Conversation Marketing might be a new sounding bit of marketing jargon to you but in practice this is one of the oldest methods of getting marketing messages across. It might be touted by many as some new fancy way of marketing but strip away the technology and mediums where it is common today, and you find that it is simply correspondence between two or more people that leads to a purchase decision. It is making waves in marketing circles today mainly because of the internet and Web 2.0.
Think about it… in the old days, if you could get into a conversation with someone who has a problem or needs an answer to a question, and provide them a solution to their predicament; you have just successfully used a conversation marketing technique if that person actually buys the product you were recommending to them. With the Internet and Web 2.0, you can get into as many conversations possible.
A fitting description of Conversation Marketing can be found on www.idiomstrategies.com which says “Conversation marketing utilizes Social Media networks and applications, Web2.0 sites and tools and many traditional marketing tactics to help companies engage in their market conversation, generate awareness and increase sales and customer retention.”
Dynamic Media Corporation CEO and Conversation Marketing advocate Michael Campbell seems to have perfected this system and put it into a course called Goobert Method of Traffic Generation, where you can get a significantly growing amount of traffic to your website by simply jumping into conversations on social sites with other people and providing meaningful and useful to the people involved in the conversation, getting them to click on to your website if links are present, or searching about you on Google. Apart from those actively involved there are the spectators who may not have participated in the discussion but are simply reading the thread and are also potential visitors to your site.
With the recent update in Google’s ranking algorithm (Google Caffeine it is called), there seems to be a better appreciation of traffic and links coming from social websites; not only are there many of them, but these are rich in traffic and authority.
Good webmasters today are no Gooberts. A Goobert is actually someone who does not know what is going on, and in the Social Media Marketing context Campbell refers to his Gooberts as webmasters who are the opposite of its true meaning. Goobert actually is short for Google Blog Alerts, a feature on Google that allows you to receive notices when new blogs on specific topics you indicate to receive alerts about. The moment you get these alerts, check out that new blog and see if the topic discussed is something you can contribute a meaningful discussion to. If you are the first or one of the first to leave a comment there is a higher chance for you to get clicks on your link from the readers of that new blog post. Another way of Googbert-ing around is checking out news stories, again you can set up alerts on Google to receive notices when news stories that have the keywords you request to get alerts on, are published. If there is a comment section or “post your opinion” section at the end of the story, this is an opportunity for you to go Goobert.
To get good traffic, go the Goobert way and go social; interact, be in the thick of as many relevant conversations, and be helpful.
A couple of things happened tonight which compelled me to write this post on the top three email marketing problems that businesses encounter. If you need to know it is 1:21 AM, Thursday. I often act impulsively when it comes to a new idea, like a new post or article. As a musician and song writer… back when I used to write songs, an idea may come any time of the day.. or night, and you got to be ready for it, maybe that’s the reason for that habit.. I need to act on it immediately for if I don’t, I would end up forgetting about it… the idea would slip my mind.
So what are those two things… I had recently completed a brief for a client which involved organizing and sorting out their huge mailing list of confirmed customers, which they have been unable to either maintain a relationship with nor leverage on it. The second thing was, I got an email from Megan Fox.
So we know for fact that a mailing list is an asset that any business or individual can leverage on, and that a business has a better chance of surviving with their own mailing list. If you have a mailing list, you can simply send out an email about a sale or promo, or about some product you are promoting; they get that email, the product appeals to them, they buy it, you make money… badda bing badda boom!
But what problems can you expect to encounter with email marketing?
Let us take a look at the processes that take place; first you got to send those emails out, then hope that people open and even read your email, and then click the link in that email that sends them to a web page with information on what it is you are promoting.
Email Delivery Issues
First problem here is something to do with your system or web infrastructure. I know some people who actually did this manually, mailing out to maybe a handful of people. Things start to get a little crazy when you actually have to mail out to hundreds or even thousands. But those who sent these en masse often found that the system they were using did not send out those emails to all recipients. Even if you try sending manually to multiple addresses, some email services will flag your activity as a spam attempt. So the remedy here is to actually use an email marketing system from a service provider, that is reliable, and by reliable I mean the highest delivery percentage possible.
