a whole lot of profit by staying in the race until the checkered flag is waved. If you make it across that gap, there are many, many, many millions of dollars up for grabs.

How Would You Seek a NASCAR Sponsorship?

If a team really wanted my corporate sponsorship, they will already be doing the things that build a fan base. Even if they don’t have the highest number of fans just yet, they had better show me that they are worthy and capable of building a loyal fan base. Don’t tell me that the team will be popular after I sponsor them … they need to be popular and do popular things to give me a reason. After all, it is their job to bring fans to my company, and not my company’s job to bring them fans.

If a team holds a lot of promise of building brand recognition for my corporate sponsorship dollars, we will work in synergy. That means we will both build their fan base by working together with a common strategy. If they are just trying to sell me on how good they could be, while their reputation is being castrated online, I am out the door!

Not so unlike becoming a rock and roll music legend, it would be ridiculous to ask for a recording contract based on musical talent alone. If you want the contract, you had better have some marketing talent and a fan base. Otherwise, it brings up the vitally important question: “If you are so talented, why don’t you have fans waiting in line to buy your music?”

NASCAR Thinking Summarized

Something struck me as both silly and sad when I parted ways with that NASCAR team owner last night. He said, “Well, Mark, you think about all of this and let me know how you can help us.”

Building and implementing a strategy to entice millions of dollars from sponsors is not a one-race fix, and it won’t come easy. I don’t need to think about it … I already wanted to help him. I suppose he wanted more specifics, but all I can offer for free is a taste. The strategy buffet requires an investment.

What I perhaps didn’t quite make clear enough is that “thinking about how I can help them” is approximately 80 percent of what I am paid to do. My job is not to lift heavy objects, or even to type on this keyboard. My job is to think about how I will help them, and make it happen. My job is to do the research, model the audience, define a creative strategy, and then see that plan through to perfection.

I could think about it a whole lot for free, but until he has enough faith in that race team to engage my services and put my thinking to good use, I am unable to help. I think the better parting question would be “How can I stop wasting the racing season and start getting sponsorships.”

If you are one of those race team owners or management wondering “How can I attract more sponsors for my NASCAR team?” I’ll give you a really simple tip. Pick up the phone and call me at *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*.

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