Radio Still Using Traditional Salespeople For Digital Dollars

12-17-14

The jury is still out on whether this approach is right or wrong. Some will say the reason radio does not generate more revenue from digital is because it doesn't focus enough dedicated resources to it. Others will say there just isn't enough digital revenue in the marketplace to spend the money on those additional resources.

Radio Ink recently completed a detailed survey of managers that included owners, CEOs, corporate executives, market managers, general managers, sales managers, and program directors. Our goal was to take the pulse of the industry as we head into 2015 and find out where you believe radio sits in the digital marketplace. Our survey discovered that 86 percent of radio stations continue to sell digital products using their traditional sales force while only 14 percent have a dedicated digital sales staff. As a result, perhaps, 63 percent of our respondents report that digital revenue makes up less than 5 percent of their total sales. Another 21% say digital make up between 6 to 10 percent of sales.

Additional results from our survey show that radio managers report they are fairly confident (41%) or highly confident (35%) that they have a strong grasp of emerging digital opportunities and threats. When asked about the advertisers they call on, a majority (70%) say their advertisers are digitally savvy while half (50%) say their companies are digitally savvy.

(12/17/2014 2:01:08 PM)
Fifteen years ago our company Radio Profits Corporation presented at the Radio Ink Internet conference. At the time this same debate was going on whether digital needed a separate sales team. Probably the people who were debating it are no longer in the business.

This industry is sadly stuck.

(12/17/2014 1:01:19 PM)
Ed Ryan, You should go on the road and share your early experiences in selling digital dollars. If the industry wants its share of digital dollars they better train and hire people who specialize in digital.
(12/17/2014 11:20:18 AM)
When we started our digital marketing department four years ago, we had a separate sales staff to sell website development and other online marketing products. This fall we trained our radio sales reps to sell digital.
It has been a very difficult transition as many of the older salespeople have not been receptive to learning digital.
Integrating our clients' marketing is important, but it was much more effective when we had separate sales teams for each product.
(12/17/2014 10:57:17 AM)
Radio made an error giving digital to the regular sales staff. The salespeople were immediately sidetracked from their normal duties which hurt station billing, and poor initial digital pitches were made by inexperienced people causing few digital sales.
Newspapers always had separate sales people for their various products, (display, classified, inserts) But then, newspapers were always a real business.
(12/17/2014 9:43:30 AM)
Toy, how long did it take for FM to become profitable because AM stations gave away advertising to fill inventory on their FM sister stations? Giving something away demonstrates that it has no value.

Add a Comment | View All Comments Send This Story To A Friend

View the original article here

(MOBILE) Traditional News Media Isn't Extinct

6-12-2013

For years we?ve been bombarded by doomsday predictions for traditional media outlets.

?The iPod killed radio!?

?People only watch TV On Demand!?

While these arguments might have validity when it comes to consumption of entertainment, recent statistics suggest there is still robust news consumption on traditional media.

Consulting firm McKinsey and Company found that radio accounted for 16 percent of total time spent consuming news. Forty-one percent of news consumption time was with TV. That compared to only four percent of total time spent on smartphones and tablets combined.

While McKinsey and Company?s numbers are reassuring, they are not reason to relax. Audiences might currently consume news through traditional media, but you still must cultivate and retain audience through new technology, including mobile. In fact, these numbers offer an opportunity to use mobile technology to engage your audience while simultaneously driving them back to consume news and information from your legacy broadcast outlets.

The biggest hurdle to traditional media is getting someone to turn it on. During the day, when most of us are working in an office, co-workers and bosses usually frown on keeping the radio on at all times.

However, we always have our phones on, in case we get that important client call or emergency text from the kid?s school. It?s that ?always on? connectivity that traditional media can use to ?push? people to tune in to their station.

Think of mobile like the co-worker in the next cubicle who tells you, ?Hey, you need to turn on the radio now! Something big is happening.? Given the correct mobile prompt, people will turn to traditional media to find out what?s going on.

The first step to giving this correct prompt is to build up a database of mobile users who have opted to receive SMS text notifications.

How do you do this? Offer something worth receiving. Offer breaking alerts. Offer sports scores from local teams. Offer traffic or weather updates. There are some stations that offer SMS alerts specifically for car chases, celebrity sightings, or trial verdicts.

Play to the strengths of traditional media: It?s trusted, personal, and local. In an era of syndication and national outlets, SMS alerts for local and useful information help you maintain and build trust with the community.

Once you have built up a mobile database, you can reengage your audience with target messages. Did you know that one-third of us check our phones before we even get out of bed in the morning? What if a text message from your station was the first thing someone saw when he or she woke up?

You could present them with a compelling reason to turn on your morning show. You could offer a sponsored traffic report with a reminder to tune in on the eights for updated information. On a sunny day, Sunglass Hut or Coppertone could sponsor the weather. Your station can be first in their mind all day.

A mobile database also gives you a more comprehensive demographic picture of your audience. It?s not a small PPM or Arbitron snapshot. It is extensive data on the audience members most engaged with your station. You can use that to customize the content you present on air. You can also present that information to advertisers and generate additional revenue streams with sponsored messages and content.

The media landscape will continue to change. Just because there is still an audience interested in traditional news outlets today doesn?t mean news delivery and consumption won?t evolve in the next five years. We are at a unique time of technological overlap, where emerging technologies can drive participation to traditional outlets. Building a solid mobile strategy now will strengthen your market position both short and long term.

Ivan Braiker is the president of mobile marketing company Hipcricket. He can be reached at ivan@hipcricket.com.
Read more articles from Ivan HERE

View the original article here