Email Open Rate
Alright, so you are certain your automated email messages plugged into a reliable autoresponder service that you use to deliver your messages is indeed sending out your message, but “are your recipients even opening and reading your email”? They might be getting your messages but are they actually reading them? There are a couple of tricks a lot of marketers use to get people to notice their emails, but the bottom line is to catch attention. A catchy “subject” line can make it stand above all the other emails people get, or a catchy name.
Yes, I did get an email from Megan Fox… but well, not from actress that every man in America probably fantasizes over. Actually I got this email on my Entourage email client and the sender name was “Megan Fox”, of course I opened the email. It turned out it was a direct message notification from someone on my LinkedIn network. Do you see how that worked?
Click Through Rate
So your emails are getting received and getting opened and read, but are the readers clicking on the links that send them to a web page with the information you are trying to promote? If they aren’t then, your mail out, despite getting sent, received, opened and read.. is still a failure.
Remember that you mail out with the purpose of getting the reader to an offer, and readers not clicking on the links in your email can be attributed to either non-relevance of the email to the reader, or simply a poorly crafted email.
A poorly crafted email is self explanatory, so let me expound on non relevance. If you are a wedding cake creator with a mailing list of brides to be preparing for their wedding, if you send them an email with a story about bicycles and a link to an offer for bicycles, is that email going to appeal to them at all? However, if you send them an email about the top honeymoon vacations, that has a link to a travel agency that offers a big discount on honeymoon packages, this email would likely not only get a higher click through on your links to the offer, but even decent conversions/sales.
If you have questions or comments about Email Marketing, please post them in the comment section below. You can also send me questions through the Contact Form.
I thought I’d record a video and dish out 3 online branding tips that are both simple, easy to do and best of all can actually significantly improve your brand online, despite being really simple ideas. Also these are definitely cheaper alternatives to hiring an advertising agency that will cost you an arm and a leg.
There are three key points I try to deliver on the video below…
- constant personal interaction leads to brand retention
- brand buzz increases and sustains brand awareness
- brand awareness and retention PLUS consistent delivery of your offers via advertising = SALES
To know how to accomplish those three… watch the video below.
If you have questions or comments about Online Branding, please post them in the comment section below. You can also send me questions through the Contact Form.
Online Reputation Management has become an important part of any company’s marketing strategy today, simply because purchase decisions made by your customers are influenced by reviews, feedback and other forms of information about your product or company found on the internet.
What is Online Reputation Management?
The act of monitoring, addressing or mitigating undesirable search engine results or mentions in online media for a company or product. Techniques include generating new content and creating posts on existing content. – Defined by Anvil Media in their Search Engine Marketing Glossary.
Everybody has an opinion on just about anything. Thanks to Web 2.0 and Social Media, anyone can make that opinion public over the internet, and a majority of these are not journalistic or editorial in nature but posts by the ordinary Joe on user generated content websites. Some of those opinions might not be too flattering, which in turn can affect your sales.
For this reason, businesses need to manage their reputations online by being a little more proactive on social sites, and would need to make time for search engine reputation management. Of course that also means, you also need to make sure your customers are happy by providing them good service and observing good business practices.
But reputation management is not simply about managing damaging or negative commentary, but ensuring that you are able to get your marketing messages across and they are received accurately by your audience. This will help establish or reinforce your company or product brand, and be key to achieving your marketing and sales goals.
If you have questions or comments about Online Reputation Management, please post them in the comment section below. You can also send me questions through the Contact Form.
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I got my first electric guitar when I was 16 years old. Bought it at a merchant store in Cebu’s downtown area where you see a lot of mom and pop stores and old Chinese owned stores that look like they had been in business for decades; and from the dust and cobwebs that gather on a lot of their items on sale, you could not help but think that some of these items might be as old as the store. But I guess I exaggerate a bit, but with purpose. I bought it for P1,200 which was a fairly huge amount back in the 80s. It was a Gibson copy.
