Those of you who have attended my advertising seminars know that I’m a proponent of selling the ‘warm and fuzzies.’ I’m committed to the concept that people buy from their hearts, and only rationalize the decision their heart has made, logically.

Our Electronic Media Marketing Funnel, where “radio inspires and internet informs,” has helped hundreds of radio sales people convert previous print advertisers to a radio and internet media mix.
But I’m also the first to admit that warm and fuzzies, or emotions alone, won’t make the sale. Your advertisers need both emotions and logic to close a sale. That is why many ‘buy local’ campaigns fail…they create a nice warm feeling, but no results.

Selling your ‘buy local’ campaign to local advertisers may be lucrative for your stations, but you owe it to your clients to turn the emotional Buy Local campaign into increased sales with some solid reasons why consumers should buy local.

When Japanese auto manufacturers started to penetrate the North American markets in the mid sixties, we launched ‘buy American’ campaigns only to see the import auto makers’ market share continue to grow.

Simple flag waving was not enough to stem the growth of import auto sales. Their growth was only tempered when ‘the big three,’ General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, woke up and started making better cars.

Your local advertisers have to do the same. ‘Buy Local’ is a great umbrella theme, but without some teeth, some solid logical examples of what’s in it for the consumer to do so, the emotion alone won’t motivate more sales.

Do you want your local businesses to discover how important radio can be in the new media landscape? If so, contact [email protected] to arrange an online meeting to discuss how our radio e-marketing system can work for you.

It never ceases to amaze me how many stations do not utilize their best salespeople.

Who are your best salespeople? Your clients!

No one on your sales staff can make a more credible case for radio and your station, than a happy advertiser on your station.

Look at an email one of the regional sales managers we work with sent to his market managers this week. (The names have been changed to protect identity)

Hi guys,

As I mentioned in the call this morning, we have been running our ‘Ens Testimonials’ on-air at WKRP since the beginning of January.  The formula we set up has always been promoting radio first, then WKRP working for the client in the spot and I’ve been rotating 4 spots per day. 

While the leads haven’t been pouring in, we never get any call ins at WKRP but since running these we’ve received 20-25 leads and the team has definitely closed SEVERAL.  I estimate about $40,000 so far.

Here is a station that “never gets call-ins” that is now getting leads and sales from airing on-air advertiser testimonials.

So why aren’t you airing, mailing, publishing and printing client testimonials for radio and your stations?

P.S. Our SoundADvice member stations receive two monthly, free 10-minute videos on how to capture testimonials and how to use them more effectively. Contact [email protected] to inquire about your station becoming a member of SoundADvice, the radio e-marketing system that helping convert more radio advertisers every week.

Advertising often reflects what society wants rather than moving society in the best direction.

For example, everyone seems to want things the ‘fast and easy way.’ In 1925 Lucky Strike cigarettes advertised that women could lose easily lose weight if they simply “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet.” The campaign was able to fuel a Cigarette Diet fad that lasted nearly ten years because people wanted to believe in fast and easy results.

Today, you can still hear Marie Osmond promoting “Lose 5 pounds in one week with Fast Five Plus.” There still seems to be a huge appetite (pardon the pun) for fast and easy.
Doing my research for this ENS on Sales I discovered there was no shortage of promises to achieve your goals, fast and easy. I even found a company promoting a conference called ‘Succeed Faster.’
At ENS Media we have a less appealing, but proven success formula. Our motto is:

“Extraordinary revenues require extraordinary effort, extraordinary innovation and extraordinary creativity”.

A little common sense dictates that if the fast lane to success sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.

We have seen some companies succeed with only extraordinary effort, or only extraordinary innovation or extraordinary creativity, but our bet is always on combining all three in a proven road to success.

If you’re ready to put a little effort  behind some of the innovative and creative revenue producing systems we have, we’d love the opportunity to work with you. Contact  [email protected] to arrange an online meeting to learn how we can help increase your local-direct sales.

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.