Tag Archives: objectives

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.

Slow Down and Sell

A recent study by QSR magazine, the trade magazine serving the fast food industry, revealed the speed of service in drive-throughs has gotten 11.3 percent slower over the last couple of years, slowing from 203.3 seconds down to 226.3 seconds.

 

But it appears that slower service comes with a silver lining… that same study revealed that along with the slower service came a 3.2% improvement in order accuracy.

 

Have you ever considered that those same dynamics might impact your selling cycle? In your haste to capture an order, you may be missing some greater opportunities and not doing the best possible job for your clients.

 

Your clients can sense when you lack confidence or fear not making the sale. Trying to rush the sales cycle is one of the symptoms they link to fear.

 

The one-call-sale not only leaves money on the table, it often fails to correctly identify your client’s objectives, thereby missing their goal, and more importantly, missing the renewal.

 

The fast one-call-close might satisfy your need to make your budget. But slowing down to learn more about your client’s business, and their competitive situation, will inevitably result in helping your advertisers achieve their budgets.  Better pre-call preparation, questioning and more research, over a series of meetings to advance the sale will inevitably lead to better service, better results, and more solid annuals.

 

“It’s better to be slow and careful in the right direction than to be fast and careless on the wrong path. Be sure that you are on the right path before you begin to take your  steps!”

– Israelmore Ayivor– author and leadership coach.

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].