4-9-2012
If you?ve been in programming, promotions, or associated with guiding a radio station over the last decade, you may be up to speed with your listener e-mail ? or it may be time to freshen your approach. We?ve all seen stations send ads sold and forced down our throat from the sales department. That is a disservice to them, to your station, and to the listeners.
Don?t think of your e-mail as just an e-mail. Think of it as an opportunity to use limited visual ads and a personal note along with small banner ads to give the listeners a truly hip content update that interests them. Think of it as a great opportunity to refocus listeners on why they should be listening to your station right now.
Here are some tips on how your loyal listener e-mails should look:
1. Colorful logo, front and center if possible. This can be done as part of a banner across the top of your e-mail and can actually include a very brief graphic about your current major promotion (but make it visual; not too much copy).
2. Immediately underneath your logo and/or banner, you should have easy-to-see links for: Listen Live, Morning Show, Facebook, YouTube, Concerts/Events. If you don?t have a Facebook page, a YouTube Channel, or a way to listen live, you have a lot to consider about your competitiveness.
3. To the left-hand side of your e-mail, underneath these links, should be a very brief personal note with a similarly brief invitation to listen to win your major promotion. This should be signed by either the morning show or other major personality on the station.
4. To the right of the ?personal note? you should consider having an ad from the sales department or a public service ad. Even if it is a public service ad, you can sponsor it. This is an excellent way to engage the sales department for additional non-traditional revenue using a database or loyal listener e-mail.
5. Beneath the personal note and ad, you can placed a banner ad that is either a station event, concert, or format concert. And, yes, it is okay to put the logo of the station in this ad if it fits the image of the station.
6. Next, you can have smaller ads, with visuals to the left and copy to the right, about your upcoming WINNING WEEKEND or STATION CONCERT or event.
7. Below these, you can have smaller ads sold by the sales team mixed with either public service ads or an ad about interesting content that listeners can find on your website.
8. Below this, you can visually present (small) a special feature on the station, bottom left, and specific activities listeners can do this weekend, on the right.
9. There is still room for a sponsored banner ad across the bottom (going all the way across the e-mail). Another opportunity for the sales department.
10. Finally, you should have more social media links at the bottom of the e-mail: your station website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.
Again, your e-mail should be in a format that looks like a cool content bump or content update, with visuals that allow listeners to choose the content they enjoy. With a variety of content opportunities all together, you avoid making it look like you are spamming listeners. Why? Because you?re not. Youre giving them connectivity to the station in a variety of forms.
Always put an opt-out or ?Unsubscribe here? at the bottom of the e-mail. I usually recommend something like, ?If you would not like to receive this free benefit from (station name) via e-mail, simply unsubscribe here. Thank you for listening to (station).? Of course, you will want to have a disclaimer at the bottom of your e-mail with brief privacy policy and contact information.
We fight it out with other distractions every single day. When you send listeners e-mail, you are intruding on their day, their space, their e-mail. Make it mean something; make it visual and fun. This is truly an opportunity for you to give important listeners brief and impactful content that leads them back to you in social media, your website, and, of course, your frequency. Use it.
Loyd Ford is the direct marketing, ratings and social media strategist for Americalist and programmed very successful radio brands in markets of all sizes for years, including KRMD AM & FM in Shreveport, WSSL and WMYI in Greenville, WKKT in Charlotte and WBEE in Rochester, NY. Learn more about Loyd here: http://about.me/loydford. Reach out to Loyd via e-mail HERE
Visit his Facebook radio social media page www.facebook.com/socialnetworking4radio
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