Yearly Archives: 2017

Digital Vs Traditional

You’ve probably heard that ‘figures don’t lie, but liars sure can figure’.

Whenever I’m reviewing figures or ‘research’, I always look first at the source.

With all due respect, research from any source has its built-in biases. Research conducted by RAB, for example, will have a pro-radio slant, while research from The Association of Magazine Media will show magazines in a favorable light.

So, when I see figures from eMarketer, the biased digital marketing and media research firm, that says consumers spend less than half their media time with digital media and slightly over half of their media time with traditional media, they’ve got my attention.

Wow!  Despite all the noise about digital, traditional media still rock!

But here is what the eMarketer report doesn’t tell you. Digital, be it mobile or laptop, is a www, worldwide web, media. As of October 2017, the time spent with digital media consumption is apportioned over 1.24 billion websites, 2.8 billion social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and more, plus emails, YouTube, Skype and more.

So, let’s look at my admittedly radio-biased ‘research’. Radio is not a www media…it’s local. While there might be dozens of stations in a market, most people are only exposed to two or three stations each week. So, while ‘www dot digital’ might be great for worldwide marketers like Ford Motor Company or McDonalds, it’s far too fragmented for local businesses to use effectively.

And radio’s two or three favorite stations also stand out in a 350 channel TV universe.

Of course, it’s a must that local businesses have their own web and social media sites. But their reactive digital media traffic, reacting to a need, must be driven by proactive local radio, creating a pre-need/pre-search awareness and preference for their business.

Click here to arrange an online overview of how our local TOMA (Top-of-Mind awareness) Research and SoundADvice Radio e-Marketing System can persuade local businesses to use more radio and TV in their media mix.

Disruptors Fill a Void

Technology by itself is not the real disruptor.

Not being customer-focused is the biggest threat to any business. Technology only fills the void left by poor performance and high costs.

Robots didn’t kill assembly line jobs:  High wages, careless quality control and the pursuit of profits did.

Uber isn’t killing the taxi industry:  Limited access, poor service, and poorly maintained cabs left an opening for Uber.

Apple didn’t kill the music industry:  High prices and being forced to buy full-length albums drove customers to purchase only the songs they wanted.

Ariel Durant, author of, ‘The Story of Civilization’, said, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

Is your company providing enough value to your listeners and your advertisers to circumvent the appeal of new technologies and platforms?

We have room to conduct one more Local TOMA Survey in your market this year to jump start your sales next year.  Contact [email protected].  These surveys consistently prove local radio’s effectiveness, and help radio account executives to close more new business.

Increase Your Sales in 2018

 

Your Local TOMA Surveys will prove what you already know….Radio Works!

  • Are your sales executives finding it more difficult to capture new business appointments?
  • Do you need a strategic system to capture new high-quality leads?
  • Are your prospects claiming great results from digital?
  • Are local advertisers in your market questioning radio’s continuing relevance?
  • Do you need more new business in 2018?
  • Do your salespeople need a tried and proven system of developing more 52-week business?

Special Offer

Launch your local TOMA Research survey this year, if you act now with nothing to pay until next year!

We have room for 4 more local market TOMA Surveys this year. As a special offer to four of our ENS on Sales readers, we can conduct your TOMA survey this year, so your team can hit the ground running with it in January 2018.

Contact [email protected] to arrange an online overview of TOMA for your market.

Roy Williams says;

“I’ve long suggested that radio stations fund a TOMA study every two years. Few things are as valuable in the eyes of advertisers as these revealing market snapshots.”

12 Things Your Survey Can Tell You…

While the digital media world seems to receive all the limelight today, The ENS Media TOMA Surveys are helping broadcasters across North America to capture increased local advertising revenues.

Here are the top 12 benefits you and your advertisers will derive from these local surveys.

1.  Your surveys will always prove that the best way to ensure consumers click on a business when they search online is to create a pre-need awareness and preference for the business with intrusive broadcast advertising.

2.  It’s much more powerful to make an appointment to talk about your prospects’ ratings, and their competitor’s ratings, than trying to get an appointment to talk about your ratings.

3.  If you have done Share-of-Mind or Top-of-Mind surveys in the past, your survey can prove that businesses that began using radio/TV after your last survey actually increased their Share-of-Mind score.

4.  The most important findings will be uncovering ‘open’ categories. Categories with no strong Share-of-Mind leader are very easy, and very inexpensive, for new radio/TV advertisers to capture the dominant Share-of-Mind and Share-of-Market.

