In about a week and a half I will be starting a new job as a radio sales assistant. My sales manager is giving me the opportunity to earn commission off of Internet sales. How can I take advantage of this opportunity? What approach should I take to sell Internet ads to potential clients? Is there a difference in approaching clients for just Internet sales and approaching clients for on-air radio ads? Your thoughts and comments will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Britney
If the product is such a low price it becomes like telemarketing - it's all about the deal for the customer and the volume for you.
If the product is fairly priced, it's just like approaching clients for radio ads and that requires face time.
Thanks Jack!
Britney,
I don't know which company you work for or market that you are in but, each company has a different philosophy for positioning and selling Radio and Internet. I teach my staff to sell integrated marketing solutions, which means they are combining both radio and internet (digital) sales platforms for our clients.
If your supervisors only wants you to focus on internet sales then you will be selling mostly banner ads and streaming commercials, is that right? In order to be successful in doing that you should also take an intgrated approach. By that I mean sell the streaming commercials and banner ads together. All businesses understand that they need to be doing internet advertising and marketing, but they don't know where to start. Almost all businesses have websites, but they are not sure how to drive traffic to them . This is how you can help. You want to talk to them about doing a digtial media campaign on your stations that 1. drive consumers to their site directly or to thier Facebook page. and 2. Build thier brand name with consumers in the marketplace so they can increase marketshare. Now you'll want to demonstrate how you can create Retrun On Investment for them as well. Here's your Internet Sales starter kit: Create a program that includes streaming commercials that direct consumers to your clients website or Facebook Page. Get your listeners to LIKE your client on Facebook. Ask your client to send out a daily special or deal to his facebook followers. The special must have value and not being given to everyone. This is the incentive for your audience and give your client a database to engage. Now he should send more than 3 deals a week. The banner ad on your station(s) site will create another engagement with your audience to have your client stay Top of Mind. The digital banner should have a link to your clients site. Your clients should also have an active site that allows him to sell goods and services on his site as well. If not you may want to consult your client on updating the website. Websites should be more than a brochure for thier business. The goal is for your client to see an increase in his website and/or facebook traffic. The more consumers he engages then the more opportunities your are creating for him to increase sales.
Britney, one more thing. Business owners will want to know why they should have a banner ad on your sites. You can tell them "all businesses have websites, but only our websites have radio stations connected to them to drive consumers to see your ads!" A website is only as effective as the number of consumers that engage with it . Your stations have the unique ability to drive consumers to thier sites.
Good Luck and Have Fun.
Russ DelCore
Great information, thank you Russ!
James
Ok along this line of thinking,my internet radio station will soon take to the internet.Using Live365,
and will be available to some FM stations for rebroadcast of my 10P to 1A live show,"The Old Night Light Show"NCIR will be available only across North Carolina.Something I thought impossible since I thought being on the internet was world wide.But Live365 says this is possible. It makes sense since on the internet,you are charged by listener hours and listeners in say California,would do my advertisers no good. So heres the question.How much should my rate card charge for just my internet broadcast? AND how much should I charge for the FMs who are broadcasting my show and carrying my commercials? How much do FM stations get paid to carry my commercials even though they could insert their own? OK so thats three questions.Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
