Would it surprise you to know that I hear this question from radio salespeople as much as the advertisers they’re trying to sell? Provided your station has a reasonable number of digital offerings, how would you answer the question?
It should be a goal of every station owner and manager to make sure there is no doubt in anyone’s mind, inside the building or out, that working with radio stations on digital advertising solutions is a smart decision.
One the most overlooked reasons is that we know a lot about local marketing. Radio sales professionals are some of the most connected people in any community. They’re ingrained with their best clients, active in business associations and aware of hundreds of advertising campaigns and promotions that flow through their stations each year. In the age of do-it-yourself marketing, a veteran radio salesperson brings years of valuable experience to the table.
But there’s something we have that newspapers, direct mail, yellow pages, magazines, TV and digital-only companies can’t offer when it comes to fielding a geofencing, targeted display or other digital campaign. RADIO! The free, portable, storytelling, electronic brand-building platform with the largest reach of any media in the country. Radio adds value to every digital campaign by giving advertisers credibility and brand awareness.
You’ve got mere seconds to get someone’s attention when they glance at their smartphone while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store. The businesses with name awareness, whose jingles you can hum along to, get the attention and the clicks. Radio and mobile go together like peanut butter and jelly. It’s a perfect match. And a well-coordinated advertising campaign that integrates these two platforms gives radio stations and their advertisers an advantage in the market.
Not convinced? Imagine that you’re an orthodontist looking for new patients and the local radio salesperson comes to you with an idea. How about running radio commercials on the station that’s a homerun with moms 35-44. At the same time, field a geofencing campaign that puts your ads onto the smartphones of people at all the little league ball fields in town. And while you’re at it, let’s add in the elementary schools. Picture it! A busy mom of three crooked-teethed kids sitting in the drop off lane hears your ad on her favorite radio station’s morning show and then sees it on her phone while checking the day’s weather forecast. That’s a winning combination that only your local radio salesperson can deliver.
But a word to the wise, just make sure that the digital infrastructure is there to back it up. You have your choice of several third-party providers who can white label digital solutions for your stations. Marketron has a particularly user-friendly platform that enables salespeople to field this kind of campaign in any market. In addition, having someone in-house to facilitate digital sales and fulfillment is a wise investment.
Marketing experience, mammoth reach, the power of using audio to tell a story and new tools to precisely deliver digital ads anywhere in the world. Why would you buy from anyone else?