Tag Archives: business

Only 3 Ways to GROW a Business

Everyone is trying to grow their business. Well, almost everyone. Occasionally, we run into that business owner that says, “I don’t want to get any bigger”. While they may have legitimate reasons, the old saying still holds true, “If you aren’t growing, you’re dying”.

In our industry, we are expected to grow, and the emphasis is usually on selling more advertising than you did last year. Regardless of the industry, the 3 ways to grow your business remains true.

Here are the 3 ways to grow your business:

1) Sell more of what you are currently selling

2) Increase the price/rate on what you are currently selling

3) Offer additional products/services to what you are currently selling

If it were only that easy! There are many points, counterpoints, subtitles and bullet points that go behind each of these three statements. But, regardless of how you slice it, everything will fall into one of these three categories. Keep in mind, I said 3 ways to GROW business, not increase profits. Then, you can add a 4^th element which is… Cut Cost!

These three points are not only a good lesson for us in the media business, but it’s good information to pass along to the clients and prospects that we call on. When you point this out to them, at the right moment, your knowledge of business will be evident. It gets them thinking and they will admire you for it. You may get some push back from “that client”, but I have never had anyone come up with something that doesn’t fall under one of these three ways.

If you come up with one, please share it with me. Knowledge is Power! Like you, I strive to “Get Better Every Day”.

Happy Training!

The Secret to More 52-Week Business!

Many of the stations we consult are surprised when they discover the number one reason advertisers don’t often schedule 52-week or 12-month campaigns.

So, what would you guess is the number one reason advertisers do not schedule 52-week campaigns? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not because they don’t have enough of a budget to advertise 52-weeks of the year.

Here is a countdown of the top four reasons!

Reason #4: They believe their business to be seasonal and want to invest their budget only during peak sales periods.

Reason #3: Because they’re not sure what their inventory levels will be, or what they’ll have to sell, ten or eleven months from now.

Reason #2: (this is often disgustingly true) because they believe radio stations will offer much better “deals” on sold inventory if they wait until the last minute to schedule each month.

The #1 reason why businesses don’t schedule 52-week or 12-month campaigns is … “we don’t ask them to”.

Advertisers tell us that most radio account executives have never shown them a 52-week plan or validated a solid benefit to booking 52-week schedules.

So, there you have it, the number one reason you don’t have more 52-week business is because you don’t ask for more 52-week business. It truly is that simple.

Ask and you just might receive!

Are you planning a company sales conference or association convention? If so, click here to inquire about scheduling our Selling Advertiser Annuities Workshop to help your salespeople capture more 52-week business.

The Biggest SEO Mistake

We were consulting one of our station’s advertisers, a veterinarian, who proclaimed they had just made a considerable investment in SEO…Search Engine Optimization, to get them to or near the top of an online search.

We immediately went online and searched for veterinarians in that market. They were nowhere near the top of the search engine page despite their investment.

The veterinarian was both amazed and disappointed, responding with “We were near the top last week”!

There-in lies the problem. While she was paying to enter the race to the top, her competitors kept upping the ante to win that race…it’s a never-ending race to the top that can change at a moment’s notice.

The only way an advertiser can be assured they’ll be found online is when their prospects search for them by NAME!

But, the problem is even more complex than winning the SEO race to the top.

Internet Guru Seth Godin says, “it is better to be sought online than to be found”.

In other words, the business that has created a pre-need, pre-search brand and preference for their business will always win that race, in two ways:

1.) They will be sought and subsequently found.

2.) The best marketers will have built their brands before the search so that when their competitors are listed, their prospects will prefer to click on them.

3.) Our local TOMA (Top-Of-Mind Awareness) studies consistently reveal:

A.) Proactive broadcast media will always be more effective than reactive print or digital efforts in creating TOMA

B.) Over 80% of the population in every market prefers to click on a site for a business they have heard of, rather than to go to a site of a business they are not familiar with.