There is one thing I notice about some stores or retailers… they hardly ever do big sales with big price cuts in order to get rid of merchandise.
Let us fast forward to the present day. About a week or two ago, I had a chance to talk to a boutique owner in the Bay Area who wanted to move inventory fast.
Store owners may be able to relate to this, getting stuck with items that simply do not sell, and realize that they just got to get rid of their stocks fast to make room for newer stuff that would be higher in demand and easier to sell; and move the old stuff at cost or maybe even at a small loss, but make that up from the profits you make off the newer items that you sell… that you are able to buy in the first place when you recoup that money by selling off non moving inventory. That was a mouthful wasn’t it?
The question I was asked was would Ebay be a great way to quickly move inventory. My answer, no.. at least not if you want to just quickly dump merchandise that is not selling in your store.
Ebay is a great way to sell stuff, it is a high traffic site with people visiting it with one purpose, find and buy something specific. But here are some things to consider if you are in the situation I just described.
Fees. Yes Ebay has a few fees that you need to meet, placement fees, Payal fees and added fees that are optional if you wish to upgrade your placements on Ebay and give it better exposure. Plus if you opt to offer free shipping, that means you are paying for shipping out of your pocket. Shipping costs influence Ebay buyers.
System. Sellers have two selling options; sell by auction or by fixed rate/buy now.
When you sell by auction buyers compete amongst each other to get the item, and the problem arises when bidders do not reach the reserve price you set for the item being auctioned. Made worse if there are other sellers on Ebay who are also selling the same item you have in stock and sell at lower prices and might offer better value such as free shipping, longer money back or return policies, etc. Of course if your item is somehow unique and you have less competition on Ebay, this might be to your advantage.
Then there is the buy now option; again if you have competing sellers who have the same merchandise and are selling for less and offering additional value, they will likely get the sale and not you.
Yes Ebay is a good yet competitive platform to sell on.
One more thing about their system, it unfortunately favors sellers who have amassed a certain number of transactions and positive reviews, many of which have achieved PowerSeller status. These Powersellers are able to get more exposure of their items than the new Ebay seller, especially when Ebay’s internal search engine is used.
So what then is a better alternative to Ebay if you simply want to dispose of items quickly and without any additional costs? You have two options. First is through social networking on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Multiply and even YouTube, where you are able to push these items upon people on your network and are subscribed to your updates and get your messages. Second option is Craig’s List.
Both methods do not involve any fees and it is likely that people who are interested in the product might be local to your area and can simply drive over to where you are check out the product, pay in person and take it with them.
Again I am not saying Ebay does not work, it probably won’t work for someone who just wants to get rid of inventory quickly and recoup the money that went into it, so that you could buy newer inventory that sells better, even more critical if you are looking at very small margins or none at all.
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Ayala Center Cebu - Email Spammer
Yes Ayala Center Cebu is an email spammer! But wait, you are sitting there wondering, “what on earth is an email spammer?”
Email spam is in a nutshell email that you did not request to receive that contains advertising about products or services. I am sure everyone has one time or another, or maybe even very often received email about Viagra, penis enhancers, casinos and PORN! Email that you receive that have advertising that you did not voluntarily request to receive is SPAM!
So back to Ayala Center Cebu and their email spamming.
I have been getting email from them for so many months now, from this email address feedback@ayalamalls.com.ph; sending me all these ads about their sales, promotes etc.
I had already written back to that address asking them not to send me any updates primarily because they are not getting any money of out of me since I am in the US, plus… it really is kind of annoying to receive advertising that I did not ask to receive in the first place.
But, they of course did not reply to me. I sent a few more emails to them but still no reply, and today I still receive all their email updates.
So I am going to make this a lesson for business owners who think they know what they are doing when it comes to email marketing.
