108: How Do You Advertise an Online-Only Auction?

Written on assignment from Auctioneer, the official magazine of the National Auctioneers Association.

It seems that I’ve consistently received one question at almost every auctioneer gathering that I’ve attended over the past couple of years.

“How do you advertise an online-only auction?”

I usually answer that question with one of my own, “How do you advertise an offline auction?”

With the rise of both simulcast auctions and online-only auctions in both quantity and percentage of live auctions, there’s an assumption that an entirely separate pool of prospective bidders remains to be found.  That’s only partially true.  In some markets, the buyer demographic doesn’t frequent the Internet; and in some markets, potential bidders spend their lives online.  For the most part, though, those two groups are the outside slivers of a Venn diagram with a pretty fat overlap of online and offline media viewers.

Whether the bidding is done with a raised hand or a clicked mouse is just a matter of auction location. Nobody asks me, “How do you advertise an off-site auction?” They don’t ask that, because they advertise off-site auctions like the way they advertise on-site auctions.  Online auctions are just off-site auctions held in a virtual venue.

Auction marketers should be covering all of the offline and online bases that their budgets can afford—for every auction, regardless of bidding platform or location.

So, then the question becomes, “Where do I advertise any auction?”

The answer to that question is, again, another question, “From which media are your current bidders hearing about your auctions?”  If an auctioneer can’t answer that, they’re losing market share to auction marketers who can.

The best way to know this answer is to query bidders at auctions. At an on-site auction, it might be a clerk verbally asking those in the registration line; or it might be written on the back of free entry tickets at a small raffle prior to the start of bidding.  For online auctions, it can be a set of multiple-choice toggles on the registration form.

Warning: polling results will most likely surprise you.  Also, expect the results to vary from location to location, from asset type to asset type, and even from one time of the year to another.  That’s why it’s important to poll every auction and not make media purchasing decisions based on only a few polls.

This polling data, when stored and categorized becomes a powerful tool at future seller presentations.  How much do you think it will impress a prospective seller to see a chart or spreadsheet and read, “Over the past 12 months, our online bidders for [type of asset] in [geographic area] have heard about our auctions primarily from these three media.  Over that same time frame, our on-site bidders have come from these three media outlets.”?

It wouldn’t surprise me if those top three media were the same for both auction types. Even if not, you’ll be able to answer the question many auctioneers—including some of your competitors—cannot: “Where do you advertise an online-only auction?”

[footer]Stock photo purchased from iStockPhoto.com[/footer]

87: Measuring Your Social Media Influence

When we were in high school, popularity was dependent on multiple factors: who your friends were, what your interests were, how many people knew your name (not to mention if you had money, played sports, drove a cool car, or were part of a band).

In some ways, social media environments like Facebook and Twitter have become the new places to determine social standing.  Through online social sharing, we are communicating many of the same markers used in our student years.

When you’re building your brand through social media, it’s good to visualize your standing and your progress.  Multiple companies are working to turn various, measurable data points into some form of comparable social score—some sort of official rank.  Rather than popularity, these scoring systems aim to determine how influential you are—how people interact with your online content.

Almost all of these scoring systems are still in beta stage, as they tinker with algorithms toward more accurate insights.  Because of this, don’t be shocked if your score fluctuates without a drastic change in your social media interaction.  Almost all of these scoring systems are Twitter-centric, because Twitter is more about broadcasting and getting your message to a broad audience—as opposed to Facebook and others, which are meant for sharing among friends and family.  Almost all of these scoring systems focus only on the last 30 to 120 days and appropriately so, as relevance is measured in the now.

Below you’ll find a non-exhaustive list of  some of the social media measurement tools I’ve consulted to see how my online brand is faring.

Klout
If I could pick only one social measurement tool, Klout would have the tool box to itself.  Their site is fast—much faster than some of these other analytics sites.  Their service is free; and they currently allow you to connect up to ten different social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, FourSquare, Tumblr, Blogger, Last.fm, and Flickr.  (According to their website, Klout is also working to connect your Facebook Pages, YouTube, and Google+ streams.)  Klout shows you comparable social media users, including those you influence and those that influence you.  Klout not only shows your current ranking but also your trajectory.  It also offers web browser plugins that automatically show you other Tweeters’ scores next to their tweets.

