(By Rick Fink) This is a silly question, but I’ll ask it anyway. Do you believe in the power of advertising? Do you believe that promoting a business via radio can and will help it grow?
If you answered yes, and I hope that you did, then let me ask this question. Are you doing every day what you are asking your clients to do every day?
In other words, are you airing ads promoting yourself or your stations? I’m not talking about promotional ads for the station’s specific shows, on-air giveaways, or the latest station promotion. We all hear these all the time. What I’m referring to are promotional ads promoting the revenue side of your business.
The sad thing is that as I travel around the country, I rarely, if ever, hear a promotional ad promoting the strengths of radio, or more specifically, the strengths of your sales team and what they can do for your businesses.
One of the greatest things I believe my mentor did to establish our credibility as advertising and marketing professionals was to air ads about life, business, and yes, the positive effects of advertising. In fact, I used this statement often when visiting with clients, “We do every day what we ask business owners to do every day, and that is to promote ourselves”. Yes, every day, not just once in a “blue moon”.
A radio station that does not promote on its own airwaves how powerful our medium is and how we can help businesses grow is like a cattle farmer being a vegetarian. They raise it, they sell it, but they don’t promote it!
Now, let me ask you this question… How long would a business owner have to listen to your station to hear a testimonial about the power of radio or a great spot for a recent piece of research proclaiming radio’s steadfast reach and its strengths? Or a self-promotion ad offering free tidbits of advice to help run their business? After all, isn’t this what we do?
Every time we persuade one of our station clients to begin running great advertiser testimonials, promo ads about how to make advertising work better, or pro-radio spots, their phones ring with leads.
I have always stated and still believe that one of radio’s biggest problems is that we do not promote ourselves very well, or at all! Can you imagine the impact over time if every station in the country ran creative pro-radio campaigns?
Start today!! Toot your own horn and do what you ask your clients to do every day, and that is… Promote Yourself! I’m sure you’ll find the cost of advertising on your own station quite reasonable!
Or, don’t you believe in the power of advertising?
If you would like to START promoting yourselves, our SoundADvice program is an extremely effective, and extremely inexpensive way to do so. If you would like more information and pricing, contact us Here.
NEVER Stop Learning – Get Better Every Day!
Rick Fink from ENS Media (www.ensmediausa.com) can be reached by phone at 605-310-2062 or e-mail at [email protected]