Email marketing is a great way to promote your business, product or service. Direct marketing that is also significantly cheaper than putting ads on the radio or newspaper. It is definitely an effective and cheap way to get your message across. But here is how most businesses get it wrong.
When you do email marketing, you send out updates or messages to prospects on your mailing list. These prospects or “leads”, should be properly opted in or qualified. Otherwise, they will not convert into a customer. They have to declare to you clearly, that they want to receive your updates, otherwise you are just sending follow up messages to deaf ears who are not going to buy your product. It is easier and more profitable to promote something to people who are interested than to people who are not.
If you just blast out advertising messages to anybody and any email address you can find, your conversion rates are going to be ultra low because the leads or people you send out your message to are not properly qualified and neither did they properly opt in to your mailing list to get your updates, and you will be annoying a lot of people like the email spamming that Ayala Center Cebu has been doing.
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The number one benefit of your business or company getting on a Google Local Business Listing is of course the ability to put your service or product right in front of your prospect when they need or want it.
A lot of people advertise their businesses in many different ways but somehow these often do not convert as highly as expected, simply because when you tell them about your product or service, they might not have a need for it at the time. But when your website is visible when people search on Google for products or services that they already need, you are able to put your brand right in front of a hot lead; someone who is already looking for what you have to offer. They know what they want, it is just now a matter of finding it and choosing the right person to buy from. Your business or website will get listed along with other similar businesses or websites within a specific radius or area where you are located, Google looks at your specific location, identifying your area code, and gives you list of suggestions based on proximity.
When you are properly listed on Google’s Local Business Listing, your product or service will show up on the first page of search results for product/service specific keywords and a location or area.
In the video below I used the example… dim sum san jose; because I was looking for a dim sum restaurant to eat at.
In the video I mention that, a Local Business Listing on Google is especially beneficial to a business that relies largely on customers who are within a certain area around the location of their business.
Watch the video to see specific examples.
Note that when I did a search for dim sum milpitas, the restaurant Mayflower Seafood Restaurant DID not pop up in the results, which means they are not listed on Google’s Local Business Center, and that means dim sum restaurants can grab this opportunity to get that exposure for themselves.
If you have questions or comments about the Google Local Business Listing, please post them in the comment section below. You can also send me questions through the Contact Form.
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A few days ago I spoke to someone who had bought something online which I believe to be utterly useless. What’s worse is he could not give it back and get his money back.
A lot of internet newbies get suckered into these make money online schemes and end up buying also sorts of stuff that is actually just garbage. There are a lot of scams out there purposely sold by dubious individuals, so here are some tips that can protect you before you buy anything. These same steps can also be used when you plan to buy physical products over the internet and not just digital products like ebooks, software, or services. Online business owners also get an idea about the right way to sell online.
Step 1 – Do the Research
When you find something you are interested in buying, don’t just believe everything that is told you on the sales page. A sales page is a page designed to promote a product and get you to buy it. On the internet, sales pages for a product are what a sales rep or sales person is in real life.. it basically tries to answer all your questions about the product and get you to buy it.
What you can do is go to Google and do a search for the product’s brand name, followed by other searches of the brand together with keyword modifiers like “review”, “rating”, “scam”. That way you are able to find out if people online are talking good or bad things about a product. Also do a search for the name of the seller of the product, and use the same keyword modifiers in order to learn more about the seller’s reputation.
Sometimes, sellers put reviews or testimonials about themselves or their product on their own websites to act as social proof to allay any of your apprehensions about buying from them, but they are of course on their website so, it would be best to get information from other places.
One last thing when you verify what other people are saying about the product. There are sellers who might be writing those reviews about themselves.. so verify who the authors of those reviews or comments are. If there is a name, verify the name by searching on Google to see if that person exists or is a real person at all. Check to see if that person has other posts about other topics, has other blogs and maybe has Facebook and Twitter. That way you know that person is real. Some sellers write reviews about themselves and then use fake names, you need to find out if the name is of a real person or fake by the doing the method of verifying suggested earlier.
