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If you’re like most Culligan Men and Women in the system you may have received a steady flow of calls, or know of other dealers who have, from folks that “know SEM”. One of our favorite lines here at BAM Advertising is “I know SEM! I know SEM!!” We say it in jest because seemingly countless people are calling dealers to make the point that they are THE SEM expert(s). But, what else can they offer? Indeed, our Director of Interactive Strategy, Justin Fritz, sure does know SEM (and teaches me everyday about the ever-changing world of SEO), but Justin’s world is just one part of an integrated approach that is the foundation of every media and marketing strategy BAM develops.

It isn’t about a singular focus; it’s about all media and communication working together in concert to create beautiful music. I’ve been known to strut the halls of BAM shouting, “It’s always been about a mixed media strategy… and it always will be.” A singular approach may not be the best bet for increasing your leads, setting qualified appointments, and ultimately achieving transactions in the home.

When we start strategically planning a market, our planners use SEM as the “backbone” of the plan. Following that crucial media layer we seed in a lead-generating, consistent foundation of local programs. We can’t stress enough the importance of efficiently utilizing your local co-op dollars on lead-generating activity and steering away from reference-based media.

BAM produces local programs such as our now “World Famous” New Homeowner Program, as well as varied Current Customer Marketing Programs (CCMP), on a monthly basis to make it easier for the dealers in our network to have these lead-generating programs at their fingertips and ready to be in market when it makes sense for them. For slow “household” times of the year we make available niche programs such as our very focused dental program that we rolled out earlier this year with assistance from our dealer network. Coming up you’ll see our agency present even more niche programs targeting industries that have already proven to be fertile ground for Culligan Men and Women across the country.

Next in the planning process we move on to the group/regional co-op level and overlay some form of electronic media such as radio or cable/TV, depending on the market. This electronic layer “adds fertilizer” to your local program foundation referenced above and helps turn cold calls into warm calls, while helping those lead-generating activities bring in more leads.

BAM has implemented these practices for all of the dealers in our network and we’ve seen some great results – especially in Hilton Head Island and Kingsland, GA where there was a year-over-year increase in sales of 300%!

It’s all about recognizing the importance of SEM, monitoring its efforts daily, communicating with our clients monthly, layering in lead-generating local programs and complimenting those programs with rich, electronic media. BAM!

Sure, we recognize the importance of and excel in SEM execution. But it’s our constant daily monitoring, regular dealer-agency communication, and complementary local program and electronic media strategy that generate measurable results. BAM!

Some would call not having a website for many years a drought in this day and age. BAM Advertising has put in place a cutting edge website that will allow Culligan Of Denver’s water to flow to new and existing customers.

Culligan has long been revered in many circles as the water experts. BAM’s latest creation on the web showcases Culligan’s rich history and paints a bright future for the water experts going forward.

Culligan Denver comes complete with many interactive features not seen on a Culligan website before. The first of many being the capability of ordering water to your home or business while on the go or lounging in your favorite computer chair. BAM has also integrated a live chat function that will allow new and existing customers the chance to chat with their local Culligan Man.

Culligan of Denver has also called on BAM for a paid search campaign in the Mile Hi region. Paid search or Pay Per Click (PPC) as referenced by some, is the popular search engine strategy of bidding on relevant keywords to get your advertisements in front of users in hopes of getting them to click through to your website. Once a user clicks, BAM has integrated lead generating forms on every page to make it as easy as possible for someone to track down a water softener in Denver.

BAM works with many Culligan men and women across the United States and has done so for many years. Their latest web development for Culligan of Denver is the first of many new innovative websites that they’re rolling out for the Culligan group in 2012.

On The Web

http://www.CulliganDenver.com

BAM is pleased to announce the launch of the new website for Professional Contractors Group. PCG are Virginia’s Home Remodeling experts specializing in window replacement, major construction, roofing, siding, and more.

The website, coupled with strong Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy will allow new customers to find them with ease when searching for geo-modified terms like “window replacement Virginia.” In addition to BAM’s organic search strategy, we have deployed a paid search campaign which will reach over 3 million people in the Virginia area.

Their website is heavily focused on lead generation. A contact form on every page, accompanies a phone number that will be dialed by individuals looking to get in touch with home remodeling experts.

BAM is very pleased to have worked with Professional Contractors Group, Inc and look forward to them sharing their success stories with us. If you are in the Virginia area and are in need of window replacement, home remodeling or even major construction, checkout their website below.