Have your account executives been effective in helping advertisers understand why broadcast is the most powerful platform by which to create Top-Of-Mind Awareness and generate more web traffic?

If not, we should talk about initiating a TOMA survey in 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”.

Click here to arrange an online overview of how our TOMA Surveys and Training can help increase your local-direct sales.

When Advertising Does Not Work

We open every advertiser workshop and seminar with this statement; “Advertising can’t make a bad business a good business.”

You can begin more realistic advertiser relationships the same way. While every other advertising vendor out there is claiming advertising can solve all of a business’ problems, your credibility will jump to the head of the pack when you start your conversation honestly…advertising cannot make a bad business a good business.

It’s a simple matter to define “a good business” that will benefit from advertising. The Litmus test of a good advertising prospect is to ask, “Do you already get repeat and referral business?” If the answer is “no”, there is something inherently wrong with the business that advertising can’t fix.

But, once your prospect says they’re proud of their repeat business and word-of-mouth track record, you know you can accelerate the success of that business with great radio advertising and build a mutually-beneficial long-term advertiser relationship.

Internet marketing guru Seth Godin explains it this way:

In a competitive business like the local taco shop, here’s how it’s supposed to work:

Keep the place clean. Hire friendly staff. Make better tacos. Offer a fun, connected, even memorable experience.

What often happens instead is that you coin some clever slogans, worry about coupons, cut corners on ingredients and expand as fast as you can. What happens is that you build a moat around your business, get defensive about the status quo and race to the bottom. You’re generic now, and you fight the price-battles that being generic forces you to fight.

When in doubt, make better tacos and offer a fun and memorable experience worth advertising.

Your mission as a radio marketing consultant is to uncover businesses that you know are worthy of your time and can benefit from your advertising.

Your Most Valuable Radio Sales Lesson

This is a first! We don’t usually publish an ENS on Sales this time of year because of the low open rates during the holiday period. We’ve made an exception this week for two reasons:

1.) Roy Williams’ last Monday Morning Memo just before Christmas was so profound we wanted to bring it to your attention, and

2.) We’re assuming those who are picking up their emails during the holiday period are the industry’s movers and shakers.

So here is what Roy wrote in his final Monday Morning Memo just before Christmas:

“The thing that makes me look at the ground, shake my head and sigh is the dangerous myth of the Zero Moment of Truth. But then again, Google is the new Yellow Pages, so it shouldn’t surprise us that they’ve repackaged and renamed the old Yellow Pages scare tactic.The fundamental premise of the Zero Moment of Truth is that the customer is going to go online when they’re ready to purchase what you sell.I have no argument with that.But the dangerous, underlying assumption is that all contenders are equal during the Zero Moment of Truth. But that simply isn’t true.The company most likely to get the click, the call, and the sale is the company the customer has heard of and has good feelings about.The tortoise patiently wins the hearts of the people long before the race is begun. He says he’s ‘bonding with tomorrow’s customers’.‘Stupid tortoise,’ says the rabbit, ‘he still believes in branding.’Have you heard how that race turned out?

‘Knowledge is power’ is another dangerous myth.

It doesn’t matter what you know.
What matters is what you do with what you know.

So what are you going to do?”

-Roy Williams, Monday Morning Memo, December 18, 2017

You know Roy’s words of wisdom are true, but what are you doing to prove it to your local advertisers?

Our local TOMA, Top-of-Mind Awareness, surveys prove what you know to be true, and they open new advertisers’ doors and minds every week. Roy 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.”

Your local TOMA survey will:

1.) Prove your listeners prefer to click on the businesses they’ve heard of when they do their online search

2.) Prove the link between share of voice, share of mind and share of market

3.) Give your salespeople a powerful tool to capture new business appointments

But wait…there’s more! Click here to arrange an online demo of what our TOMA and SoundADvice radio e-marketing systems can do to increase your sales in the New Year.