Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters, and get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox.
In this day and age where no one has any budget whatsoever to do any kind of marketing, it can be hard to make your station’s presence known beyond those who are already listening. And when you’re not only competing against other stations but also satellite, Internet-only, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, YouTube, and more, it’s easy to get lost in the ocean of options.
Fear not! Here are a few easy, relatively cheap options you might borrow to help market your station amidst the infinite dial of content sources. (Some might require a bit of investment, but hopefully not too much.)
- The Haircut
Instead of simply giving away prizes to Caller 9, make them work for it. This requires a bit of time to execute, but… Start promoting the giveaway for whoever gets your call letters, frequency or station name shaved into their hair. (It’s not permanent!) Then they have to post the photographic evidence on social media and tag you in it, which gets you exposure every time they go out in public but also among all of their social media contacts.
You then pick your favorites, put them on the website, and have people vote on who wins. Besides on-air promotions, promote on social and tag your winners – again, spread the word beyond simply just people who’ve Liked your Facebook page. The most votes wins, and that means people who want to win are telling their friends to vote for them.
Naturally, whoever wins has to come to the station to pick up their prize so you can ensure that their shaven glory wasn’t Photoshopped or created by Google Gemini.
- The Tattoo
As the father of young kids, I have done research on the topic of temporary tattoos and confirmed they are still popular with the young’uns. (Basically, I asked my kids. The teenager grunted at me in what I feel was kind of a “no,” but the almost-11-year-old said, “yes, they’re still popular.”)
Get some temporary tattoos made up with your station’s logo on them, then mix them in some buckets filled with Costco-bought candy. Unexpectedly, drop by some upcoming schools’ Trunk or Treat events with your station vehicle, open up the doors, and watch the candy and temporary tattoos disappear. Hell, even some parents might want in on that.
Again, you’re getting your logo out there on people’s bodies. It’ll remind people that you exist and can provide them with some great content. Plus, randomly showing up creates an unexpected delight for some of the people attending. - The Caption
Ah, user-generated content. It’s the best… mostly because someone else does a good chunk of the legwork for you.
Somewhat of a similar concept to The Haircut in terms of involving social media, but in this case, you put pictures up online and ask your listeners to download them to their own devices, caption them, then repost them on their own social and tag you. Again, this spreads word of your station to not just your station page’s connections, but theirs as well.
Make sure you clearly tell them they have to post the picture with a caption on their own account and tag your station, not just post their submission in the comments section of your original post.
You can do a quick version where you give away tickets or some random prize per day for the best caption as picked by you, or you can do it more long-term, like The Haircut, for bigger prizes and do a whole pick-the-favorites-and-vote-online-for-the-winner deal.
A former air personality and industry journalist, Keith Berman worked at the late Radio & Records for several years, where he held a number of positions before being promoted to format editor. While at R&R, he also served as a writer and reporter, covering breaking news; authoring weekly columns, format roundups and features; and contributing heavily to Street Talk Daily. When R&R folded, he co-founded RAMP (Radio and Music Pros) and spent 3 years covering radio and record labels before taking a hiatus from the industry. His experiences also include time on-air at stations in Connecticut, Boston and Southern California. He can be reached at KeithBerman@gmail.com.
