Powerfully profitable local direct response radio advertising

Direct response radio advertising is en route to the throne room, working hard to succeed its elder brother, branding.  “Branding” has long been the default marketing objective – it’s now a cluttered catch-all phrase.  Being able to know, quickly, which ads on which stations are pulling the most requests for information is inherent to direct response radio advertising, because it yields a trackable, incremental return on investment.  The radio industry has stated over and over that its intangibility is nothing to be feared (and I’ve personally wielded even branding ads into profitable frenzies, so I agree), but being able to put data where one’s mouth is – that’s priceless!   Direct response radio ads elicit response from listeners – immediately – thus making advertisers ecstatic.

Direct response radio advertisers must offer books or informational reports, so they can place respondents in their marketing sequence.  Thus, not every prospect will qualify.  But the process is pretty simple (drive people to a website or phone #).  Helping an advertiser develop the report would be necessary in many instances- but rather easy.  In today’s “find every dollar” economy, more and more savvy business owners are turning to direct marketing, not realizing radio can be their golden apple.

Matching an advertiser to a station that reaches their target demo (men, women, affluent, multi-cultural, various age groups, etc), covers their preferred service area (can be neighborhood specific, state specific, large or small),  and giving correct frequency (# of times listeners are offered their chance to respond to their ads) from within a budget   is already part of radio’s skillset.  The same rule of not letting an advertiser pick the station they listen to regularly (if it does not reach their core customers) still also still applies. So does building a solid schedule for the advertiser. 

Owning a show, or a daypart, by having one ad every hour, or one less than one every hour, is imperative.  Too thin in your schedule, and you’ve killed their results.  Build in special programming, such as a feature, or call-in show that would be relevant to their particular business.  Then, find out what “extras” you can offer, such as bonus ads or web-links.  Where possible, place them in community events the station is involved with that mirror their demo’s interests and their own personal charitable giving preferences.  There might be a promotion catering to a particular niche in a law practice, for instance (such as a sponsorship of a charity ride for motorcyclists, or giveaways of bikes to area kids if it’s a personal injury firm).  If there are external factors that bear on the number of potential prospects (such as seasonality), add more ads during those times, to capture more of the market share available to them.

Look for giveaway promotions for the direct response advertiser.  They can giveaway their book, nicely packaged in a basket with a certificate for dinner for two at a nice restaurant,  a car washing kit in a bucket,  or even T-Shirts / tasteful imprinted promotional items.  Assure them that the recipient of the giveaway is not what matters --  it’s the increase in frequency, as their book or report gets mentioned to umpteen listeners who are already becoming familiar with them,  and are already in their target demo. 

Crafting their ad message is important.  It must be written with a direct response objective in mind:  share how to get the book or report, and why having the book matters.  This is “the great offer” that will attract the listeners.  Give only one way to respond - website or phone #.  Air only one ad at a time – NEVER rotate more than one ad, unless you have a high frequency schedule for each.  (We’ve all learned the hard way that rotating two ads on one schedule dilutes their frequency and kills their results - wasting their money and your time).

Voicing the ad is easy.  Yes, your stations produces ads for free, and the most loyal listeners perceive your on air talent as part of their family.  However,  you should test to determine if an “out of the area” voice gets more response than one the loyal listeners are used to.  Consider an endorsement by an on-air talent. Just make sure that even the “live read” ads are scripted.  Great artists can make it sound ad-libbed.  As for music -  it’s optional – but make sure it does not overpower nor take away from their message in any way.  Better to go without music, or test it.

Imperative to direct response advertising is tracking -  which must be in place prior to the first ad’s airing,  It can be a database ready to capture all the visitor vitals,  an excel sheet, even a simple form with grids. 

Ultimately, your advertiser must also possess a mechanism for communicating with all respondents at least monthly.  Just like any other radio advertiser,  help them prepare to offer a memorable experience to those newly attracted to their business.  Plan all this out in advance – so you can handle the responses when they occur.

