Happy Friday, everyone!
Here is this week's poll question:
How many inquiries for advertising does your station receive per week? And how do you drive advertisers to the sales/advertising section of your website?
Looking forward to reading your answers!
We get 2-3 per week, but it depends on the market. We have worked with Gregg Murray from what is now known as Relaunch Radio. He built us a sales website that clients are directed to via on air promos and commercials. You can reach him at [email protected] or visit relaunchradio.com.
Over the past 10-12 years we've been using it, it has more than paid for itself. I run a small group and don't have the staff or expertise to develop and manage an inbound system.
Hope this helps,
I've been at a small stand alone station since its inception 1995. The owner, who had ZERO radio experience, however, allowed him to be used to get this Commercial Christian station on the air, asked me, who had the experience to come along and run it for him.
I told him at the time, 2 things:
1) No one ever wakes up and calls the stations and says, 'I think I want to advertise on the radio today!"
2) It's not a sale, until the check clears the bank,
So to answer your poll, I would have to say I get about 3-6 inquiries per YEAR!!!! Out of that,m maybe 2 are really serious. Yes, I do run a Promotional spot. Linked below (I hope) Plus having the DJs say the following: One per shift....
The Hill: we are your resource to drive the Faith Driven community to be your customers! How important is this customer to you? The Hill will get your message to the people that buy your products & Services!
Our Business is to help your business; we have thousands of loyal listeners, listening right now! How many do you want to be your customers? Call Rick Godley 243-4681 The Hill is the MOST effective affordable station in the market and Rick Godley can prove it. Rick doesn't close deals, he opens relationships, after all, 90% of the word closing is losing! We’re here to help and we’re here to serve, that ’s what a business doing ministry does! Win-Win-Win! We do more with less so we can give you more for less for your business!"
Final note: We're still here, had one of our best years in 2014 and in 20 years we have never begged for money, 'In Jesus Name'.
I've attached Rick's Radio Manifesto..... Radio is the Primal Medium, Social media is over valued and and illusion, perception is reality thing.... IMHO....
We have been using and inbounding sales platform for a couple of years. The platform ( website) is a self guided, self feeding informational inquiry into how and why radio should be explored to maximize revenues and profits using effective radio strategies.
We have been able to generate $XXX,XXX and has been very successful. The website is supported by a carefully word-smithed commercial campaign that runs 52 weeks.
The real art to converting all these inbound sales opportunities is how the sales team approaches the discovered sales opportunity. We normally use the inquiries as a signal to invite the business in to the station for a Full ON Agency approach. It takes the form of a multi departmental effort to show the prospect the support system that we offer.
It also takes a sales and marketing centric sales team to take control of the sale and never allowing the client to assume control over the process. How radio works. why Radio works. Why it will work for them. ROI. and most importantly the creative's power to persuade and effect results. The effective use of this type of inbounding lead generation is only as good as the moving parts that make the entire process work for the sales team and client alike.
Package sellers, spots and dots selling , rank selling can't be used if you want to create a long -term client who becomes a fan of our Brand, our brand fans, and they themselves become fans and wish to stay under the protective wing of our brands from which they can effectively communicate with the Brand Fans.
We use a service out of California, New AD Revenue, that has done a great job keeping up with our demands and tweaks of the site.
I strongly suggest giving them a call.... the conversation is free! Contact info below.... feel free to use my name!!!
Cheers all and Merry Christmas!! ( Sorry but to me is Merry Xmas).....
New AD Revenue
Dick WodrichFounder & General Manager
+1 (415) 944-9595
[email protected]
hey Joel..........
I drive our sales people to get in front of clients... but using a dedicated inbounding lead generation tool using the WWW......... is the path of least resistance for busy business people looking for immediate and expert help in growing their business. As a rule... prospects wishing for immediate info on marketing won't go to the Programming website. And some station's website's that contain links to a Sales page are just too irritating to try and navigate to. I know that's the case for me when I want business information from a B2B client.
Just my opinion Joel.
Cheers
D
Rick-We certainly think alike! I also work (part time now that I am semi-retired) at a Commercial Christian station. Thanks for your comments and your attachments.
We receive around 6-8 a year, and probably 2 or 3 are bonefide prospects.
Michael -- are there other components which drive prospects to the site other than on-air commercials? We run a small Adult Top 40 station which isn't exactly #1 on most client's radio dials but it sure is on their customers.
Relaunch Radio could be feasible for us, but we'd need to be able to expose it to target prospects and convert them into clients within 3 months of launching it.
Agreed with Darren. Business Owners and Marketing Directors who can say yes to ad campaigns are busy, time starved people. The last thing they want to do with their time is sit and chat with an ad sales rep.
Inbound leads = least resistance for busy decision makers who want to promote their brand.
We receive 5-6 a month. These prospects are normally given to new sales people who are still on salary rather than commission. We aggressively use cutomer testimonials and sales people produce their own ads as to why potential clients would want to do business with them.
I have to admit... I'm surprised at feed-back from other the surprisingly low number of inquiries, call ins ect?
I guess there is something to be said for " Inbounding" after all. lol!!!
Darren -- there are VERY few radio station "advertise with us" pages that are poised to make today's ad decision maker want to inquire... I think that's the reason. That said, I haven't looked at everyone's site. But most Media Kits I do see are a lot of fluff on why you ought to advertise with radio (and it's the same ol' lip service, lots of cheerleading for the medium without any data/case studies to back it up), instead of being focused on content that's important to today's local advertiser. The cluster I sold for a few years ago has a very "results" intensive site (and I know that they get more than a lead or two per month): www.milwaukeemarketingresults.com.
It's all about how you position it -- if you make it about why radio is great, no one cares. If you make it about bottom line results with specific examples, it stops being lip service to the prospect and it becomes reality.
agree totally Alex.....
I hate fluff... lol!
