Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Marketing is a big gamble for any industry. You have to invest in a strategy on a platform and just hope that it pays off. It’s certainly one of the most essential investments for your business, but how do you know what will work and what won’t? This problem seems especially aggravated for float centers. Whatever marketing you do needs to tell people more than just that you exist, it also needs to explain what floating is and why people need it. How do you overcome these hurdles? And are traditional mediums even viable?
Show Resources
FTS Product – State of the Industry Report (Free)
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Today’s question is, “is TV, radio, and print advertising dead?” Bam.
Ashkahn: Boom. All right.
Graham: I mean, well, so for that, I mean, I assume they mean for a float tank center, since that’s what our podcast is.
Ashkahn: I don’t know. It could be kind of in general. They go a little hand in hand.
Graham: I mean, I guess, well, I mean, we only started seven years ago, and when we started print, and TV, and radio already wasn’t great for a float center, so for us, it’s never even been alive, I guess would be the first part of that.
Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s just really like they’re very busy mediums to try to get people’s attention on. There’s a lot of advertisements already, there’s a lot of people being used to ignoring those advertisements. People’s attention is already pretty fractured when it comes … not everyone watches like cable TV anymore and things like that. It’s in general, I think, becoming a more and more difficult platform.
Graham: And I guess we should qualify that there’s a difference between advertising and PR. For instance, getting a nice TV news story about you, or getting a good article written up in your local paper, like that stuff can, in my mind, still be really valuable and really helpful.
Ashkahn: I’m assuming they’re talking about paid advertisements.
Graham: Yeah. I guess for the listeners I just wanted to clarify advertising is specifically paid spots in these things.
Ashkahn: Yeah. The other thing is that with the tools that exist now for advertising that people have … seem to find a little bit more effective for float centers, at least, things like Facebook ads, and Google ads, and things like that, because they’re so much more targeted, you end up paying a lot less for them. The amount of money you’d spend, you could spend on a Facebook ad to still reach some people, and probably more likely the people who would actually and float with you is a lot less than what you have to spend to get an ad in a newspaper that you’re just crossing your fingers that somebody who sees it will be interested enough to come and float.
Graham: Yeah, and there’s this other phenomenon where floating is getting more well known. More and more people definitely are aware of float tanks and vaguely what they are, but as opposed to trying to advertise a new Italian restaurant or something that just opened in your town, with, like let’s just say a quarter page ad in your paper, you need to not only tell them that you are a float center that’s around. You need to explain why they should come into your float center, and also what the heck floating is, and why they should float at all. It’s a lot of information that you’re trying to shove into a really small space. In my opinion it’s one of the reasons why even a billboard that you’re driving past doesn’t have enough space or enough time to really explain what floating is and get people excited.
Ashkahn: Yeah, I mean, physical space is one thing, but you’re also dealing with brief moments of someone’s attention. It’s really hard to cross that gap to the point of educating someone on what a whole new concept is.
Graham: Yep, as opposed again to a news article, or even Facebook stories, or things where you can get this engagement and get that deeper, immediate learning that’s going on if they click a link that looks interesting to follow it to more information.
Ashkahn: And it means that advertising, these more traditional advertisement formats, are still effective for certain other industries, or other companies, right. Like Coca-Cola, I think, is still probably making good headway by paying for those brief moments of your attention just kind of as you see a Coca-Cola logo or bottle on the background. When your company’s that pervasive, and when all you’re doing is trying to act as like one small, tiny, little reminder that people may not even consciously be aware of the fact that they’re getting, then those sorts of advertising methods can still be effective.
Graham: Yep. 1-900 call in numbers probably, you know, print media might not do them poorly.
Ashkahn: So, that’s not where we’re at yet, I think, at the point that your float center is as well known as Coca-Cola then you can start doing giant, crazy ad campaigns.
Graham: Right, and it’s because it’s a totally different game that they’re playing at that point. They’re just trying to have that image of Coca-Cola in your mind. You already know what it is, you’ve tasted it. They’re just trying to remind some part of your brain viscerally that Coca-Cola exists and you might want it again, right. That’s a very different thing than trying to educate someone on a whole new wellness practice that you want them to adopt.
Ashkahn: So the interesting thing is, though, as floating becomes more well known, it’ll get further in that direction.
Graham: Yep.
Ashkahn: So like I would almost say that these things, like big newspaper ads, and billboards, and things like that, will probably become more effective over time for float centers as the concept becomes more familiar to people, right, ’cause then just brief moments of someone’s attention is enough to be like, “Oh, yeah, floating. Like I should go float again.” And that is just kind of the gentle reminder you need rather than like attempting to get them from zero to understanding floating and wanting to come in.
Graham: Yep. And I guess if you want to do a little bit of your own research or kind of verifying some of the crazy things that we’re saying here, just take a look at the industry report even from this last year from 2017, and up there, just every single time for every industry report, the top two things that succeed for people, that people say have been the best marketing efforts for them are word of mouth, number one, and shortly behind that Facebook advertising is number two. Then everything else down below that, and it’s a while before you get down to TV, and print advertising, and things like that.
Ashkahn: Yeah. The float industry report.
Graham: Yeah. What did I say? Just the industry?
Ashkahn: Just the industry report. Just to clarify in case you don’t know what we’re talking about.
Graham: All of a sudden they’re on french fry, like deep fryer industry reports and totally lost. “I don’t see this at all.” But the weird flip side of that, and it’s a small flip side, because it’s a small number of people who answer that print advertising is working really well, but the question actually is what marketing has worked best. Every year there are people who say that TV advertising has worked best for them, or print advertising, or radio advertising has worked best for them. It’s just those numbers are so dramatically smaller than people who said that word of mouth or Facebook advertising worked the best.