Their first day on the air is the culmination of all the pre-work necessary to begin the profit-building momentum of their direct response style campaign. It leads immediately to tracking their responses.  The client must note each contact received (call, email, etc) along with the date and time.  Direct Response ads allow a respondent to share willingly, exactly how they heard about the business.  They tell you right up front – via an online webform or when you ask them directly.  Your advertiser should also note the city and state of the caller's residence (if they’re advertising out of state, ask if they have recently traveled in the radio stations footprint), and ask their three favorite radio stations (to show they indeed listen to your station, and to provide the advertiser with future station ideas for testing and market expansion).  Finally, your advertiser must total up how many calls were received each day, week and month – and cross-reference these times with the days, times and weeks they aired their ads on your station. 

Sounds like a lot of work, but not really.  Each rep usually meets with their client once a month anyway.  Bringing along an invoice and looking together at when the responses came in will allow for a more streamlined, laser-like approach to when their demo is most responsive to their ads – allowing for revisions of the schedule,  and greater response -  thus a great partnering with your station, and a solid foundation for finding out where that advertiser’s point of maximum investment / greatest ROI absolutely is with your station.  (And since many stations are a part of a group, more dollars are likely to go there first). 

Whatever the advertiser, make sure you begin tracking before you begin advertising.  This slight delay will then be a baseline for “what’s occurring” without the direct response radio advertising - and this will be imperative to your analysis / comparisons later.  FYI - in today’s sea of information and information access, that people can look up the advertiser’s vitals -  phone numbers, web address, the owner’s name and the business name - in any number of ways. Give the advertiser an excel sheet and make sure they ask each caller, web visitor and respondent how they heard about them.  Your radio ads will boost any other advertising that they run, so refer back to your baseline to see the effect it has on all the means of contact the business owner uses.

For best results from local direct response radio advertising, make sure to refine the campaign over time.  A word of caution here -  don’t make changes too fast, do confirm any hypothesis with facts, and don’t change more than one thing as you go.  If you did not get response at all after your two weeks, move all their ads to run just one or two days.  Other parameters to test are the ad wording and the schedule (advertise in a different show, at a different time of day or change the station).  Again, one change at a time, until you determine what message is best speaking to their prospective clients’ needs, and where large pools of those hungry prospects are gathered.

Capturing more market share once your advertiser is getting a good number of requests coming in is easy -  you just repeat the process!  Add another daypart on your current station,  add another station in your group or go after another niche (for example, a general family practice physician that has successfully pulled in respondents for arthritis can then add diabetes or geriatric care). 

One other word of caution -  once your new advertiser begins their campaign,  every other rep in the area (TV, Radio, Outdoor Billboard, etc) will come knocking on their door or calling in via phone.  The rep should offer to field those calls -  because they’ll be thoroughly versed in the goals of the advertiser, and will be able to judge compatibility, and if desired, a “test” campaign.  Another option is to give the business owner permission to respond to these inquiries with “we’re not interested,” which will save a lot of time and energy, and maintain strategic focus.
  
Finally, having one key person designated to oversee the campaign, either the business owner himself, or his marketing director / assistant, will allow you to keep up with the tracking, analysis of resulting data, and recommendations for next moves (testing / increasing market share). 

--Harmony Tenney is an employee of the Charlottesville Radio Group, owned by Saga Communications.  Tenney has helped small business owners in many industries achieve double digit growth thru profitable radio advertising initiatives - even in flat markets.  She offers her clients a guarantee and proven results from her “Powerfully Profitable, Done-for-You Radio Advertising.” She offers several free reports to her clients and prospects:  Secrets, Tips and Tricks to Profitable Radio Advertising,  7 Secrets to Radio Advertising as a Growth Strategy and Why you Must Take Advantage of Radio Station Promotions.  For more info, contact Harmony at: 540-255-5686, or by email: Harmony@planetcomm.net