If you or someone you know is looking for a new home on the web, get in touch with BAM.

On The Web:

http://www.VAhomeremodeling.com

I’ll save you the speech about how local online marketing is taking over. Instead, I will allow this infographic to demonstrate local online marketing’s importance. As more and more people start using smart phones, mobile search continues to grow at an exponential rate.

There is a common misnomer that mobile search is a seperate entity from “local search.” The truth is that they are the same. Search results have become heavily weighted towards the local aspects of businesses. Search results now display where your business is located on a given map, your phone number and address, if you have claimed your respective business page. Mobile search results mirror the efforts of search to feature local businesses as much as possible. After all, if you are performing a business search on your mobile phone, chances are it’s local.

Google and other search engines have taken into account mobile search activity and have reacted accordingly with local algorithm updates. They have made search results for a local business as relavent and as easy to navigate as possible. Local business profiles come complete with what others have said about your business and even offer potential customers with directions right from your profile.

If you have questions about your local online marketing efforts or are looking for guidance, drop us a line. In the meantime, check out the staggering local online marketing numbers in the infographic below.

Click to enlarge

Google has done it again.  Done what you may ask?  They have made yet another attempt to ram their social network “Google +” down its search users’ throat.  This attempt has no doubt been their strongest effort to date to push their fledgling product on the masses.  Google reps have cloaked their desperate attempts to pawn their lifeless, barren wasteland of a social network as a disguised effort that they “are bettering search” for their users.

The forcing of their social network started back with the redesign of several of Google’s services once Google+ went live to the public.  Google+ was created in attempt to beat Facebook at their own game.  While Google+ offered a few new innovative features like “Circles” (allowing users to group which of their stories were shared with who) and “Hangouts” (allowing users to video chat with several friends simultaneously).  Facebook, as predicted by many knowledgeable Internet professionals, didn’t blink.

You may recall the black navigation bar that became a permanent fixture at the top of any and all of Google pages.  On that not-so-subtle black navigation bar housed a link for “+You”, which put their social network in front of every Google goer.  buttons, much like the Facebook “Like” button, started not only appearing on their search results pages, but website owners  placed the button in hopes of raising their organic rankings.  What made website owners believe that a button could possibly improve their ranking?  Simple.  Google has put out and continues to push literature explaining that they are continuing to alter their search algorithm to include social signals.

Social signals, as in how often a given webpage is tweeted or retweeted.  Also supposedly included in the social signal search algorithm, how many “likes” a webpage or website receives via the Facebook “Like” button.  And last but not least, Google gives a slight boost to websites on how many times it was ‘ed.

Months have gone by since the button was introduced and (while Google + has reached over 90 million users) many are considering Google+ a failing network.  Despite the abundance of G+ users, the frequency of returning users has taken a nose dive since the network’s inception.

Admittedly, there were the majority of users like myself who couldn’t wait to sign up.  Google+ was that shiny new toy that we couldn’t wait to get our hands on.  After playing with our new social network for a few days, we realized that it quickly lacked relevancy in our lives do to the fact that none of our friends migrated there.  No matter what, you may love or hate Facebook, but YOUR FRIENDS are on there.  The same cannot be said for Google+ now and most likely going forward.

For G+ to succeed and be a TRULY relevant social signal for Search+, Google+ needs to have a network effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect. The value of Google+ is dependent on the number of your friends using it.

Fast forward to this month, January 2012.  In their best attempt yet at forcing G+ further down users’ throats, Google has unveiled “Search, plus your World” that favor websites ‘ed by social network pseudo-friends and acquaintances.  It also allows Google+ social network pages and photos to leap ahead of long standing websites in the search results. Initially,  it’s not a big deal.  Their unveiling of “personalized” search results shows the continued merge of social and search.

“Personalized” should remain in quotes because I refuse to accept what they’re selling as personalized.  If you are telling me that personalized results display a website I’ve previously visited should show up on the first page of my search results for a given topic, I can agree with that.  But to tell me a given website is more relative because a someone I have a quasi connection with shared it, that’s going too far.

Google has personalized results through your G+ connections, and Google has gone as far as to display content from “suggested” G+ connections. It’s not truly personalized or relevant if your friends aren’t there.

