Here’s this week’s question:
What are the top three business categories that are advertising in media other than radio, that you’d like to get on the air? List them here!
Travel (specifically hotels)
Social Media/Internet
The infomercial folks (long-form anyone?)
Car dealers
Apartment Complexes
Realtors
I'd like to have more professionals.. dentists, attorneys, doctors, etc on the air...
city government is a huge untapped source for us...
Automotive, Insurance and Tourism
Indian Casinos, Motion Pictures (Big bucks on TV) and trade scools (Also big buck on daytime TV)
From RSC member Dean Johnson: Doctors/medical Attorney's Financial
Attorneys
Physicians
construction - remodeling - home repair services
Government (deeeeeep pockets)
Casinos (same kinda pockets)
Education (colleges, universities)
Real Estate/Home Builders...Medical & Dental Practices...did i say Real Estate
Realtors
Lawyers
Dentists
Foxwood Casino, Mohegan Sun Casino, Citizen's Bank
Automotive - Luxury
Cellular
Major retail, Macy's, JCP, etc.
Don't know what kind of market you are in, we are a small market A/C, mostly live all day.
I have a pair of local attorneys who have been on with me for over 2 years. What I offered them was a live Q & A with our morning show team every other Friday. We call it "It's The Law". Occasionally they have a topic, always current, never boring, but most questions come from listeners who can ask anonymously through our website or from call in during the show. The guys are young-ish, funny, down to earth and their show is wildly popular with our listeners, and they say they can hardly handle the increase in business. A small schedule comes with their Q & A and they pay about $2,000. a month and have for over 2 years. As you know, two of the special "gifts' of an attorney are, the gift of gab and they love the sound of their own voice! If you can't do live, you could do recorded, maybe something 2-3 minutes and of course it would have to be a prepared subject or could be questions submitted through your website.
Law firms - they worry that other law firms will think they're not doing well (image thing)
Infomercial - I agree with Doug - they should be hammering 11pm till 6am
Insurance - they tend to direct mail to existing databses unstead of attracting fresh leads
Interesting choices!
I wonder how much activity from the hotel sector is going to be driven primarily by trade-outs. Shilo Inns (you're undoubtedly familiar with them, being HQ'd in the Rose City) has turned radio trades into big business. Owner Mark Hemstreet's voice is nearly omnipresent across Washington State. I hear other hotels on the air once in awhile, mainly network spots or sports broadcasts (usually traded) but not with the frequency or consistency of Shilo Inns.
The biggest problem we face in trying to sell advertising to local hotels is the fact that our listeners are not their primary customers. Their prospects and patrons are coming in from other locales, out of reach of our stations. (Come to think of it now though - what a great opportunity for a station's website! Capitalize on out-of-town visitors doing pre-travel research, combining tourist attractions and a calendar of events with hotel sponsorships. Maybe a station-branded coupon booklet, leveraging relationships with local businesses in a visitor-focused effort...)
That said, I've had limited success selling seasonal flights to hotels during the holiday season or for special events, with the ads inviting listeners to recommend their facility for friends or relatives coming in for a visit.
Re: Social Media - did you see Eric Rhoads' "Convergence 2009" video intro? Dizzying....
I sell jingles ... great, great national quality jingles to local direct radio advertisers. The three categories I'm selling the most jingles to right now are Real Estate Companies, Health Care and Law Firms.
Lawyers (big bucks in the yellow pages)
Realtors (big bucks in the classified section of the paper)
Dentists and Chriopractors
And with all the trouble news papers are in, shouldn't they be advertising on a medium that works????
I have had great success with Dental, Real Estate and Lending. I have a great foothold in Medical.
I still need to figure out how to crack:
Legal - of the Ambulance chaser type
Long Term Care plans
Plumbing
You may have seen it already, but RSC member Kathie Easton started a discussion on attorney (of the ambulance chaser type) spots here: http://radiosalescafe.ning.com/forum/topics/attorney-spot.
If you are in Florida, it is quite difficult to get radio approved for attorneys through the Bar, they say it is "too pursuasive." Seems that if your attorneys are able to get approval it will be wildly successful for them. It is hard to get the approval (we learned this in Pensacola) and radio is more expensive to submit for approval, so most do all forms of print including billboards, bus benches, yellow pages, etc.
This is my list too...if you learn that code to crack them, let me know. Chiropractic, HVAC and "Geek Squad" type business are also on my list. If you have had success with any of these, I would love to hear how you did it!
Kathi
"Geek Squad"??? Computer-related businesses, or something else?
You might check out this discussion thread on attorneys: http://www.radiosalescafe.com/forum/topics/attorney-copy-ideas
Almost 10 years later, we're revisiting this poll question; please click here to share your answers.
