Happy Friday, everyone!
This week's poll question comes from Jack Walker of Branson, MO; he writes: "As social media, Pandora, etc. grow I’m sure many of us are getting the same questions and it may be good to share some of our best answers (particularly in unrated markets)."
What are your best answers to the following questions:
Looking forward to reading all of your replies -- and thanks for the suggestion, Jack!
The first question is a tough one, particularly in unrated markets. I work in a fairly large un-rated market now, Bloomington, Indiana. Do you have a Facebook page? How many "friends" does your station have, and is the number growing? Face book stats and demos should mirror the audience you are trying to reach. Do you have on-air contesting? How's the response? Growing, or going away? If you do get lots of calls, have a skeptical prospect come in to the station and listen to the phones ring and hear the listener responses. Finally, there are many more media choices today than ever before and the number of choices continues to grow rapidly. I think everyone is seeing that the "share of pie" is getting smaller, but that doesn't mean your slice doesn't still taste pretty good!
Question number two...everyone is certainly not moving all their dollars to social media. Most local advertisers don't really know how to effectively use it. How many advertisers to you have on your station--apparently they haven't moved all their dollars to social media.
Question number 3. What kind of an offer is being made in the commercial--is it really enticing, or just another "generic" offer? Does their schedule have enough frequency to reach listeners effectively? I think most of the time it's the commercial itself that is to blame. For terrific tips on writing commercial that work, read and listen to Paul Weyland's material. Oh...and sometimes buyers are liars...and they just don't ask new customers what brought them to the business. And then....how often do you volunteer that kind of information when you shop? Have fun and good selling!
Is your audience growing or shrinking? How do you know?
All pro-active radio stations can't sit on their laurels and not continually try and grow their audience in terms of some new loyal listeners ( P1's); not to mention the effectiveness of each campaign gained for all clients by increased hours tuned, TSL and less turnover via the efforts of programming. In stable markets ( meaning no knew stations or formats
the predictable listening patterns of the cumulative audience never really change that much in the real world. Ratings may change, but ratings in diarized markets are not a result of a finite science. Ratings change due to surveillance anomalies; not enough, wasted ballots, wrong person filling it out as planned ect. The best way to look at audience size and the predictability of the AQH of the target population for a given format is to take into consideration format and the predictability of the natural listening patterns over a two to three book trend. Inn addition, the Full Coverage data is more absolute or definitive with respect to P1 loyalties and how that target population applies the effect of radio on their daily lives and buying patterns. Audiences don't change music formats after a good sleep; especially in some formats. Hot Country music listeners for example will not start listening to the CHR station as their station of choice come sunrise. Best way to establish a sense for audience relevance to a client is the number of successful advertisers a station has, average FC AQH, it's format relevance to the general population for starters. The factor in what the Arbitron data or BBM data has to add. In unsurveyed markets... the street talks, and results are realized by measurable results and popular opinion; which is sometimes a hard one to refute.
Shouldn’t I move all of my money to social media and the internet like everyone else?
NO.
To quote a pier of mine...
Your local-direct advertisers know they can’t
pay their mortgage with Facebook ‘likes’ and
they can’t send their kids to college with ‘page
views.’ They can only achieve their goals with sales.
Yet they are delighted with responses or likes on the
Internet while they demand that their cash registers
ring when they invest in radio or TV campaigns
Why?
In part because over-zealous broadcast sales people create unrealistic
expectations and in part because of simple math; low investment equals
low expectation, high investment equals high expectation.
Along with low investment comes a willingness to take more risks with
the message, risks that can result in more effective messages than socalled
call-to-action commercials.
Last week I met a local hardware store owner who was “amazed”
with her responses on social media. She said her Facebook likes jumped
from 6,000 to 18,000 with one simple post. The social media gurus would
promote this response as going viral and claim a 300% increase.
During the early August heat wave in Ontario, the store owner heard
all of the publicity about people leaving their dogs in their cars. She
simply posted a ‘dogs welcome’ sign on the front door of her store, took
a picture of it and posted it on her Facebook page, inviting shoppers to
take man’s best friend out of the heat.
Think about this amazing response. The appeal was emotional. It cost
the advertiser nothing. It had no call-to-action and didn’t try to sell anything.
And it won the hearts of dog-lovers. More importantly, it cost the
Facebook friends nothing to share it and respond. It’s easy to get a response
when you’re not asking consumers to open their wallets today.
There is no denying the Internet has changed the way consumers buy
and the way sellers sell. In the pre-Internet world, many marketers practiced
the ABCs of selling: Always be closing … “Come in today, these savings
won’t last.” And broadcasters got sucked into the old ABCs trap with
their commercials.
Marketers have learned that the ABCs of selling today are Always Be
Connecting, and the ‘dogs welcome’ message certainly connected emotionally
with pet owners. I doubt the message would have gone viral
had that store owner posted a one-day special on paint on her Facebook
As we continued our conversation, I asked the hardware store owner if
she could imagine the impact had she told that same story to 100,000 or
more TV viewers or radio listeners in addition to 6,000 Facebook friends?
And how her commercial would have stood out amidst all of the other ‘buy
today’ messages on the air?
She said, “Wow, I never thought of not asking for the sale in my paid
ads.”
Broadcasters are just as guilty of embracing so-called earned media versus
paid media as my hardware store friend. We hail it as a success when we
capture a few followers on free social media but question our investment
when no one has ever said, “Boy, I love that billboard you paid for.”
