Why do so many radio ‘package’ offerings default to discounting their spot rates?

Smart packagers create premium packages as a way of taking the focus off of their base product pricing.

Take BMW, for example. When BMW offers their ‘sport package’, customers do not question the basic BMW price, and are left to negotiate on the much more profitable ‘options’ portion of the sport package.

Each option, like sport wheels, spoilers, tuned suspension, sport seats, steering wheel and low profile tires, by themselves cost a fortune.  But as a ‘package’, you get all of them at a discount while paying full pop for the base automobile.

In radio, our station promos, digital properties, sponsor credits, on-air contests and other elements of our programming should actually be priced with huge margins because they are not perceived as ‘commercials’ or programming interruptions by the listening audience.

When you ‘package’ this high-margin inventory at a discount rate, you can take the focus off of discounting the spot rates in your ‘package’.

The packaging guidelines we use at all of the stations we consult include;

1.) All packages should be priced at a minimum of ten percent over your average invoice price. The amount of your average invoice tells you what your clients, the market and most importantly, your sales people think your station is worth.

Why go to all of the trouble of creating a special package if it can’t give you a lift to that value?

2.) All packages include brand sell commercials for the advertiser at full rate, with only the added value being discounted.

It’s well known that you do establish your image, in part, with your pricing policy. Of course the quality of any product, the service the seller delivers, and the convenience of the buying process all play a role in the image, but pricing is a key player in the marketing mix.

Is there really twice as much time and material invested in building a Mercedes versus a Hyundai, or does premium pricing play a role in the image of Mercedes?

And more importantly, which car do you think has the highest profit margins?

Maybe it is time radio started creating premium packages?

As we approach the end of another year, you’ll start to hear all kinds of predictions about what 2015 will bring.

Here is my prediction…
Sales people who know how to prospect will have a hugely successful 2015.

Why? There is a radio renaissance awaiting radio sales professionals who know how to help advertisers get results.

Many advertisers who leap-frogged from print (newspaper, yellow pages, direct mail etc.) to the shiny new digital offerings are now becoming disillusioned.

These advertisers jumped on digital, in part, because it was “accountable” or “measurable”

But now, they’re beginning to realize they can’t pay their mortgages with likes and they can’t send their kids to college with page views. Of course, the internet plays a valuable role in any marketing mix, but your 2015 prospects are discovering they can’t win hearts and minds with the internet alone.

Their frustrations are compounded by Google changing the SEO rules daily, Facebook now charging for what used to be free, and emerging digital platforms creating unprecedented online audience fragmentation.

On top of all of these rapid changes, the dark side of digital is beginning to take its toll. SPAM, click farms, fraudulent page views and SEO and SMM con artists are causing many advertisers to wish for ‘the good old days’.

But the good old days are not coming back. These disillusioned advertisers know it’s not feasible to go back to print.

The radio account executives who know how to prospect these disgruntled advertisers and show them how radio can be the ‘new media’ in an effective media mix with internet will have a huge 2015.

Click here to arrange a telephone consultation to discuss how ENS Media can help your team capture prospects in 2015.

There is a fervent advertiser thirst for ‘new media’. For advertisers who have not used radio in the past, radio can be their ‘new media’ alternative.

It’s time for radio account executives to get serious about attracting new business to radio.

Many stations launch ‘new business’ initiatives which merely see their stations steal business from other radio stations.

The new business I’m talking about is converting print or online advertisers to a media mix with a strong radio component…. Real new business, from an advertiser who has not used radio in the past and had no intentions of using radio…. Now that’s ‘new business’!

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tender for a share of existing radio budgets. You know who has the budget, they’re already sold on radio, you know their buying criteria, and you simply meet or beat that criteria. And, in the long haul, submitting to requests for proposals does not contribute to exponential growth for our industry, it merely redistributes the available dollars.

Finding real new business does require a little rocket science. Opening doors with advertisers who have no intention of using radio is much more challenging than walking through open doors; but every new door we walk through and win, is a huge win for radio and your station.

The timing for capturing more new radio advertisers has never been better.

The internet has virtually replaced all things print, from newspapers to yellow pages. This rapid and growing media change is leaving former print advertisers desperately looking for new media alternatives. Their desperation is compounded by rampant digital fragmentation, fraudulent clicks and likes, and changes so rapid that even the ‘experts’ have trouble keeping up.

click here to arrange a free online demo of how our SoundADvice training and marketing system can help you sell a strategic mix of tried and proven radio to inspire and new internet platforms to inform, and to help you capture more new business.

The internet has totally changed the way your audience buys.

Your advertisers probably remember the old days when they greeted customers who said they were, “just looking.”

Today, consumers have already done their “just looking” online.

The best ads today don’t try to change the way consumers shop, they tap into the way consumers shop.  Using intrusive media like radio to create pre-need awareness and preference for a business, and inspiring consumers to search for that business by name online, is the new media success formula.

Internet guru, Seth Godin, suggests that when consumers are searching online, “It is better to be sought, than to be found.”

When consumers happen to find a business online, but have no prior knowledge, awareness or preference for that business, their choice simply defaults to the cheapest provider.

And all of the SEO tricks in the world can’t guarantee a business will be found when all of the businesses competitors are using the same SEO techniques.

The only way a business owner can sleep at night knowing their business will be found, is if they are sought…. Their prospects have heard of them, trust them, and search for them by name.

Advertisers need intrusive radio advertising to create a pre-need awareness and preference to persuade their prospects to search for them online, by name.

Many online advertising proponents will claim online advertising is, “interactive” and position intrusive media like radio as, “interruptive”; as if that’s a bad thing.

In reality, online advertising is more reactive than interactive. In other words, consumers don’t begin to search for a business until they are reacting to a need they have.

The company websites and social media pages that generate the most traffic, are those which have created a pre-need awareness and preference in their prospects’ minds with ‘interruptive ads’ in intrusive media.

Radio advertising is no longer measured solely by foot traffic or telephone inquiries, but rather by online search. Radio is one of the most powerful SEO tools on the planet.