Step 2 – Check the Website
There are some important things you need to do when you are on a website selling a product you are thinking of buying.
First, find the following pages.. About Us, Terms of Use or Privacy Policy. What is important is, you are able to establish that the owner of the website is indeed a legitimate business with a legitimate address and phone number. There might be sites that do not have a phone or address but have an contact form, try using the contact form and send them a message just to inquire and see what their response time is like. If they are prompt in replies and are happy to address your inquiries, this might be a good seller to buy from. If you do find a number, try calling it and make an inquiry about the product you wish to buy.
The point I want to make is, the more transparent a website is about who they are or their business, the safer for you.
A lot of websites allow you to make transactions online. Before whipping out your credit card to make a payment try to check if the site is secure. One way of checking is, when you start the payment process by going to a payment page, check the URL in the browser window and see if it says https:// at the start. A normal website URL starts only with http://. If they have some information about the type of payment system they use, the better. I have seen sites that actually inform their visitors about their payment system at start of the payment process.
Step 3 – Check for a Return Policy or a Money Back Guarantee
Almost always there is a Return Policy in place or a Money Back Guarantee. There are of course exceptions such as perishable items or food and beverages which obviously when used slightly cannot be returned. I believe music and DVDs also work the same. But for everything else, an iron clad Money Back Guarantee ensures that if for whatever reason you are unhappy with the product, you can return in it.
A seller offering this guarantee knows that they are confident in what they are selling and are then less likely to be scamming you with an inferior product.
Find out how long until the guarantee expires and how their system works for returns. Some sellers will specify on their website how you may return items, but if they simply say they offer that guarantee but do not get into details, contact them and ask them about it. Do also some checking on Google and type in the product name plus words like “refund”, “return policy”, “refund problem”, etc. This way you want to know if people online have been writing about refund problems they have had with the seller.
Believe me, there are sellers out there who offer you a money back guarantee, but when you ask for it, they will give you some sort of reason to delay giving your money back or make it sound like it’s your fault and that you are NOT using the product properly which is why it is not working well for you and that you should try using it the right way first.
Remember that there are a lot of products and sellers out there. If upon evaluating a potential product and seller, they fall short of any of the criteria above; do not worry. There are a lot of sellers out there. Find one that meets the standards, and makes you feel at ease knowing that your purchase is secure and that the product you are buying lives up to what it promises.
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If you would like to learn more about Pay Per Click Advertising and get a grasp on the concept without getting confused, please do continue reading. I will try to explain PPC as simply as I can, laying it out to a grade schooler, and even provide a rather crude image to help… an image looking like it was actually drawn by a grade schooler with a spelling error which was actually not done on purpose. My spelling skills are apparently not as good as my marketing abilities.
There is this interesting story I need to tell about PPC and a newbie’s dilemma, or so I thought at the time.
It was Valentine’s day, February 14, 2007.. a Wednesday and single friends of mine thought of getting together at a local restaurant. As far as I remember the first people to get there were myself and a friend of mine Bing Torre, who is also a colleague in the marketing and events world. Bing then began to tell me about Pay Per Click advertising, how she had to run some ads on Google on a very limited budget for a client. At the time I had very recently crossed over into the online marketing space, leaving behind the marketing/advertising industry that I had been a part of for over 15 years. I was managing PPC accounts that was spending up to $1,000 a day. Yes a DAY!
I then went on to tell her about how AdWords worked, which is pretty much the same way I will describe to you in this post.
Incidentally here is picture taken of some us, the “un-valentiners.”
So about Pay Per Click Advertising.
PPC is simply a method of advertising on search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN/Bing, where your ads get shown to people who are looking for what you have to sell. It is targeted advertising in the sense that, you target people who are already looking for what you have to offer them, your ad only appears when specified keywords are being used on the search engine. You make a bid for a certain keyword and when that keyword gets searched, your ad appears.. typically on the upper or right section of the results page, and usually appears boxed.
