Why Your Radio Ads Aren’t Rocking Like They Used To

Remember those days when an “ON AIR” sign almost guaranteed you a captive audience hanging on every word? For local home service businesses, radio once felt like the magic marketing bullet. You’d cut a catchy jingle, buy a slot on the local station, and wait for the phone to ring off the hook. And back […]

Effectiveness of Radio Advertising for Local Home Service Businesses

Historical Foundation: Key Studies Shaping Radio’s Reputation Early advertising research established radio as a powerful marketing medium, even for smaller local businesses. The Radio Ad Lab (a research initiative of the U.S. Radio Advertising Bureau) conducted foundational studies in the 2000s demonstrating radio’s strong return on investment (ROI) and synergy with other media. Notably, one […]

Brand Marketing in Sales-Driven Service Industries: Key Research Findings (2015–2025)

OverviewIn the U.S. service industries where salespeople facilitate transactions (e.g., B2B services, financial services, real estate), building a strong brand is a long-term endeavor. Recent peer-reviewed studies and reputable reports highlight how Share of Voice (SOV), creative quality, and time contribute to brand strength. They also compare long-term brand-building to short-term activation (direct response) marketing. […]

How Culligan Dealers Can Build a Stronger Brand (and Why It Matters More Than You Think)

If You’re Only Running Ads, You’re Losing Money If you run a Culligan dealership, chances are you’re spending money on Google Ads, Facebook promotions, or direct mail to get new customers. Those things work, but only in the short term. The moment you stop paying for those ads, the leads dry up. Sound familiar? That’s […]

Revitalizing Your Business: How Optimized Marketing Used Google Ads to Boost IV Hydration Startups

Introduction: Starting a new business can be tough, especially in a highly competitive industry like IV hydration. That’s where Optimized Marketing came in. Our team at Optimized Marketing was approached by several new IV hydration businesses who were just starting out and didn’t have a website or any marketing strategies in place. We knew that […]

Why are Budweiser, Coke, and Pepsi pulling out of Superbowl Ads?

Waaaaaasssuuuuup…. Sometimes I still say it. That commercial, after 22 years, still sticks with me. TV, done well, works! Granted, I’ve never bought a Bud… This year, Budweiser, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi – all staples of Super Bowl TV ads – are cutting the cord on Super Bowl commercials. Instead, Budweiser will run a 90-second ad […]

How To Determine Your Small Business Marketing Budget

To determine what you should be willing to spend on marketing, you need to consider: Lifetime value of the customer Fixed Costs Variable Costs Marketing Costs Here’s an example of an existing company that manufactures widgets. Each month you sell 1,000 widgets at $15 each for total revenue of $15,000. Your variable costs – sales […]

15 things we did to become the Happiest Company in the World

In January of 2015 my team sat in a ski-in, ski-out lodge at the foot of the Rocky Mountains at Durango Mountain Resort on a Friday morning. As we do from time-to-time, we were playing a game. The game was to guess how well we ranked as an organization on happiness compared to over 700 […]

Why some businesses succeed and others just “hang in” there

On a balmy summer day, five years ago, two men excitedly stepped into the position of Owner/General Manager of their own Culligan Dealerships. These two men were very similar. Both their fathers had took on the same role from their fathers, both were college educated and had been involved in the family business since they […]

Can Facebook generate leads for a brick-and-mortar business?

For most brick-and-mortar businesses, Facebook didn’t present a good ROI until it went public and started getting serious about revenue generation through marketing. Fortunately, now it has great potential for small, local businesses like yours! As with all marketing you have to define the GOAL of the marketing and that boils down to whether each […]