(By Marc Greenspan) How often have you lost business because of false perceptions about your listeners? Do you encounter the objection, “You don’t have the right listeners”? You may also hear the following: Your audience is not the right demo (too old or too young), ethnicity (example: no urban dictates), not the right geographic reach, etc., etc., etc.
You most likely won’t be able to change the minds of these buyers. So, what can you do?
In recent years, we have seen movement toward advertising to specific consumer groups. Digital marketing touts its ability to reach these specific consumer groups, especially with social media. Terrestrial radio also has the ability to reach these special groups of consumers.
What is your niche? What specific consumer groups can your station reach and deliver for the advertiser? By profiling your station’s listeners beyond the traditional gender and age demographics, you can show advertisers that your station is the right medium to help them increase sales.
Scarborough data enables you to define your listeners by demographics (including socioeconomic characteristics), lifestyles, consumer behavior, and media consumption habits.
- Socioeconomic – household income, presence of children, education, employment, etc. Who are they?
- Lifestyles – sports, entertainment, travel, etc. What are they doing?
- Consumer Behavior – What are they buying?
- Media Consumption – radio, TV, social media, etc. How do you reach them?
Profile your listeners by these four categories of information and you will be able to position your station as a great way to reach specific consumer groups. Then, make a list of advertisers who want to reach these groups and go pitch them. Profiling radio listeners is our specialty, so let us know if we can help.
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 by email at [email protected]. Research Director, Inc. offers consulting services to media companies to help them grow their audience/ratings and their revenue.