The bid is an amount you are willing to pay the search engine if your ad gets clicked. For instance if someone searches for Nike running shoes and you are bidding $0.50 on that keyword phrase, your ad will appear only when that phrase is searched for, and you will only get billed 50 cents if your ad gets clicked. Of course when an ad gets clicked the clicker gets sent to a website or webpage which has more information about what you are offering.
So there are 3 key elements that you need to pay attention to.
Keyword or Keywords
- these are words you bid on that will trigger your ads if searched
- your keywords have to be very specific to what you are selling or offering
- group together very similar keywords in a cluster called an Ad Group
- for instance a cluster of related keywords can be… Nike running shoes, Nike running shoes for men, Nike running shoes for women, men’s Nike running shoes, Nike running shoes kids..
The Ad
- this is the text that search engine users read on the search engine results page
- ad text needs to be related to the keywords you are bidding upon
- ad text needs to be very specific to the specific cluster of keywords or Ad Group
- for instance your ad text can say “Nike Running shoes at amazing discounts, Free overnight delivery”
- the ad must tell the visitor what you are selling, and tell them why they should buy from you, as an added motivating reason to get them to click your ad
The Landing Page
- this is the page where a clicker of an ad lands on
- this page should also have exactly what the ad offers, so if your keyword was for Nike running shoes, and your ad text tells the reader that you have Nike running shoes at great discounts and that you deliver overnight for free, then your landing page must have all that information on the page PLUS..
- the landing page makes it easier for the viewer to find more information and to get exactly what they want, for instance the page shows not only Nike running shoes, but the viewer can choose a specific size, color, model, check out reviews from other buyers about the product or about your service, and an easy and secure system to make a purchase
Here is that grader level illustration I told you about… click the image to enlarge.
For so many years radio was the most popular means of entertainment. It was first of all free; then later it became portable, then becoming interactive thus making it easy for listeners to ask for what they wanted to hear.
Radio stations did not charge listeners for the entertainment, normal radio stations still don’t; and for so long the radio station business was pretty much the same simple model.. providing entertaining programming to its listeners, selling advertising spots enough to cover operating costs and make a profit.
Advancements in technology over the past few decades however have shrunk it’s popularity, rendering it less relevant to a majority of its once loyal audience, consequently limiting the amount of revenue to be made through advertising spots. The dawn of the digital and portable age of music was the also the start of the demise of the traditional radio business model.
Portable music players, music on demand, user generated programming, internet radio.. these are but a few among many reasons why radio stations are now having a hard time keep audiences. Smaller audiences mean less people listening to advertiser messages, the very reason less money is now spent on radio spot placements. Today’s advertisers pursue their markets through non traditional media and non traditional advertising channels.
What radio stations may not realize is that the very same technologies that have shrunk its audience also offer radio stations new opportunities at generating revenue and delivering both programs and advertising. Now radio stations need to change the way they make their money and overhaul the way they do business or will likely go out of business.
In the mid 90s I was selling advertising for a radio station that was the only one of its kind to be 100% digital. The problem during the time was, advertisers did not want to simply advertise on radio, they want to save money by hitting two birds with one stone. Companies had a radio budget for their usual institutional ads, and then they had an events budget which they used to sponsor and participate in events which also gave them some amount of exposure. These guys realizing that they had been spending too much, smartened up and now wanted to spend one amount of money and get both exposure in events and get premium advertising spots for their own products. Events marketing became the buzz, and radio stations who could draw huge crowds were now becoming event organizers giving product spots for free over and above spots about the event. Other radio stations were tying up with event organizers and not charging them for excessive even airtime promotion but taking a cut off gate / ticket sales from the events.
Those were days when radio stations lost focus about their identities, and succumbed to pressure from advertisers in an effort to survive the crisis at the time.
