Clarity of Vision

I overbooked myself this last week. It was quite the challenge and quite the learning experience as well. Last night, as I wrapped up my weekly review and analyzed my plans for the coming week a clear image emerged of where I'd like to focus my energies.

It was obvious that my efforts are much too scattered to produce measurable and tangible results. In other words, I've been lacking focus and haven't been taking advantage of opportunities to multi-task. Which is an odd turn of events considering I wrote and spoke about these valuable time management skills just a couple of years ago. Though not completely surprising considering I am a bit organizationally challenged at times and often neglect to take my own advice.

It's a good thing I'm a member of MomMasterminds or I believe I'd flounder around stuck in that rut for a great deal longer than I have. The mentoring, support and resources there have all worked to provide inspiration and guidance as I muddle along trying to refine my plans and develop S.M.A.R.T goals.

I'm constantly rediscovering and re-tooling my vision and focus for my varied interests. I'm learning that's not altogether a bad thing, though it does slow down my progress at times.

So what does this mean in the greater scheme of things?

Essentially that I'll be able to start streamlining the services available through Easy Results with Radio, meaning that you'll be able to find a wider range of audio marketing resources at more regular intervals than I've been offering thus far. It means that things will be much more coherent and easier to apply over the coming months.

I'm excited and can't wait to get started with the new plan in hand. Considering it's a plan that integrates traditional radio and podcast advertising with a view to meeting the needs of small business, I'm sure it's going to be valuable to many. So, to steal a line from Disney..."Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Off to work I go"

An Unexpected Honor and the Podcast Translation...

I was honoured to have my ebook (which really amounts to a short report) Radio Rocks! No Matter What the Format chosen as a Friday Freebie on Alice Seba's Internet Marketing Sweetie blog.

The thing is that I wrote it before I got really involved with podcast advertising which is the internet equivalent of radio. Of course, those who know me know I represent many podcasts on Moms Talk Radio as the Advertising Manager and that I write and produce podcast commercials as part of my services - for those who don't - here's a quick run down on some of the comparisons between radio advertising and podcast advertising.

Most of the advantages remain consistent.

The return on investment is comparable. However, you'll find that for a tightly niched product over a wide geographic area that podcasts will net a better return per listener than traditional radio. Since podcasts are aired once a day at most, you may find it takes a bit longer for a campaign to provide the return since it takes time to build up repetitiveness that traditional radio can offer.

When it comes to complementing and enhancing other marketing methods, podcasts measure up ahead of radio in some respects for internet marketers. Now I can't speak for all podcasts, but those on Moms Talk Radio all include a complimentary button link for their advertising partners, which means you get at least two chances to attract your target market with every spot you buy on a podcast. Of course, many radio stations including the one I work for offer online campaigns including on-air ones, which is a great choice for a local business, but that's a topic for another post.

Trust and loyalty are enhanced with podcast advertising. Hosts develop an even closer connection with their listeners than most traditional on-air personalities can boast. With most radio personalities, you will find people in the audience who love a particular host and others listening who don't care for them at all --with podcasts, the listeners are all actively choosing to listen to the host!

As with radio, podcast advertising is word of mouth that you control. The major difference is in the writing and production of podcasts are not often provided within the advertising cost as it is with radio advertising. Fortunately, writing and production for online audio is much less expensive than it is for agency produced commercials in the offline world.

As with radio, you will find professionals willing to customize campaigns that fit your business and goals. Both forms allow for a great degree of flexibility and control in your marketing.

As a huge fan of audio, I hope that you'll consider the airwaves soon...whether digitally or traditionally.

When Radio Advertising Works...

When radio advertising works, it's a win for everyone involved.

I came across a post from Karen at Big Pond that gave a brief glimpse of her experiences with a dedicated radio advertising professional that met her needs and expectations. I don't know what radio station he works for, but he exemplified what radio sales is supposed to be about.

