1. Thou shalt not worship false ?experts.? Radio?s clients routinely rely heavily on self-proclaimed ?experts? for recommendations on how to advertise their products and services. These recommendations are gospel to clients ? even if the results of their campaigns are unsatisfactory. These ?experts? regularly tell us what constitutes good advertising. Unfortunately, simple research usually proves them wrong. We all see this repeatedly.
2. Thou shalt honor thy clients and thy station?s programming. Radio must become the best medium at delivering results for clients if it is to prosper among today?s myriad sexy media choices. Both clients and stations must ?win? in order for a transaction to be successful. Bad commercials are a major tune-out for radio stations and don?t work for their clients. Good commercials work for clients, sound good on the radio, and generate countless client renewals and referrals.
3. Thou shalt not covet advertising awards. They look good on the walls and are often used as sales tools ? but they don?t mean much beyond that. In a lot of cases, ?good? commercials don?t convey the message clients are trying to send to potential customers, send messages that are not attractive to those customers, or are simply disliked by listeners.
4. Thou shalt not accept bad business. Too small a budget or too big a spend on your station screws your clients. Too little investment, and the campaign will be ineffective; too big, and the client misses getting even more results by adding another station or medium to the mix. The need to reach quota or make a commission check should never supersede your client?s campaign performance.
5. Thou shalt determine thy client?s true USP. The reasons your salesperson or client believes people choose a product or service are not always accurate. Clients often tell listeners that customers choose them because of ?their people.? They are usually wrong. If a commercial?s unique selling proposition does not provide a major ?benefit sought? by the customer, it simply won?t work.
6. Thou shalt ensure the message given is the message received. Here?s the critical lesson that is most relevant for radio sales today. Programmers thought their stations? music was great, then discovered through research that, from the audience?s perspective, it wasn?t that good after all. The same occurs now with commercials: The message clients think is being delivered to their customers isn?t the message received.
7. Thou shalt test thy commercials. The same lesson radio learned many years ago about programming music is relevant for radio sales departments today: Stations should look at song selection only from the target audience?s perspective. In the future, commercials should be similarly tested to determine if the message sent is the one received, is strategically correct and enticing enough that customers will actually respond to the offer, and is illustrative of the target?s thoughts about the brand ? both positive and negative. It?s a new, strategically significant arena.
8. Thou shalt optimize all thy campaigns. ?Average frequency? of a campaign is misleading. Therefore, it?s important to perform a frequency distribution analysis for campaigns to optimize the number of people who are effectively exposed to a commercial.
9. Thou shalt admit when thou hath not the proper skills. If you don?t know how to analyse commercials properly for their effectiveness and schedule optimization, get help from someone who does.
10. Thou shalt ensure that thy radio campaigns deliver on their promise. Again, radio must be the best medium at delivering on its promise to generate the best results for clients. This is critical considering all the newer digital and social marketing initiatives available to your clients and bombarding their target consumers. The future of radio depends on it.The single thing that will have the most significant impact on improving your station?s relevance to the listener and generating more revenue is professional testing of radio media campaigns.Neal Gallagher and Mike Anthony are co-owners of the Neal Gallagher Company.
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