Their shameless attempt to make their social network more relavant by including it in “personalized” search results reeks of desperation. My negative tone throughout this piece merely expresses my dissatisfaction with the direction in which Google search is moving. Are they not satisfied with having far and away the largest search engine market share?

Hmmmm… who was the person who complained to Google? Who was that person that said… “You know what guys, your  search results just aren’t personalized enough for me!”  Could it be that no one complained?  Could it be they’re attempting to fix something that isn’t broken by furthering their own agenda?

I’ll be surfing on Bing and Yahoo if you need me.

Just kidding!  I’m not THAT desperate. And yes, I did this article.

Tweet @BAMadvertising your feelings on Google’s “Search, plus your World.”

Greetings from BAMville…. A new year. Another day.

Stop right there. There’s no such thing as another day at BAM. We have a new saying posted above the door at the office. It reads, “We’re only as good as we are today!” Ok it’s only a post-it note but the words and the message are clear.  Show up, chop your wood, and it’s all good. That rhymes too.

It sounds too simple but when you enjoy what you do it is that easy. That said, we’re not perfect. We’ve pushed deadlines, left discussions at crossroads of vague conclusions, and made assumptions that we probably shouldn’t have. That’s human nature. But at BAM, it’s our nature to carve out our brand through our work. Pure and simple. “Hey Bill. We gotta get a BAM newsletter out. Hey Bill, did you get your  BAM client letter written? Bill, did you ever get the press releases out on Neil or Justin, and what about Andy and Kevin?” So now I can check-off the newsletter from our list but I think our time is spent in better ways. I like to keep the spin holstered in our world because that’s the way it should be.  We let our work speak for itself. After all, we’re all only as good as we are today!

2011 brought a lot of growth at BAM. Measured growth. We’ve been blessed to gracefully supplement our staff this year with a few couple gifted people. Neil Catapano and Justin Fritz. EVERBODY KNOWS NEIL. Brother Neil hates when I say this but my world has been pretty much turned upside down since Neil migrated from the bright lights and big city of Plainville, IL to the advertising mecca of Upper St. Clair, PA.  While Neil has spearheaded a wealth of projects in his short tenure, you have to understand it’s always with the same successful formula accompanied by painfully defined goals: Listen to our Culligan dealers, find an opportunity, gather input from an ever-revolving cross section of dealers, and then let BAM machine it into visual media with execution geared for measurement. After all, we are driven to ask ourselves, what have we done for Culligan today?

Justin Fritz, or “Jastin” as both Hall’s Maggie Smith and we prefer to call him, is our interactive brew master. We’re not always sure what the hell he’s rambling about but spend a little time with him and you’ll quickly understand why he embodies what we’ve done for Culligan today. He pours over his campaigns EVERY day… with strategies that he’s honed since he was 13! Go ahead, Google Justin Fritz Pittsburgh and look for an article about a pair of brothers “wrestling cash from the web”. The man was making more than most people do today, in high school. You’d never know it though. That’s why, like all of us at BAM (ok, Neil does have an ego as big as Texas but)… we just like chopping a new pile of wood every day with a pedestrian profile and lumberjack’s enthusiasm. Did I mention that we enjoy it too?

Can’t forget about the always effervescent Pam “Queen of Claims” Berry, Kevin “Scratch” Lazzaro, Andy “AC 30” Coleman (his nickname is a product for Pete’s sake whomever Pete is), Rachael “Hi-Res/Lo-Res” Seip, Bryan Morse-Code, Taylor “The Coder” Collins, Sue “Cellar Dweller” Froedtert, Mary “Dancing Machine” Broglie, and Francois “Yeah I’m French” Wilson. I could write lengthy narrative about each of us but that’s not  really what we’re about.  That said, I’ll bring more insight in future communiqués into these personalities who continue to define BAM. But in the meantime, give us a call, stop by, invite us out, have a cocktail with us… just talk to us. Spend a little time and get to know us… if you haven’t already… and I think that you’ll find that above all else, we care.