It's what I strive for whether I'm selling radio locally at XM105 or online with Moms Talk Radio - finding the right niche for my clients, putting together the right message and producing results.

I keep saying that it's not rocket science -and it's not.

Karen's post shows that putting together a radio campaign is largely something you can put on auto-pilot. You can put the writing, production and delivery in the hands of a professional and come out with a campaign that works for you. All it takes is stepping out of your comfort zone enough to communicate your needs and goals so that the radio advertising representative can put it all together for you.

I just wish it wasn't so hard to convince people that we (radio professionals) are not just after the sale, that we really want to help your business grow. That is my biggest challenge. So often I find small business owners who have absolutely no interest in talking to me. Some do so only to be polite, but I can tell they would rather be almost anywhere else in the world rather than talking with me. It's obvious that they don't want what I'm selling and I'm working hard to understand why.

Who doesn't want more leads, more traffic, more sales?

Why does radio advertising seem so scary to small business owners?

I'd really like to know.

Pay Per Play Audio Advertising

Apparently, the latest buzz out there in audio is pay per play audio commercials. The gist of what I've read so far is that a small piece of code is put onto a blog or website and once the program is up and running (bidding is due to start next month in Feb '08) short audio ads will play automatically when a visitor comes to the page. Website owners will be paid every time the audio ad plays for one of their visitors.

Now being that I am all over audio as a great advertising medium, the idea intrigues me.

The problem is I really can't wrap my mind around how it will work.

Oh, I get the technical side to a certain extent. It's Java Code and it does it's thing when a visitor comes to the page and a script plays. I get that.

But the thing is I don't see how five second ads are going to work to move the listeners through the buying process - and if it doesn't motivate buyers, what exactly are potential advertisers paying for and hoping to achieve with this type of campaign?

People speak at a rate of about 3 words per second. That means the ads will be about 15 words on average. That is one colossal challenge! To create a complete compelling audio message that encourages action within 15 words?

It would take an amazing talent to be able to craft messages that short with any degree of effectiveness. There are few enough writers who learn the craft of creating a compelling thirty second commercial which is why listeners suffer through hackneyed, inefficient commercials! But at least with 30 seconds, brilliance and clarity are achievable. I don't know that we can really say that about 5 seconds.

Every writer I know will acknowledge that writing short is hard! Personally, I find it downright excruciating to write with a tight word count. I've done as few as 30 words professionally for a results driven piece. I don't know that I could do 15 with my sanity intact. (Not to say my sanity is exactly intact as it is, some days)

Maybe the ads have another purpose - some branding through repetition scheme? Which would have to make that a pretty complicated little code in order to ensure a listener heard the same ad enough times for it to even have a statistical chance of effectiveness.

The other thing that bothers me is the automatic nature of these ads. I don't know about you, but I hate audio that I'm not expecting on any website. Give me a play button and I'll listen if I'm interested. That is the essence of permission based advertising. I mean, even with the radio, I know if I'm going to listen I'm either going to pay a subscription fee (satellite radio) or I'm going to be hearing commercials. I know and accept that trade as part of the commerce of content. But to be subjected to an ad when I don't even know it's coming, that would irk me. Even if it is only five seconds. It wouldn't put me in a good disposition towards the site or the advertiser.

Anyway, those were my first thoughts when it came to pay per play.

Evidently there are also issues with the company (NetAudioAds) that is launching this platform. There are concerns that the advertisers they say they have lined up have denied being involved. There are concerns that many social media users have Java blockers up when they surf, so the ads won't even reach them, which puts the 100% conversion figure into immediate question.

Bah! While initially intrigued, I'm now thinking this whole thing will not be good for audio advertising at all.

The good thing is, that with all it's inherent flaws - it's not likely to be an issue for long.

Fresh from another interview

The week before last I was on WAHM Talk Radio talking about podcast advertising on Moms Talk Radio and the great network of shows there. Today I spoke with Michelle Waters from Product Seller's Talk Radio about radio advertising for Product Sellers. It was a great, but short interview. You all know me - I could talk about radio advertising for hours and hours.