Peer Index
Peer Index includes some of Klout’s capabilities but also maps the topics of your tweets on a graph of eight categories.  (It’s interesting to watch my topic map change over time into different shapes.)  The thinking behind this is that, typically—just as with blogging—the more topically-concentrated your posts are, the more likely you are to gain an interactive following.  Currently, Peer Index measures your influence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora, and your RSS-enabled blog.  Also like Klout, Peer Index offers web browser plugins that automatically show you other Tweeters’ scores next to their twitter handles—at Twitter.com (even if only mentioned in a tweet) or on any site where their Twitter handle is listed.
Twitalyzer
As the name implies, Twitalyzer measures only your Twitter activity.  Twitalyzer has maybe the largest selection of raw numbers amongst the Twitter analysis sites, but that’s in part to reporting both Klout and Peer Index scoring data with their other metrics.  You won’t find any fancy graphs here, but I really like that their scores are annotated to tell you your percentile for each number in the matrix.

TweetLevel
Also a Twitter-only measuring tool, TweetLevel has weak graphing and very little in terms of comparison with others on Twitter.  One thing I like about this site, though, is that it gives insightful recommendations for improving the various contributing factors to your score.

Crowdbooster
The main thrust of this Twitter measurement tool is currently to show you the best times to tweet content, based on mapping of your past tweets and the number of impressions they received.  At time of writing, uptime and score processing speed have been tremendously flaky, as the Crowdbooster team is adding to the site’s capabilities.
TwentyFeet
If you’re a fan of graphs, you’ll like TwentyFeet.  Outside of Klout, this site tracks probably the second-most amount of social streams.  I’ve had a couple issues with its beta version in load times and in unintended, automatic tweeting of scores.  With ongoing maintenance, this site might move into the top tier of measurement systems.

MyWebCareer
This site leaves a lot to be desired.  It doesn’t explain scores or offer the robust reporting of other sites.  Unlike other sites, which measure in ratings from 1-100, MyWebCareer shows your score in similar fashion to a credit report.  MyWebCareer claims to rank your search engine results, too, though it doesn’t seem to lift the veil to see how it compiles such.

Facebook Analytics
Facebook’s “Insights” tool is what it claims to be: insightful.  Where this analytic tool excels in in measuring your audience demographically—something the aggregate sits don’t (and probably can’t) do.  The graphing is interactive, allowing adjustable timelines.  The only sizable drawbacks are (1) it’s available only for pages, not for profiles; (2) you can’t compare your scores to those of others; and (3) you can’t include your scores from other social media for a more holistic view of your online presence.

This list will probably look very different a year from now.  Several other entities, including Nielsen—yes, the folks who measure television audience—are working their way into the social measurement game with new measurement units and matrixes.  As with search engines and other website categories, natural selection will eventually create an oligarchy of reliable, standard players that prove to own both the most intuitive algorithms and the best user interfaces.  In the mean time, the measurement choices we have are entertaining at least and informative at best.

Social media analytics won’t tell you where to advertise your auctions.  They won’t tell you how many people are absorbing your message—only those who interact with it.  These sites don’t supplant the most important question to analyze your media outlays: “How did my bidders hear about my auction?”  But they can give you a more informed perspective of how you’re doing at building an interactive brand on the Internet.
[tip]

While many joke about the large amount of time I’m perceived to spend on social media, few know that I too often approach social media as a a competition.  It’s not a zero-sum game, but I work hard to make sure my brands—personal and professional—perform online at a high level, preferably at a level above those I teach & consult and against whom I or my clients compete in business.  (I check my Klout score daily, and that probably isn’t healthy.)

Where it becomes even more treacherous is when likes, comments, and retweets affect my choices of what to post.  The temptation is to post only the Ryan that my six years in social media have shown me is the most popular.  True, some of that is good sense—appropriateness, professionalism, etc.  But there’s a line between appealing to an audience and portraying an authentic personae.

That’s a challenge for all of us to varying degrees, both online and offline.  That’s why one of the scariest prayers for American Christians came from Israel’s King David: “Search me, and know my heart.  See if there be any wicked way in me.”

