Tag Archives: campaign
A Politically-Incorrect Message
Those of you who have been receiving our ENS on Sales over the last twenty years, know it’s time for my annual politically incorrect “Merry Christmas” message. (Although, I’m increasingly convinced that ‘politically correct’ is an oxymoron because I don’t know any politicians who are ‘correct.’ They all seem to care more about getting elected than they do about doing what’s right.)
I used to agonize over whether I should say “Merry Christmas” because not everyone celebrates this Christian event.
But I believe in recognizing the role that history and heritage play in making people, nations, businesses, and cultures what they are, and Christmas is a part of the North American heritage I’m not ready to deny.
I’m not offended when a friend wishes me Happy Hanukah, and I feel honored when another friend invites me to her faith’s New Year’s celebration in November. There is no denying that Christianity played a role in making North America what it is today…..good or bad.
And I’ve never seen anyone from any faith object to getting a day off on December 25th, even though they know how the holiday originated, so Merry Christmas everyone!
‘Tis the season to rejoice and count our blessings.
As you take time over the holidays, I invite you to reflect upon how fortunate we are to be in this business.
We get paid for helping other people, it doesn’t get any better than that!
Whether we’re helping charitable organizations with a fund-raising campaign, or helping a business to grow and provide more employment with our advertising campaigns, we’re helping, informing and entertaining people every day!
Those people who punch a clock or work on an assembly line can only fantasize about having the opportunity to work with the diverse and creative group of peers we see every day. Some of us are wacky, some disciplined and some adventurous and others are focused…..together we produce a product and service like no other!
And we have a purpose bigger than ourselves! We transform lives. We help needy children by promoting Christmas toy drives. We entertain people, adding laughter, music, and insight to their otherwise boring lives. We keep people informed, make them think, and even let them know if they’ll need an overcoat on the way to work today.
We help them avoid traffic jams and to make enlightened decisions at election time.
For the most part, our jobs are not hazardous, we don’t brave the elements on a daily basis, and I don’t see a lot of calluses or sore backs in our business.
I heard an interview with country singer Kenny Rogers where he said: “Find a way to get paid for doing something you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” I think that’s where all of us in broadcasting are.
So merry ….happy……greetings……season’s…… wishes….. however you say it, we wish you all the best in 2018 and beyond. Merry Christmas from Wayne, Angela, Rick and Belinda at ENS Media Inc!
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.
The Secret to Increasing Your Sales
In this excerpt from my 2001 book, I wrote: “Tear up the last page in your presentation and double the investment you are asking for.” That was one of the keys to success then and remains so in 2017.
Here are the simple back-to-basics steps that still work today:
- Know your prospects dreams.
- Wear your ad manager’s hat & do the best presentation you possibly can with the client’s best interest at heart
- Establish a budget within the parameters, as described by the client.
- Look for the big idea. Revolve your presentation around a creative solution to an agreed to client problem or dream; not around spots, rates, or GRP’s.
- THEN TEAR UP THE LAST PAGE, AND DOUBLE THE INVESTMENT!!!
WHY DOUBLE YOUR PRESENTATION?
- A) From a Client Perspective
- Dominating your medium will capture and gain a dominant Share-of-Mind and subsequent dominant Share-of-Market with your audience.
- Major investments are viewed with much more respect and attention than minor or token investments. Your advertisers have a vested interest in ensuring your campaign works if the investment is significant.
- More budget directly increases reach, frequency, Share-of-Voice and success.
- Clients seldom tell you their real budget. They believe they have a vested interest in reducing their costs, but will always invest more if they are convinced they’ll get a return on that investment.
- Larger ‘asks’ demonstrate your confidence in what you are proposing.
- B) From Your Perspective
- You deserve more. Radio should not continue to accept competitors as “automatic buys”.
- It takes just as much work to write and service a $20,000.00 account as it does a $100,000.00 account.
- You will make more money………more easily.
If only half your clients double their budget, and you capture the original proposed budget as a fall-back position with the other half, your sales will increase by 50%.
WORDS THAT SELL
Our friends in digital media have been much more effective at harnessing the power of words than we have.
While we had ‘ratings’, they introduced ‘big data’ making our mere ratings seem pitifully small.
While we merely ‘reach’ people, our digital friends claimed to ‘engage’ them. Can you see the difference? I learned very early in my career that simply ‘reaching’ an audience did not necessarily mean you influenced that audience. ‘Engaging’ people just seems like such an endearing term compared to merely reaching them.
While we only had audiences, which the dictionary defines as spectators, listeners or viewers, they claimed to have ‘followers.’ The dictionary defines followers as ‘devotees or admirers of another person or a group.’
You have a myriad of sales tools available at your fingertips today, but in the end, all of those tools resort to the use of words; from PowerPoint to ratings, and from prospecting to presenting, it’s the effective and sometimes subtle use of words that ultimately make the sale.
Yet those of us in traditional communications are surprisingly ineffective at using the most relevant words when attempting to persuade, convince or sell.
At ENS Media, we critique hundreds of sales presentations every month to help our clients create more effective presentations, and we still see the careless or lazy use of words in most of those presentations.
For example, many presentations refer to ‘costs’ or paying a ‘price.’ The best presentations position your rates as “an investment” not a cost. Most entrepreneurs like to invest, while most are trying to reduce costs.
We still see presentations trying to sell ‘spots.’ Spots are something that have no perceived value, and in fact, we send our clothes to the cleaners to remove spots. There is much more perceived value in selling messages, commercials or announcements, than in spots.
And we still see way too much use of “we or I,” in presentations versus “you or your”. It’s much more effective to say “Your campaign will reach 100,000 of your prospects” than to say “we reach 100,000 listeners.”