I’ve started every Culligan relationship  with the same message. “Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you today. I’d like nothing better than to walk out of our here with the opportunity to earn your business. And if we don’t, I will consider myself fortunate to have met another band of Culligan men and women with whom I will cross paths again… and consider you colleagues and friends.”  All these people and relationships are now embodied in a very special place outside of our souls. In a place created by Culligan men and women… in a place that everyone is getting to know a little better. That place is where this greeting emanates from today… and that place we’ve built for you… our valued clients, our friends, and our family who have given us the opportunity for our creativity to flourish, hard work to produce results, and the ability to display them in a place called BAMville. I just thought of another couple lines worthy of a post-it note above the door:

1. “Ask what we can do for our dealers today”
2. ”Chop wood like lumberjack everyday”

Take care, have a wonderful New Year, and Godspeed in all you do… for you, your families, your fellow workers and employees, and all of us on the 3^rd rock .  Hey Neil, what’s on tap for Culligan today… I’m feeling a little bored.

“As much as the media we consume entertains -

- and to an extent defines us -

it is only one facet of how we live.”

- Devin Coldewey, TechCrunch editorial, January 1, 2012

A lifestyle of futuristic proportions doesn’t necessarily have to include flying cars (though that would totally rule). Advances in technology have become so ingrained in our daily lives that even the thought of leaving the house for the day – heck, even for a trip to the grocery store – without our smartphones causes panic.

Admittedly, I was late to the game when it came to cellphones; I didn’t even have one until 2005 if you can believe it. I was reliant on a variety of landline phones in the home or in the office. If I wasn’t available, you left a message. Boom. Done. It was simpler and that was the way we lived. I didn’t even have a Facebook account yet.  And this is just strictly talking about peer-to-peer communication. (“how far have refrigerators, or beds, come in the last ten years – compared with the way we experience music, or keep in touch with our friends?”)

While teleporting to work would be rad, it’s not going to happen any time soon. The advancements in technology that change our lives for the better are surely going to be of the smaller, less exciting variety but that doesn’t mean they are less important.

“No, it’s not pretty; it’s progress.”

Coldewey’s editorial acts as a definite reality check regarding technology and our reliance as we head deeper into the new year. I’m not going to continue trying to recycle what he has already written eloquently so I encourage you to read the article and let us know your thoughts.

In the meantime, I’m gonna go re-hydrate some brunch capsules and play fetch with Astro.

- Andy

 

J. L. Bayer came to BAM with several marketing needs that would make them more competitive in the Pittsburgh HVAC space. We developed both a traditional media strategy, as well as a digital strategy that dramatically increased their brand awareness this winter.

BAM is in the process of executing a strategic marketing campaign that includes radio spots, post card mailings, and paid search campaign in the greater Pittsburgh area. We developed and designed a new lead generating website that will provide incremental leads in the coming months as their site will continue to climb the search engine ranks.

Bayer had a need for a motto that would be applicable to all phases of their heating and cooling services offered. BAM put our heads together and the “Stay Warm Pittsburgh” slogan was born. Vanity URLs for the heating and cooling seasons were purchased and include both StayWarmPittsburgh.com and StayCoolPittsburgh.com.

Their creative is on display below and includes their 15 second radio spots as well as the “Sick Furnace?” mailer. We are pleased to have worked with J. L. Bayer and are excited to watch their brand continue to resonate.

Radio Advertising

J.L. Bayer (15 seconds)

J.L. Bayer #2 (15 seconds)

Print Advertising

J. L. Bayer Heating & Cooling

If you want to be technical, this is the same address, but we just … renovated a bit. New clients have joined our roster and we’ve added some members to our team, so we felt that the time was right.

What’s new at BAM you may ask? Aside from our continued fanboy obsessions with the latest Apple technologies, our Culligan Water family has grown over the last few months which has created some exciting developments. We’ve also experienced some digital growth in our automotive and HVAC categories which has led to the expansion of our digital media department. Justin Fritz has joined our ranks as the Director of Interactive Strategy, a role that includes directing the strategies for our interactive campaigns, so we thought that was an appropriate title. Justin has been a huge asset to our team so far and we are pumped to have him on-board.

We’re also happy to announce the recent launch of our interactive web portal known as BAMville. BAMville is an intranet and virtual water cooler currently being used by our network of Culligan water experts nationwide. Since the groundbreaking, it’s been a highly useful tool for streamlining agency-client communications as well as creative development. We anticipate that the BAMville population will grow in the coming months and are always open to new businesses moving into town.

BAM is gearing up for the holiday season and are very excited to have a new home on the web – properly insulated for a Pittsburgh winter. You’ll surely hear more from our cast of characters in the coming weeks and plenty into 2012. Feel free to drop us a line with feedback as you browse; we’d love to hear from you.