Yearly Archives: 2016

Making Radio Tangible

The dictionary defines ‘tangible’ as; ‘able to be perceived by a sense of touch‘.
Radio is only an intangible if you let it become so. And if the only ‘tangible’ your clients receive from your station is an invoice, you’re headed for trouble.
At cutback time, the media with the most tangibles in your clients’ files often wins and escapes the knife!  How thick is your client’s file of your tangibles?
  • Do they have a presentation on file that clearly outlines what you proposed to do for them and how you would achieve their objectives?
  • Have you delivered trade articles about marketing your customers’ categories?
  • What about wrap-up reports with testimonials from their customers, a summary of what you delivered, and of course, an outline of how you over-delivered?
  • Does your client’s file include all of the scripts you’ve delivered, audio copies of their commercials and proofs of performance?
  • Do they see your station-logoed swag every day, or do you make your presentations against a backdrop of your competitor’s swag?
  • Do you conduct post-campaign analysis and deliver written summaries of those analyses?
  • What about regular helpful tips and branding tools like our SoundADvice, complete with your photo and station logos?
  • Have you used your cell phone to forward pictures of their customers lined up at a successful event or remote?
            At cutback time, the media with the most tangibles in the advertiser’s files wins!  Don’t let the newspaper tear-sheets, or the billboard tent-cards and photos ‘out-tangible’ what you do, and certainly, don’t let an invoice be the only tangible advertisers receive from you!

P.S. If you don’t have a post-campaign analysis process, or want to learn more about our SoundADvice radio e-marketing system contact [email protected].

The Power of Branding

You know the success of clients who brand and create a pre-need preference for their business or their products. Our local TOMA (Top-of-Mind Awareness) surveys, in more than 100 markets, prove the power of branding time and time again.

But what do you do to create a pre-need preference for your sales people and your stations with advertisers in your market?  Often, stations rely solely on the efforts of their sales people, without doing any marketing.

Click here to arrange a free online demo of how the SoundADvice radio e-marketing system can help train and brand your sales people to open more doors and close more sales.

Profits

After reading our ENS on Sales about the absurdity of patting ourselves on the back for achieving ‘record sales’, an astute client pointed out there is one ‘record’ worth pursuing… record profits.

We can’t feed our families with record ratings or record sales, although both can contribute to the result that can feed our families…profits!

The delicate balance between controlling costs but making investments that will pay off, is where the best managers shine.

To view the Record Sales article click here

P.S. We guarantee a return on your investment in our (TOMA) Top Of Mind Awareness surveys. Click here to arrange an online demo.

Hooray For Canadian Radio

          It appears a new radio marketing bureau is on the horizon, called Radio Connects.

          As someone who has always held the efforts of the Radio Marketing Bureau, and its predecessors the Radio Bureau of Canada and the Radio Sales Bureau, dear to my heart, I applaud the efforts of the CAB committee to get this initiative off the ground.

          But now I’ll issue a few warnings in the hopes that my industry doesn’t shoot itself in the foot again;

1.) Don’t have unrealistic expectations of what your new marketing body can do for you. Radio Connects is starting from ground zero, with a limited budget and is mandated to promote radio in the midst of a digital frenzy.

2.) Don’t have unrealistic expectations of when you will see results. Even in radio best of times, we often took a back seat to TV, newspaper and digital, so Radio Connect has a huge battle ahead.

3.) Support the new Radio Connects with your time, expertise and funding. You may not agree with every strategy or initiative that evolves from this effort, but let’s not get bogged down with special interests and nay-sayers. Radio is the ONLY Canadian media without an industry marketing association, and that’s not right.

4.) Remember, Executive Director Sarah Garvie and her special advisor Paul Ski are serving a committee of your peers. Please empower them and give them the benefit of the doubt.

We’ve all heard the old joke about a camel being a horse that was designed by a committee.   Radio Connect might not be perfect but it will be great!

Breaking Records

          I’m not understanding why ‘breaking records’ is worn like a badge of honour.

          A headline in Radio Ink’s headlines last week read “IAB Reports Record Ad Revenue.’

          Having record revenue is not an exceptional feat; it’s the absolute necessity of a sustainable business.

          Business costs, for everything from staff salaries to electric bills and office space, are also breaking records. And the number of advertisers vying for market share in every category from automobile manufacturing to fast food restaurants is also breaking records. Growth is as natural as breathing air. I predict next year the world population will “break an all-time record.”  The number of shoes sold worldwide next year will probably also break a record.

          The problem I have with sales managers bragging about ‘breaking all time records’ is that breaking records should not be considered an outstanding achievement, but rather it is what is required to build a sustainable business.

          And when merely ‘breaking a record’ becomes ‘good enough’ we’re leaving money on the table.

          Radio pioneer, Allan Waters, said “Our problem is not that we aim too high and miss our targets, but rather, that we aim too low and hit those targets.”

          Let’s start shooting higher than the records that inflation, ratings, tenure, or any other natural phenomena will bring us. The alternative is to tighten your belt, and prepare for the worst. Read our SoundADvice; The Great Hot Dog Story before you prepare for a tough year.

          As you plan for 2017, try shooting for the stars instead of the moon. Worst case scenario, you’ll miss the stars but at least hit the moon.