Humanize your commercial client
People buy from people, not from institutions. Advertisers often forget this, and are more concerned about their perfect "image" than about relating to their audience as fellow human beings. It's not a perfect world, and listeners recognize this, so a commercial that tries to portray the advertiser as perfect, doesn't ring true. Let the audience in on your client’s little faults, the chinks in the armor. For example,
What you need to know about apples
Yes, I did mean apples, not Apple. More on that in a minute...When you stop to think about what has caused many advertisers to shift a growing percentage of their media budgets to more targetable media, such as search marketing (Google mainly), social media (Facebook mainly), online display, video, retargeting and the rest, you can understand the reason. Who, after all, wouldn’t want to target their media to those who express (sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly) their interest in a subject related to what the advertiser wants to sell?
Seven ways we can increase our sales
In a world where something falls off your timeline in two seconds (if it appears at all), everyone can come up with a lower price, and technology evolves quicker than the time you have to enjoy a cup of tea the question is: How can we continue to increase sales? Here are seven tips that have worked in my career, for my colleagues, clients of Marketing Fun With Mike, and more!
The Aereo case: A summary of the issues and a prediction
The Supreme Court heard the oral arguments in the Aereo case yesterday, it has received all the briefs, and now we all just wait for a decision – to probably be released late in June before the Court’s summer recess. The transcript of yesterday’s oral argument has been released and is available here. It makes for interesting reading, as the questions from the Court seemed to be dubious of Aereo’s claims that it can retransmit the signal of a broadcast television station over the Internet, to the public for a fee, without the consent of or any payment to the stations. While dubious about the Aereo service, the Court was also concerned about the potential impact of any decision against Aereo on cloud services and even on other distributors of media content. Lots of issues came up during the course of the argument, and it will be very interesting to see how the Court resolves these in its final decision. Keep reading, and I’ll make my prediction.
Post-NAB Interview: Gordon Smith
Certainly we’re all very proud of the job NAB CEO Gordon Smith is doing for broadcasters with all of the
The dongle takeover: How the “Streaming Stick” is revolutionizing TV
If you are up-to-speed on news within the TV space, you hear the words
How to keep on-air talent
Given the increasing disfavor of judges and state legislators against the enforceability of non-compete agreements in the broadcasting industry, should prudent
FCC requests comments on proposal to require multilingual EAS alerts
With so much going on at the FCC and in connection with other topics
Using templates to save sales time
In nearly all email programs there is the option to add a signature to the end of your email. Some of you may not be aware that you can create and edit multiple signatures within your email program. This allows you the ability to create common sales templates within your email program giving you quick access to them in a single click.
Finding great salespeople in unexpected places
Does it feel like the talent pool in sales is shrinking just as demand for qualified salespeople is growing? The truth is, there are talented people waiting to be hired. The challenge is learning where to look. A good company must continually prospect for promising salespeople.
Coming issues and events that will change the USA
Several situations loom that need to be confronted. Folks who have followed my list of predictions since 1985 have to admit I nailed them all correctly. Several network shows had my list and have interviewed me. Here’s what’s coming:
How to sell against competitors that lie
Unfortunately, all too often, I get a call from an ad sales coaching client telling me that their nearest competitor just stole another ad deal using false or misleading data. Where this seems to be most evident is with digital audience numbers. So, what do you do to sell against a liar? The answer might be easier than you think... tell the truth. Here are six things to consider when telling the truth about your ad products.
YouTube is no competitor. YouTube is radio’s new BFF
Infinite Dial 2014 identified YouTube as radio’s quiet competitor (https://rbr.com/infinite-dial-radios-quiet-competitor-is-youtube/), but the reality
So, your client wants to be in the commercial…Part 2
If your client has a sense of humor, but his voiceprint is deadpan, contrast him with a voice who is truly excited (maybe even overexcited) about the benefits his business has for customers, interspersed with just his unemotional “yup” or “you bet” comments. Record short phone interviews with the client’s relatives about him and build a campaign around the family stories about the client, using short clips from his family members. Or…take a “goes nowhere” story told by the owner in a flat unemotional voice, cut it apart, intersperse it with a very enthusiastic announcer and create an epic:
So, your client wants to be in the commercial-Part 1
What’s the easiest way to get a client on the air? Put them in the commercial! What’s the quickest way to make a bad commercial? Same answer! Unfortunately, there are very few Frank Purdues, Lee Iaccoccas, Victor Kiams or even Dave Thomases out there. Most clients think they can pull off being great spokespersons. Most are wrong. Are there ways you can fulfill their desire for 30 or 60 seconds of fame and still make a commercial that works? Yes.