Today, I hear about radio stations struggling, diving on rates, selling spots and closing contracts at amounts that were half of what I sold those contracts for over ten years ago. All prices have increased over the last ten years.. cost of living has increased, products and commodities have increased but why have radio advertising spots taken a dive or still remained the same.
What radio stations must do now is to focus on how to get their programming and advertiser messages across to their audiences and not simply relying on the radio to do that. Advertisers are interested in two important things, getting their message out to the audience and seeing conversions from that ad placement. Radio stations would need to deliver these outside of just their on air broadcast by way of a website, social networking, mailing list marketing, delivery of pre recorded programming or content, partnerships with organizations or businesses that allow content distribution and content syndication.
Website
Many people know what it is, a lot of people have one, but a vast majority do not know how to use websites to achieve specific goals. With a website a radio station can offer added value to its advertisers by posting ad messages on its site, or testing ad messages or offers from clients to see what works. Websites can be equipped with powerful tracking tools that gather data that help test and improve advertising messages.
Social Networking
Of all the many benefits that Web 2.0 has afforded website owners, the most important is the ability to get your message across to other people through social networking sites and even have them voluntarily advertise you without you telling them to do so. This is the reason why companies today spend a lot of time managing their online brand reputation, because it is so easy for other people to simply talk about your brand on blogs, forums and micro blogging platforms like Twitter.
Social Networking works when you constantly grow your network. Again a large network means a large audience that you can market directly to outside of the regular broadcast.
Mailing List Marketing
Huge Fortune 500 companies spend millions of dollars in a year to get people to receive updates and information directly through email. A mailing list is a list of people who are already open to what you have to offer because they have given you that permission to market to them by signing up to be on your mailing list.
If you have a list of 1000 people on your mailing list who subscribe to receive party updates where the radio station is involved, those are 1000 people who will instantly get news about events you are holding. You can run a regular newsletter and send these out weekly for instance, and one section of the newsletter has a sponsor section, and your client’s advertising messages. The great thing about mailing list marketing is you are able to test different messages or offers to see which one gets more attention and more clicks from newsletter recipients. Knowing what kind of copy works, gives you and your client ideas for the right copy to use on radio ads, and other forms of advertising because you have test data to support it.
Partnerships
Establishing partnerships is always a great way to create more business opportunities, especially if your partners will distribute your announcements or networks on their own network or captive audience. If you tie up with a company that has 1000 employees and maybe get their HR department to send out announcements in your behalf with information about your events or sponsors messages, this will significantly increase the number of people you are able to reach outside of the broadcast.
Pre Recorded Programming Content
Podcasts are so very popular for one reason, it offers convenience. People can download shows they like and listen to them at their preferred time. Creating entertaining program content that listeners can download and listen to is also a good medium to reach a percentage of your audience who might not have the time to listen at length to your broadcast or tune in at a certain time to listen to a show. Of course, it goes without saying, these shows will also carry sponsors’ messages.
Content Syndication
We know that Web 2.0 is alive and well, people blog, people post on forums, people have websites, now you should let these people syndicate your content on their sites. By syndicate, I mean give them the means to put your broadcast on their website. This works pretty much like a YouTube video, where you can publish a video you like on your website by simply pasting a little bit of html code that YouTube gives you.
Create that code, make it available to visitors, who can then paste that code on their websites, and they can listen to your live broadcast or live stream on their website, plus their own visitors can listen to your broadcast as well. They hear the music and the ads, and if they click a link that is included with that feature, they are brought to the your radio station’s website.
Radio is still relevant, people will avail of your programming, you just need to look for more means to deliver it.
Radio first started out as a means of recreation, people tuning in to find entertainment. Due to its popularity, it became an effective tool to reach out to a mass audience and deliver advertising messages. Today radio needs to adapt to the times and leverage on the tools available to us, the internet and other communication mediums can and must be leveraged to assist in the distribution of a radio station’s content and reach out to new audiences on new platforms or face closure and go extinct together with the now dead radio station revenue model… falling victim to rapidly changing times and the inability to adapt.
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