Posted: June 10, 2011

Do you happen to live near NAS Oceana, or in the takeoff and landing pattern for any of the other airports/fields located throughout Hampton Roads? If so, have you ever noticed what happens when a plane passes overhead?

People stop talking and wait for the noise to subside. At first, the noise is annoying but, after repeated exposure, people simply tune it out and adjust their behavior accordingly.

Is your advertising eliciting the same behavior from the general population? Are the prospective customers that you are trying to reach simply tuning out the "noise" of your message?

Perhaps it is time to do a thorough analysis of what you are saying and in which channels the message is being transmitted.

All too often, small business owners tend to overlook this critical aspect of their business.

Or, worse yet, they just do something, spending precious time and money in developing and placing some sort of advertising without having clearly defined goals detailing just what they hope to accomplish.

This is one area that a business owner has to understand and appreciate because, if he or she does not, customers simply will not find them because they did not "hear the message." Like "jet noise" they simply tune it out and go on with their lives.

In 1997 when I became the executive director of the Small Business Development Center, I was told by quite a few people throughout the region that my organization was "one of the best-kept secrets in Hampton Roads."

This certainly is not the kind of brand recognition that one would like to have. When our clients and customers found us, they received fantastic service and the center's reputation among them was second to none.

The need in the community for the services the center offered was much greater; it was just that potential clients and customers were just not "hearing our message."

I followed my own advice and diligently analyzed the market, crafted a cogent yet pithy message, determined the correct channels in which it should be placed and had a clearly defined set of goals and metrics to determine its effectiveness. Unfortunately, at the beginning I too was guilty of "just doing something" and wasted some time, effort and money and had little to show in return.

After this initial floundering, my team and I stepped back, re-examined our approach and worked to craft and deliver our message so it would be noticed, not tuned out.

While strategically placed advertising and event sponsorships were pursued, it was also determined that getting our message out through articles such as this would be much more cost-effective.

In addition to these actions, a campaign was instituted to gain feedback from our clients through "RatePoint" and we now have a readily available pool of testimonials from which we can pull to support any other marketing and advertising campaigns.

Noise is just that. What you need to do is get your message out of the noise and have your customers hear it, take notice and, hopefully, respond to your message.

Jim Carroll is the vice president of small business for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and executive director of the Hampton Roads Small Business Development Center. He can be reached at 664-2595 or www.hrsbdc.org.