(By Marc Greenspan) There are numerous ways to position your listeners to potential advertisers. A veteran sales rep often uses ratings and cost per point; however, when dealing with direct advertisers, it’s advisable to refer to your listeners as consumers.
The most obvious way to do this is by using your cume to talk about how many consumers your station reaches. More bodies mean more consumers. That can be effective. However, sometimes it’s difficult to make that conversion from listener to consumer.
Here at Research Director, Inc., we’ve found it is even more valuable to convert your listeners into dollars and cents – or spending power. In addition to talking about how many “consumers” your station can reach, show the advertiser what your listeners are spending in their category.
By using Nielsen Audio’s Retail Spending Power reports, or Research Director, Inc.’s customized and branded Spending Power presentations, you can estimate how much your listeners are likely to spend. Both are based on your station’s cume and market-specific spending. For instance, consumers in Miami will spend more at boat dealers than consumers in Denver.
As a marketing specialist, you can easily meet with a prospective client and show them that your listeners will spend $X amount in their category by year, month, week, or day.
Whether you are using the Nielsen Audio reports or Research Director, Inc.’s presentations, be ready to explain the figures and how they are calculated. Often, the numbers are so big that they seem hard to believe. Determine how much the average person spends in a particular category and multiply by your station’s cume. At that point you can provide the potential advertiser with an estimate of how much your station’s listeners are likely to spend on their products or services.
Lastly, don’t just walk into the advertiser with the computer printout. Always create a professional, easy-to-understand presentation. Outshine the competition with both your knowledge and professionalism.
This column is part of a series titled “Growing the Radio Pie.” To view past articles, visit The Ratings Experts at Research Director, Inc. online Here.
Marc Greenspan is CEO and a founding partner of Research Director, Inc. He can be reached at 410-295-6619 x11 or [email protected].
