Many years ago a sales guru speaking at a training session I was attending said, “Business goes where it is invited.” In the context of what we were there for, this was intended as something we should be saying to prospective clients. Advertising is a way to invite the masses to do business with you.
It was something fairly easy to say to someone who was not doing any advertising or to a new business. The saying made a lot of sense and it’s easy for anyone to understand.
It wasn’t until a few years later I realized this saying means a lot more than what I originally thought. I was always looking at it through the lens of a salesperson talking to a client.
When I became a Market Manager, I realized the saying can mean several things. I asked my team at the time, “What are WE doing to invite business?” This wasn’t just a question for the sales department; programming, marketing and even HR needed to answer the same question.
Most media outlets are always looking for good employess, especially in the sales department. So, what were we doing to invite people to come join our team? Sure, we posted on the job sites and had a listing on our website, but there was plenty more we could be doing to help the cause. We came up with the idea of having our talent do endorsement ads for prospecitve sellers. They were the ones our listeners trusted, so we decided to use their voices to invite potential candidates for jobs.
On the programming side, listeners go where they are invited and stay where they feel welcomed. So, again I asked the question, “What are we doing to invite new listeners in?” We realized, at the time, we were mostly just reiterating to current listeners why they should stay. As far as what we were doing to invite new listeners, the answer was really nothing.
You can do the greatest programming in the world, but if you aren’t finding ways to get that message out to new listeners, how will you ever grow? Yes, billboard campaigns and television ads could be one of the answers, but unless someone was willing to accept restaurant trade as payment for those, we knew that wasn’t going to happen.
As digital and social media became more prevalent, the excuses became a bit harder to accept. And that leads us to where we are today. Some stations really need to take a hard look at what they are doing to “invite business.” In this case “they” refers to the station as a whole and the talent who work on them.
Having spent quite a bit of time in the last two months looking at sports radio station websites and social media accounts, some are still not getting it. In fact, a lot of stations and talent aren’t even doing the bare minimum.
If you are a manager, I would ask you to do a simple test. Take a look at your website as though you are someone who doesn’t listen regularly to the radio station. Is the information there to “invite” new people in and inform them of what you are all about?
For many of you, this is not the case. I recently ran across some stations that do not even list the names of the people who host the shows. The hosts last names are used for the title of the show and nowhere on the site does it list the actual names of the hosts. Several others have a one sentence description of a show. Really? You have unlimited space to promote your own product and you can’t come up with more than one sentence to sell the program?
Social media makes it incredibly easy to promote what is going on at your station, and it’s FREE! Yet, many are still not taking advantage of what can be a great way of marketing a radio station and inviting new listeners in to the mix.
It starts with the station. Take a look at your station’s social media accounts and examine what is being put out, especially to attract new listeners. There is no easier way to promote yourself, yet some are still struggling to use it for what it is. I see several stations that will simply post a link for how to listen to an hour or section of a show, without even an explanation as to what is in the audio someone might find interesting.
A station account is one thing, but we all know it is the talent accounts that are usually going to help move the needle. Frankly, most talent are not doing all they can be doing to help attract more audience. Managers, take a look at your talent’s social media accounts. Look to see if they are giving their followers reasons to tune in. Are they posting clips of show highlights? Are they engaging with their audience when they are not on the air? At the very least, are they sharing posts from the station accounts?
Being an advocate for your own stations and shows and working to bring in new listeners is part of the job. After all, if we as an industry aren’t inviting more people in, who is going to do it for us?
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The Best Thing I Heard This Week
Mike Stone said goodbye to his audience on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit on Friday. Stoney and Jansen officially came to an end as Stone thanked everyone he could think of and each cast member had a chance to say what Stone has meant to them. It was great to hear one the legends of the format going out on his own.
While he will not be on the station full-time he will be continuing on the airwaves:
“I am not retiring. I will be here for two years filling in for a lot of shows, Lions football, I will have a presence at the draft. It’ll be different, yes. But, you’ll love the new show, Costa and Jansen…And when those two years are over, who knows, I might want to staty another two years.”
You can listen to the final episode, including Stone’s emotional letter of thanks, by clicking here.
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In Case You Missed It
Last week, Demetri Ravanos profiled Mary Menna, market manager for Beasley Media Group’s Boston cluster, which includes 98.5 The Sports Hub. Menna will be on stage at the upcoming Barret Sports Media Summit, but talked more about what she plans to learn at the event.
She also said something that caught my attention when talking about Beasley’s two very successful sports radio brands. “We are not in 150 markets as a company,” she said. “And so where we are, we have quality brands and great markets that we’re in. So we try to make those brands really great where we are and not spread ourselves too thin.”
You can read the full article by clicking here.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