5.  Mature categories are those categories where the market leader has more Share-of-Mind than number two and three combined. These categories create ‘niche’ opportunities for you to sell. For example, if furniture is a mature category in your market, you can help a furniture store compete against the generic category leader by choosing a niche to promote on your stations. The niche might be leather furniture, cheap financing, high-end decorating advice, patio furniture etc.

6.  Your survey might reveal an advertiser needs to be more consistent in the way they express their name or brand, if their name is expressed several different ways in the survey. You’ll provide real value pointing this out to your prospects/clients and increase your sales as they begin to realize higher returns on their advertising investment.

7.  If there is a mature category, where the leader is not a broadcast advertiser, it’s important to note they are vulnerable and are winning by default because they have no significant broadcast competitors. These are still open categories, in effect, because our surveys in more than 100 markets reveal that a category leader that wins by default can be overtaken by a competitor that begins using broadcast advertising.

8.  You might have a good radio advertiser that does not fare well in your survey. The reason will generally be found in Roy Williams’ “Twelve Causes of Advertising Failure”, and isolating why their advertising isn’t effective can help you increase their advertising results and their advertising investment.

9.  In most cases, if a generalist leads the category, and there is a relatively high ‘no answer’ score, the generalist has won by default and a specialist can quickly and efficiently become the category leader. For example, if Home Depot leads the windows and doors category, or the flooring category, advertisers who specialize in those categories, and use intrusive broadcast as a pillar of their promotion, can quickly capture Share-of-Mind and Share-of-Market.  While the Home Depots of the world have to divide their budget to cover dozens of categories, a specialist can dedicate their entire budget to their category.

10. Your survey will also prove that the only SURE way to be found online is when prospects search for a business by name because many businesses have fierce online SEO competition for first-page positioning if consumers search the category generically.

11 Your Share-of-Mind survey will make that vital link between Share-of-Mind and Share-of-Market. Your survey will also prove that branding and Top-of-Mind awareness are not the sole domains of large national advertisers and that local businesses can capture top Share-of-Mind as well.

12. Your Share-of-Mind survey will prove that sellers of various minor players in search, like Yellow Pages or reach local, do not have the reach that they claim, and that Google is by far the only search engine businesses need to concern themselves with.

The TOMA Selling System will help you sell more in 2018 and beyond.  Contact [email protected]  to arrange an online overview of what TOMA Research and Training can do for you.

Leave Room to Negotiate?

Imagine I offer to sell you a horse for $10,000. You offer me $7,000 and I quickly say, “Deal!”

You’re thinking, “Wow, if he knocked $3,000 off with no questions, he must have been gouging me.” And “I wonder how much less I could have bought the horse for”?

I questioned a radio salesperson about the pricing of a proposal he was about to make last week, and he said he “Built in enough to negotiate.” Upon further questioning, I discovered he was prepared to lower the price, just to get the deal, without the buyer having to give something in return.

Are you a horse trader or a professional? Do you expect to dicker with professionals like your lawyer or your accountant, or do you trust and accept their fees at face value?

A radio marketing professional will never falsely inflate their proposal in order to be able to “deal.”

ENS Media’s training helps media executives understand what we call ‘Negotiation 101’… never give one without getting one.

If you know you are about to present to a buyer who expects to ‘negotiate’, you need to plan accordingly. You need to build things into your proposal that you can give up without hurting the campaign, in return for lowering the price.

Perhaps you broaden the rotation in return for a lower investment, ask for payment up front, or ask for a longer commitment in return for a lower spot rate, but NEVER, just drop your rate just to get the deal without asking for a concession from the buyer in return.

To offer concessions without getting concessions in return will quickly damage your brand as a professional and rebrand you as a horse trader.

That’s Not Branding

Our TOMA (Top-of-Mind Awareness) Surveys consistently and convincingly prove radio’s effectiveness, but occasionally a ‘good’ radio advertiser does not fare well in the survey.

On those rare occasions, we dig deeper to help the advertiser create a campaign that works. We begin the process by capturing the local knowledge of the radio account executive.

Very often the account executive will say, “They bought our branding campaign.” When we ask about their ‘branding campaign’ they’ll usually say something like, “It’s six spots a day for 52 weeks.”

That’s not branding!

That may explain the reach and frequency of the advertiser’s message, but it’s the message itself that establishes the brand and the results. The good news is we can always find the reason an advertiser’s campaign did not help them capture TOMA (Top-of-Mind Awareness) and we’re doing them a huge service by focusing on a message that will achieve their objectives in the future.

We’re speaking at the RAB/NAB Radio Show in Austin next week. If you’re there, please introduce yourself. We welcome the opportunity to meet our ENS on Sales readers.