In any case, after the official part of the interview was over, we got to talking about what one needs to think about when calling a radio station.

Obviously, the first thing consideration must be your target market. If you're selling a product to work at home mothers (or those who want to be) - you should begin your search with Christian or Country Radio Stations.

This is not to say that you won't find work at home moms listening to Rock or Hip Hop and any every other type of music (I happen to be primarily into hard rock and punk myself) - the fact is the concentration of women who are most likely to be open to working at home will be higher on Christian and Country Music Stations.

Another option would be the local talk radio show that plays the Dr. Laura Show. Since Dr. Laura is a huge advocate of working at home, it stands to reason that there will be a proportion of her audience that works at home or wants to.

The point is that if you want to get the most out of your radio advertising, the better you can identify what station or show attracts the highest concentration of your target market - the more effective your campaign is going to be. If you can further identify when they are most likely to be listening, then you can schedule your campaign so that your dollars stretch further than buying a run-of-schedule campaign.

We also talked about getting to know your advertising representative an making sure he or she is a right fit for your business. I'll blog about that another day.

Stay tuned!

Official Confirmation...

I have been very excited about the changes at XM105's website. The new rewards format for our Extreme Listeners is top-notch and I simply adore the survey feature and can't wait till we can start putting the online advertising features to the test.

Some have asked whether online radio gets much attention and whether it's going to be a worthwhile investment from a business perspective. Until now, I've only had my gut feelings and years of online business to go on. Now, I've found that there is indeed official confirmation of my instincts.

According to this article, a recent report put together by Media Audit revealed that 1 in 5 surfers visited their local radio websites. I thought it was interesting that more men were apt to hop online to visit a station website. Locally, I've noticed that more women tend to be the online types than men. This could be because, being an oil & logging town, many men are away for extended periods of time and don't tend to be in offices or home the way they are in urban centres.

In any case, another sign that radio is a great way to advertise...whether it's online or on the air. Don't you think?

Watching Radio at Work

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I got to see radio work for an advertiser in person for the first time. I mean I've heard my clients tell me that traffic has increased, or that they've gotten phone calls and things like that, but that's all second hand. It makes me feel good to hear those things as I follow up on different campaigns, but I had never seen the results of radio advertising in person.

In my head, I know it works. But it's an entirely different sensation to see it happen.

A client booked the radio station to come out and be on-location for a few hours on this particular Saturday. (The radio terminology for an on-location set up like that is remote.) They were celebrating their 10th anniversary and had led up to the event with other marketing too - including newspaper, word of mouth and outdoor signage. It's always good to go with a nice mix for a large event.

It was only the second remote that I've been out to live. The first was in January when the station worked with Erin Haley as she released her album "Second First Impressions". That was interesting - we did sell a few CD's and Erin signed a lot of autographs, but it wasn't as immediate to me as what happened at the anniversary remote.

The client let the on-air personality know that one of the things they wanted to promote with the live cut-ins was their coloring contest. They are having children make posters related to thier business and the winners will be judged and the winner announced at an upcoming local trade show. So at the next cut-in she talked about the coloring contest.

Within about 15 seconds, the phone started ringing. Being near the desk where the phone was, I overheard the store's side of the conversation. They were giving out details about this coloring contest that was just announced. After seeing her finish up on the phone, I went over to see if I had heard right. It turns out that the caller had only caught the tail end of the sales message, and was calling to get the information that they missed.

How cool is that?

Okay, maybe it's just me - but I thought it was such a thrill to see radio in action...bringing results to the client.

The whole afternoon was a series of incidents like that as people came in from all over the listening area to check out the excitement. With the traffic came sales, and everyone was happy at the end of the day.

Well everyone except my three boys who were told in no uncertain terms that we were not going to be purchasing a dirtbike or an ATV -- but that's another story!