Ashkahn: Wow. There’s probably not a lot of people trying it, I would say, too, in the industry. Like I haven’t heard of a lot of people actually taking a TV ad out. They’re very expensive to make, too.
Graham: Yeah. Yeah, certainly. And my theory is that those people also aren’t trying other forms, right. Like if all you do is advertise on TV and in your local paper, and your kind of more old school person that way, then sure, maybe that works best for you.
Ashkahn: Morse code advertising.
Graham: Haven’t really played around with Facebook, you know.
Ashkahn: So here’s the thing, though. If you want to try it, I mean that’s the best way to figure it out. You can just try it.
Graham: That’s a terrible way to figure anything out. You should listen to our opinion. Not test anything for yourselves.
Ashkahn: Yeah, take it as the truth.
If you want to figure it out for yourself and try it, then the important thing is to be able to track it somehow. Like if you just pay a thousand dollars and take out a newspaper ad, and then sit back but be like, “Huh. I wonder if that worked or not?”
Graham: “Oh, well.”
Ashkahn: Yeah, like that’s it. You have no idea. Then the newspaper’s gonna contact you in a month, I guarantee it, and try to sell you on another spot, and you’re gonna have no idea whether if it was effective or not.
Graham: And all the other local newspapers will start contacting you, too, ’cause they go through and find out who’s paying for advertising.
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: Try to get them on their side, you know.
Ashkahn: So, really what you want to do is you want to have something on the advertisement that allows you to track, as best as possible, how many people are actually coming in to float based on that advertisement. And there’s a lot of different ways to do this. You could make a special discount code that you just use for this advertisement, and that’ll let you know. You can put a special website on it that just redirects to your normal website, but you can track how many people are hitting that site first. You can put fake phone numbers that redirect to your phone number just as like a Google Voice number that will allow you to see how many calls went through there. There’s a number of different ways to do it, but having some sort of way of knowing how many people actually contacted you because they saw this ad is … it’s kind of foolish to do it without that. You’re really not gonna answer any questions for yourself.
Graham: Fun story, too. That’s actually how coupons were invented. It wasn’t to try to convince people come in because they’re saving money. It was to get people to come in and use the coupon, so they could track those specific coupons to different places that people were advertising, and be able to see which advertising dollars were actually bringing in the most people. So, some kind of discount. Again, from the customer perspective it seems like a totally different justification, and from the business side, we’re just trying to figure out if what we’re spending is even worth it, or if it’s getting any effect at all. That’s gonna be the easiest way.
And, speaking of Coca-Cola-
Ashkahn: But wait, there’s more.
Graham: “Oh, wait. Oh, sorry. Didn’t see you there still listening.” Funny Coca-Cola anecdote. That’s also one of their claims to fame is being some of the first coupons that existed out there in the print world, and I believe that it was just a … And I’m kind of embarrassed now as a marketing nerd that I can’t remember what their big one was. It was either for a free Coca-Cola, or for a buy one, get one free for Coca-Cola, and that’s what they took out in the different papers to kind of test where people were coming from, and where they should double down on trying to get people to buy their drinks, and stuff like that. So, yeah, another way that you too can become great to the point where TV advertising will work for you.
So, that’s it. Maybe it’s actually becoming less dead over time, I guess, is the-
Ashkahn: For us. I’d say it’s probably becoming more dead in general, and less dead for float tanks. At some point kind of meet.
Graham: All right. If you have any more questions about death, send them over to FloatTankSolutions.com/podcast
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The Float Tour Blog – Issue #24
Alberta is often called the Texas of Canada. Part large oil industry, part cattle country.
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At the base of the Rocky Mountains, replete with an Olympic Stadium, Calgary is a world-class destination for winter sports. The float community developed here similarly to Edmonton – there wasn’t anything nearby except for one or two residential float tanks, and then, in a short period of time, several centers opened all at once. Instead of competing, they’ve decided to work together and have developed one of the tightest knit float communities we’ve seen. They even have monthly Float Dinners, much like we do with the float centers in Portland. They don’t keep meeting minutes, so it’s hard to determine what they talk about at these dinners; my guess would be salt, the effects of salt on various substances, and how salty salt damage can make someone salty.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #23
After Montana, we blazed our way back into Canada. The drive was long, but the scenery was beautiful. We followed the Rockies north, driving up to Edmonton. It’s a bit of a detour but, there are so many float centers in Edmonton, it seemed crazy not to stop by.
The city itself is primarily made up of workers from the oil fields – high risk, high income jobs that fuel the economy. At least until recently. Our visit was right in the middle of the Fort McMurray wildfire which has displaced a lot of the workforce, forcing 100,000 people to leave their homes. Many came to Edmonton, being the nearest metropolitan area to Fort McMurray. Some already split their time between the two cities, living in Edmonton and traveling to Fort McMurray for weeks or months at a time for work.
It’s understood that, in economic hardship, luxury commodities are typically the first thing people cut back on. Surprisingly, this doesn’t seem to be the case for floating. In fact, more people seem to be trying it to help alleviate the stress, many centers even offering free or discounted services to those displaced in an effort to help in a small way.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #22
We’ve got two more stops in Colorado Springs before heading west. It’s a town known for its military base and long history of weapons testing. With such a large military presence, it comes as no surprise that the float center owners here are veterans, themselves.
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