49: Does Your Marketing Suck?

“Your marketing sucks.”

So, says Mark Stevens, author of the book by that title. You might have seen Stevens any number of cable news networks or just on the speaker list for the National Auctioneers Association’s educational webinar series (January 5, 2010) and/or Winter Symposium (February 8, 2010).

Since I’m speaking in Park City, UT, the morning after Stevens, I bought two of his top-selling books for research. I just finished reading “Your marketing sucks.” with highlighter in hand. Over 18% of the pages in my copy now have florescent markings—a lot of salient, practical points between the covers.

Just in case you don’t read it yourself, here are the top five action points we all should take from Stevens’ advice:

1. All marketing efforts must be sifted through the filter of return on investment (ROI). If your advertising, PR, and sales initiatives do not make more money than they cost, your marketing sucks.
2. Focus on your primary value proposition. Don’t market generic attributes you share with competitors—only what sets you apart from them. Sell the client benefit, not tag lines or your ego trips.
3. Exploit your niche. The jack of all trades is the master of none. Same goes with media: not all marketing vehicles are created equal for your (changing) needs.
4. Create goals before budgets. Don’t premise your initiative with “We want to spend [this amount] and dedicate [this amount] to this medium.” First determine, “How can we accomplish this concentrated objective with the resources we have?”
5. Constantly monitor, measure, and adjust your marketing to ensure maximum effectiveness. Don’t advertise somewhere just because your competitors do; don’t assume your current effectiveness with current tactics will remain the same.

I disagree with Stevens on one point, though, at least for the auction industry. Stevens claims that brand awareness is not an acceptable goal—only direct sales. The problem for auctioneers marketing their services is that clients only need their services at specific times in their life or the life of their assets. Predicting that would require Minority Report-like mind reading for some retail auction sectors. For individual auction campaigns, though, these points are all right on the money.

If you want to make money, you’ll need your marketing to be an income generator—not an expense.
[tip]

So many Christians settle for plateaus. I have at times. We know all the right stuff. We’ve seen God do some cool things and even reiterate those stories. We keep showing up in the places other Christians populate, because that gives us some sense of spiritual propriety. But we aren’t growing. And if we’re not growing, we’re not making fruit—just keeping past fruit on display like a business’ first dollar bill on the wall. In other words, we’ve got past revenue but no spiritual cash flow. We’re leveraging memories and accomplishments, toying with bankruptcy.

But rather than ask, “Is this working right now?”—instead of examining our spiritual return on investment, we use traditional, artificial litmus tests. If the markers match, we assume we’re okay. Everyone else seems to be okay in this same spot. Maybe I’m just over thinking this.

If we’re not hearing from God regularly and being challenged by that Voice, we’re operating on rumors and fumes. Are we having a conversation with God bigger than prayer requests? Do we see sovereignty and witness life change around us? Can we recall recent, intimate moments of God’s pleasure or wrestling, insight or discomfort?

[footer]Images used by permission through purchase from iStockPhoto.com ©2009[/footer]

29: Making Your Advertising Work Harder for You

Article to be published (from assignment) in January 2009 edition of Auctioneer magazine.

It’s been years since an auctioneer could simply post sale bills around town, fax some text to the local newspaper, and wait for scores of townspeople to stand in line to register at his auction. The dynamic of where and how consumers absorb media and shop change continuously. While your firm might not yet be wondering about cell phone advertising or PDA-adjusted web sites, you’re probably wrestling with the same essential question: how do I spend my advertising dollars for greatest impact?

Auctioneers have different needs than most service and retail companies. But we’re dealing with the same market factors as the next office down your street.

Newspaper advertising sales are projected to decline in the coming year for the second year in a row (the first time that’s happened since the Great Depression) and maybe by double-digit percentage.† Meanwhile, the Direct Marketing Association predicts that for the first time ever, online advertising spending will surpass direct mail expenditures in the U.S.†† So, options are increasing; and choices are growing more enigmatic.

Just don’t let the “analysis paralysis” stunt your efforts. If anything, keep doing what you’re doing and gradually add a new media outlet to the mix. Barry Baker, CAI, AARE, president of Ohio Real Estate Auctions, suggested, “What works well is to cover all of your avenues and spend money. You can’t shrink back on spending. Tons of electronic media, direct mail, news print, great signage. You never know which one is going to bring your buyer.”

