Monthly Archives: February 2015

3 Keys to Success

Prior to the internet, most retailers counted on high traffic locations for their customers to find them.  It was often said the three keys to retail success were “location, location, location.”

Today, customers need not invest their time driving or walking in search of a business.  They simply search online to find the products or services they need.

In this new world, the most important location your advertisers can have is in the minds of your audience.

The purpose of advertising is to create a pre-need awareness and preference for a business, so that their prospects search for them by name.

And it’s always better for a business to be sought online, than to be found by accident along with a list of their competitors.

The perfect media mix today begins with intrusive radio to create a position in customers’ minds, backed up by helpful and informative web content to capitalize on the preference that radio has created for them.

ENS Media’s local Share-of-Mind Surveys prove time and time again that less than 6% of consumers will click exclusively on the first business their search engine reveals if they have not heard of them.

Approximately 77% prefer to visit the website of and do business with, businesses they have heard of or were familiar with.  So Share-of-Mind (SOM) is in fact the best Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

As you plan for a successful 2016, have you considered facilitating our Local Share-of-Mind Surveys in your market to uncover new leads, to train your sales team how to sell more radio to create top-of-mind awareness, and to educate your advertisers how to generate more web traffic with intrusive radio campaigns?

If you want more new revenue in 2016 and beyond, contact[email protected] to explore the feasibility of a Local Share-of-Mind Survey in your market.

Radio Versus Digital Myth

We’re hearing a lot about digital cutting into radio advertising budgets….but does that need to be the case?

According to a survey by technology research firm Gartner Inc., 68% of senior marketing executives said that their company had a separate digital marketing budget.

According to the survey, marketing executives are three times more likely to lead strategic growth initiatives in 2015 than they were in 2012.

So let’s think about this. If digital marketing is all about growth initiatives, of course marketing executives can justify new and separate budgets for digital.

If you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hire a sales person who can guarantee to increase your sales dramatically, do you cut budget elsewhere or reduce your sales support staff to pay for that growth opportunity?

Of course not. If a new sales person, or digital initiatives, really can increase sales, those initiatives are paid for out of that growth!

And when C.D.s became popular, did consumers replace their car radios to pay for CD players, or did they find extra budget to add the CD option?

Where there is perceived benefit, we can always find more budget.

A Forbes magazine article about the Gartner survey said “Changing market dynamics, an empowered buyer, channel proliferation and a connected economy open up a wealth of strategic growth opportunities for organizations in every sector.”

Who wouldn’t invest more budget in growth?

The article said, “For marketers in 2015, it’s less about digital marketing than marketing in a digital world. Hence, marketers manage a much more balanced and integrated marketing mix than in previous years.”

Is it time for you to spread the word that digital doesn’t replace broadcast, but rather is a component in an integrated marketing mix with radio to increase the sales?

Contact [email protected] to arrange a no-obligation online meeting to learn how our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system and Winning in the New Media Economy advertiser seminars are helping radio sales professionals sell more radio in 2015 and beyond.

Death of a Sales Rep

If you have the word ‘agent’ or ‘representative’ in your job title, you could be on the verge of extinction.

Remember the days before Expedia and Travelocity?  You had to call a ‘Travel Agent’ to make your plans and book your vacations. The internet has changed the way people buy.

Programmatic buying and being able to book advertising on a wide range of new media via the internet are leading many advertisers away from investing their valuable time talking to media sales representatives.

The only way to ensure your clients will continue to do business with you is to deliver more value than simply selling space or spots.

Noted sales trainer, Jeffrey Gitomer, made it clear to one sales rep that simply ‘touching base’ no longer cuts it.  Jeffrey said, “Dude, you’re going to lose all of your customers if you fail to reach them with a message of value every week.”

The litmus test of the value you deliver is simple; do your clients and prospects actually thank you for your service and look forward to the value you deliver over and above the spots you sell?

Our SoundADvice member stations receive thank you notes for the value they deliver like this one received last week in Grand Junction, Colorado;

 

Hi Maggie,

One of the consequences of a busy mentality is that appreciation is too often ignored or is not expressed appropriately for the many good deeds of people who serve others.
 

I want to express my deepest appreciation for your Sound Advice communiqué that you send on a regular basis. I want you to know that I read your emails and enjoy the quality of the content.
 

Thank you.

As John Wooden (UCLA coach) once said, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

Keeping us informed of new marketing and reminding us of existing marketing strategies is a big job and your efforts have not gone unnoticed.

  

Happy New Year!

Gary

 

If you aren’t currently receiving thank you letters or emails like this, you need to ask yourself these 4 questions about every client on your list, every month;

  1. 1.    What is the last message of value I delivered to this account?
  2. 2.    When?
  3. 3.    What is the next message of value I’m planning to deliver to this client?
  4. 4.    When?

And, if the answer to questions 2 or 4 is longer than 30 days away, you are about to be one of those representatives who loses the business.

Many stations try to deliver a message of value by aggregating content from other newsletters, but our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system delivers all original content, that reinforces the value of radio in the new media landscape and trains your account executives how to deliver more value on every call.

Contact [email protected] for a free demo of how the SoundADvice system can help you sell more radio campaigns.