Radio Sales Café

Hello-

I'm building (from the ground up) the Sales/Sponsorship department of an online radio station.  My background is not in Radio Sales, so I'm learning a lot as I go along.

Have you, Oh' Seasoned Radio Salespeople, found that corporate budgets have to use their budget before the end of the year or fear the budget slashed for the next year?  

Since we are "global," -- but mostly US & Canada audiences - regional players are not someone we have focused on- thoughts on that?

Any idea if corporations have a separate Internet Marketing budget (that we as internet radio may fall under)?

I have not yet heard feedback on our first two sponsorship pitches -- I'm stalling finalizing any other ones until I get some better info on rates.  I know this has come up in other topics, but I'm still not comfortable given our unique position as internet radio + high podcast downloads (for some of the shows).  Thoughts?

Finally, I'm wondering if there's a "general list" of stats/analytics a prospective client looks for to help make their decision.  Anyone have anything of use?

Thanks a mil -- I'm working hard but there's so many unknown variables (to me) ...I just want to make the best impression for the station.

Cheers!

Use it or lose it is definitely a standard edict but rarely does that mean free money to toss around without intent. With the demand for accountability has increased, found money is harder to find. Your challenge is deeper still in that small, startup Internet radio stations have no compelling sales proposition as the metrics are typically too unfocused to attract local, regional or national dollars. The best revenue opportunity is in relationship-based local sales and lifestyle events that can be perfected locally with an eye towards replication in your strongest markets. My two cents.

Tanya,

Typically corporate budgets are "allocations" and unlike grant funding, do not have to be used.  As for internet/digital budgets, many companies (depending on size) are not separating budgets for traditional and digital marketing....although that continues to slowly change each year. Finally, regarding what criteria a client may be looking for...here are some of the key areas, but not all.  Depends on the prospect.

Web Streaming:  User Sessions, Unique User sessions, Time Spent Listening, Geographic locations

Web Sites: Page Views, Unique Page Views, Bounce Rate, Average Page Visits, Time on Site, Time on pages.

Your Web streaming provider will be able to offer you some or all of the web streaming statistics.  Your Web Hosting service can provide some of the Web site stats.  However, I would recommend utilizing Google Analytics  (http://www.google.com/analytics/) for this information.  Your web admin or web host service provider can help set you up with that.

Hope this helps, 

Best of Luck

George Feola

THANK YOU, to both of you (George & Larry)!

Best wishes for the season and 2014!