Jennifer Bryant, principal broker for Counts Realty & Auction Group, agreed, “In order to get top dollar for any property being sold it’s imperative to spend the advertising dollars to get the property as much exposure as possible. Cutting corners on marketing may cost sellers thousands of dollars on sale day.” Bryant relayed that she has found web sites to be the easiest media to add to her advertising repertoires, seeing as their targeted audiences typically cost less to reach than older media formats.

If you don’t have the money to try new media outlets, you can shift your budgets toward your most effective media. To know how to cut or adjust, poll your bidders at registration. Be specific by media or even by specific media outlets (like which radio station or newspaper). It can be as non-obtrusive as, “How’d you hear about the auction?”

At one sale I helped advertise in a new geographic area for the auctioneer, the results to this registration question revealed that 75% of the bidders heard about the sale from the signs on the property and the story generated from the press release—which together accounted for only about 5% of the advertising budget. You still have to cover all your advertising bases, but a matrix of results like these over a broader sample of auctions will show you where to spend your largest portions of your budgets.

Using an ad agency can help you discover and manage new opportunities. Cammy Theurer-McComb, vice president of United Country Theurer Auction/Realty, attributes her switch to using ad agencies (she currently uses two simultaneously for different media) as “one of the best business decisions we ever made.” She added, “Outsourcing has been a relief, actually. And it brings a lot of consistency to our advertising.”

Consistency multiplies your media impact, as the connection between the various ad formats reinforces the others. The more consistent your materials, the more value each one holds. While ad agencies can make this easy, you can manage this process carefully without one, too. Jennifer Hope of Auction Ink recommended, “Create an identifiable visual image by using the same font, color, and general layout. There’s no need to recreate the wheel–find a look and stick with it.”

Carl Montgomery, CAI, AARE, of Comas Montgomery has seen consistency turn into residual returns. “The best advertising we do . . . is network television. We have been running on the local NBC, CBS & ABC affiliates for over ten years. Charlie, Dad, and I talk about our company and upcoming auction. Our tag line at the end of every commercial is ‘Let‘s Go Sell Something.’ Everywhere we go in Middle Tennessee people come up to us and say ‘Let‘s Go Sell Something.’ We have letsgosellsomething.com on tee shirts; and people ask what it means. We tell them to check out the site, which drives them straight to comasmontgomery.com.”

Keep your contact information uniform, too. Make your web site or phone number more memorable by including only one of each within any advertisement. If you absolutely need to use more than one, qualify each, so that the viewer will know why to call each.

Make sure you know why you’re contacting them, too. “Using a database [broker] like InfoUSA® really helped us target like-kind property owners,” divulged McComb. As her company expands into new geographic territories and diverse kinds of sale items—from antique toys to rock quarries—purchased demographic mailing lists have allowed them to send larger-impact direct mail pieces to a more concentrated audience. “That’s been HUGE for us,” said McComb.

Mike Schultz, CAI, president of Schultz Auctioneers, has also adapted to this strategy. Four years ago, his firm was posting Kinkos®-printed posters in community markets. Now, “Prospective sellers are coming to us with our own brochures, saying, ‘We want our property advertised like this!’ Well, we’re happy to oblige them.”

The residual affect of premium marketing can’t be overstated. Schultz concurred, “We’re spending more thought, creativity, and resources on every stage of the sales process. It’s giving us a competitive advantage over our regional competition.” This strategy has also drawn free local media attention from press releases, as in 2008 they’ve won Best of Show at their state association’s advertising contest and two NAA awards. “We’re investing in more exclusive brand positioning. It’s paying off—and not just in awards.”

So, there’s your answer: distribute consistent, premium advertising to more targeted audiences in as many media outlets as you can afford. Poll your bidders to evaluate effectiveness.

[footer]† “Next Year Is Looking Even Worse,” Stuart Elliott, NYTimes.com (December 8, 2008).
†† “Paying More, Getting Less,” Richard Levey, Direct (December 2008, page 8).[/footer]