In our eagerness to make the sale, many local broadcast sales people
have created unrealistic expectations, promising immediate results to clients
rather than positioning the power of branding to always be connecting. And
it’s those unrealistic expectations which cause advertiser dissatisfaction and
high account attrition rates.
Advertisers who are happy winning hearts online can be even happier
with their paid campaigns if we persuade them that we can win hearts
and win wallets by combining powerful branding messages with a call to
action.
It’s time to train your account executives about the power of branding
at the local level. Local marketers have a distinct branding advantage
over larger national companies and local broadcasters can exploit that
advantage.
Local businesses can move quickly in response to local situations such as
a local heat wave. Large national marketers cannot move that quickly nor
would the ‘dogs welcome’ message resonate in some of their markets which
might not be experiencing the heat wave.
There is no better way to always be connecting than with heartfelt stories
delivered by a human voice. Add to that the inspiring emotional impact of
music and the other tools available to broadcasters, and TV and radio can
quickly become the fuel that drives an advertiser’s total media mix.
so end of the day... it's a nice tool in the tickle trunk... but it's a little to " panaceaic" and therefore attractive and still new... oh and cheaper to........... but you get what you pay for.
"I’m not sure my radio dollars are working. No one has told me they purchased an item from me because they heard it on the radio." What's your response?
Maybe they aren't. But that's not because radio doesn't work. Perhaps the clients expectations are secretly too high ; and therefore leading to this type of statement. And if you throw in the product or service category reality of the clients business as it exists in the 21rst century ; you may discover new light that negatively affects the radios ability to effect measurable favorable results. If the client is running an efficient schedule, you can guarantee the audience for whom the message / campaign was created IS INDEED hearing it... they just don't care.
No person, who has never purchased from the advertiser posing this question, with an IQ higher than a room temperature will ever say " hey I'm here because I heard your radio commercial." Sadly, this point is many times lost on radio clients because they think that's exactly what should be happening. This type of thinking, if it exists, means that the sales rep hasn't managed the entire sale properly. Radio works, but it does beg explanation as to what considerations and planning need to be created with respect to due diligence on behalf of the client. Don't allow clients to " BUY" radio.I could go on and on... but you as the sales rep are the expert ( or should be) as to what is the best way tio use radio to grow a clients business; you must be able to communicate that clearly and with conviction. You also need to manage their expecations, assess whats reasonable, examine the OFFER or product or service and it's relevance to your audience, assess the product and or services natural buying cycle, perceptions that currently exist about your client's product or service or other.
The rate is irrelevant; you sell your audience; then help your client effectively and creatively and in a relevant way communicate that with the audience or target population within it. As Roy Williams has said ( and i paraphrase)
" perhaps new customers don't buy from you because they don't know you ; but perhaps they don't because they do." think about it.
D
Two great answers. Thanks to Mike and Darren.
It has always amazed me. People expect radio stations to know "How many people listen" even though, like every other media, audiences rise and fall throughout the day, throughout the week.
No one asks how many people read your emails or are on your Facebook page. The best count for Facebook is "likes" and those are usually just a momentary read.
No matter where they advertise, they want two things. The number one media and the cheapest media. Those two contradict themselves.
Just as art is that which lasts, good advertising is that which works.
Since so many customers want to talk about social media and their websites I've started using that lingo in conversations to prove listenership. I tell them how many facebook likes our cluster has. I talk about the number of page views our websites get a month. I mention how many different cities were represented in our latest contest. It seems to help.
Is your audience growing or shrinking? How do you know?
"I cannot quantify my audience for you - but I can provide quite a list of businesses who advertise successfully with us and get a direct response from the radio time they run with us. Businesses like...." In smaller markets, business owners know or are accutely aware of each other. We have video endorsements from area business owners talking about how they have used our radio stations to build their market share and recognition.
Shouldn't I move all my money to social media and the internet like everyone else?
First, look at the RAB competitive media info so you are versed in the pros and cons of each alternative.
Then: "everyone"? Everyone is NOT using social media and the internet exclusively nor successfully. Most small businesses are finding that social media is extremely time-consuming, that relying on an employee to maintain your business image there is tenuous and expensive and that the return rarely justifies the time and expense. Facebook is a social medium, emphasis on social. People do NOT like being pitched on a facebook page where they share pictures of grandchildren or a weekend off. As for the internet, stats on click-thrus are disappointing - again, a lot of hype and dollars for minimal return. Branding still works best on traditional media like radio! 94% of America still listens to radio in spite of Pandora, Sirius, et al because it's local and it's free. Why else would Sirius be attempting to copy the radio model with advertising (satellite radio was going to be free and free of advertising, remember?) and DJs (satellite wasn't going to talk at you all the time, remember?). I think the saying is 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery'!
I'm not sure my radio dollars are working....
If the client is brand advertising - then they shouldn't expect to derive a lot of direct sales references from the advertising. What they should be hearing more of is ' I understand that you carry X namebrand', that you cater private parties, that you're now open Saturdays, etc. THAT'S branding.
If the client wants to see more direct response then they need to promote something that is apropo... a sale, an event, special pricing, new product line, etc. If the advertising in this category is not getting the desired response - don't shoot the messenger! There are variables involved - time of day, days of the week, the music, the voice, the consistency of message, the frequency, the medium. Maybe it's time to sit down with the client and better define the message and how it's presented before a decision is made about the radio medium.
Oh I want to take a crack at this one:
What are your best answers to the following questions:
Now that we have all of that figured out, did you want to hear my idea? THAT is why I am here.
The inimitable Chris Rolando strikes again!
Hope you find this helpful:
This is a great article, Diane . . . thanks so much for sharing!
