RadioGuruPdx

Save-the-Date: Tim Miles is Coming this May!

Tim Miles Sold Out last year. 

He'll be presenting a whole new program that will inspire 
you and give you new tools to grow your business.

How well did your marketing
and advertising work last year?
Do you think it could work better?

"Tim Miles uses common sense, kindness and an unquenchable curiosity as tools to help hundreds of  businesses, meet force with force, and do the work to be more successful more quickly." - David Freeman

“At first I thought you were nuts. Now that I see the finished product, I’m pretty sure you’re a genius.” – Alan Hardwick, Lavine’s Heating and Air Conditioning, Oakland, CA

Save-the-Date
May 1-3, 2012 

 You can check out his most recent blogs
at Radiogurupdx.com or visit his site The Daily Blur.

Get on the reservation list now! Space is limited.

Email Melissa Kunde to reserve your seat in advance.

Grow Your Business with Public Relations 101

This week meet our guest blogger Denny Shleifer, the President & CEO of Shleifer Marketing Communications, Inc. 

A Public Relations 101 Lesson Plan for Business Owners

Why prospect for business? It very seldom works. Instead, you should market your business using the tested and proven methods of public relations and advertising. Every business must consider becoming its own public relations manager and seek help and advice when needed from a marketing consultant. Here are some helpful tips:

Press Releases & Interviews

Develop a list of editors and reporters who cover the business beat. Write a press release with their needs in mind. Email information with your phone number, photo and an explanation of why you think your business is newsworthy.

Magazine & Trade Journal Articles

Contact editors and reporters at the publications that your clients and prospects read. Inquire about writing an article. Suggest some topics, but remain open to editor-requested topics. Never hype yourself in the article, but ask that a one or two sentence biography appear at the conclusion of the article.

Public Speeches & Lectures

Business and civic groups often use outside speakers. Contact program directors to discuss delivering a speech.

Professional & Trade Association Meetings

It’s good to visit as many as you can. A major benefit will come when you become active in one or more at the board level.

Formal & Informal Networking

Get involved in a networking group that strives to communicate with others whose contacts are helpful to you and your company. Sharing information is crucial in developing new leads.

Letters of Referral & Recommendations

Ask a client to write a letter to you that describes what your business achieved for him/her. With the clients’ permission, reproduce and circulate the letter. You can get referrals from clients by asking them to write to or call a prospect. Comments from a satisfied customer will carry clout in the business world.

Social Media

This is a topic that gets a ton of media attention. If your business is not using it to show your expertise, you’re missing a major opportunity. Don’t believe it’s the end-all to be-all solution, but using Facebook, Twitter and other networks will offer other ways to showcase your expertise.

Mass E-Mailings

Non-personalized e-mailing can be somewhat effective. The key is to match an appropriate list to an effective marketing piece. Make sure you include a response device.

Promotion

Gain exposure through joint promotion with another organization. Strategic alliances will benefit in so many ways. Contribute to a non-profit group and reap the benefits of publicity. Offer an appropriate premium or incentive item to remind customers of your presence.

Public Relations/Advertising/Web/SEO counsel

Seek advice. Trained professionals can get you the exposure you need.

 
Denny Shleifer is the President & CEO of Shleifer Marketing Communications, Inc. The Portland based Shleifer is a diverse marketing professional with over 30 years experience specializing in business-to-business marketing communications. The former Emmy award winning journalist also works as a freelance producer for CBS News.



 

 

A Case Study: Cricket Wireless, The Wallet Drop

 “Of our tools, we see radio as the one that is closest to the end of the brand funnel. It can drive people to the store to take action.” - Deborah Jourdan, Sr. Director Consumer Marketing at Cricket Communications

Vision: Cricket Wireless saw an opportunity in social media but knew that motivating large participation in local campaigns using only web-based tools can be difficult. Their idea was to combine the strengths of social media with the activating reach of radio. The starting goal was to build community on the top social media sites: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Idea: Cricket created a campaign called the Wallet Drop. Its purpose was to build the company’s level of social media interaction and drive traffic into retail locations. The two-week promotion focused on a number of Cricket Wireless branded wallets that contained prizes, including a free phone and cash prizes from $1 to a $5,000 grand prize.

During the promotion, the wallets were dropped at secret locations. People who followed social media feeds got clues to the locations. Radio was added to take the “hope” out of participation. Cricket enlisted local radio’s trusted personalities to talk about the giveaways on the air and to post the clues on their own Facebook and Twitter feeds. 

Result: The campaign was a huge success, with increasing followers on Facebook and Twitter and strong foot traffic in retail locations. As a second achievement, they accomplished high levels of online chatter about Cricket, with followers reposting information from Cricket’s pages to their own. Deborah Jourdan, Sr. Director of Consumer Marketing at Cricket says, “We feel the number of people talking about our brand is the most important measure of success.” The Wallet Drop campaign with radio tie-ins was launched in eight markets. According to Jourdan, the campaign has become a local marketing best practice for the company. 

Download Full Case Study Here

Source: Arbitron 2012 Dive Deeper Series 

 

 

Knowing Where to Begin Your Radio Story

Dan O'Day gives us a great example of a radio commercial for Honda dealers that would have benefited from storytelling skills. The number one rule: skip the intro, begin with action. 

 

93% Listen to Radio Commercials - That's a Fact!

Reported from the Arbitron Client Conference in Baltimore:

A quick side-study targeting agency professionals and radio industry executives revealed that perception is different from reality. Agency clients, on average, believed that Radio only keeps 68 percent of the listening audience during spot breaks. Radio industry participants pegged it at 78 percent.

Philippe Generali, President of Media Monitors, says, "The radio industry should reinforce the fact that audience levels remain very high during commercial breaks, by promoting the 93 percent finding." The panel at Arbitron agreed.

Arbitron leaders, CEO Bill Kerr and COO Sean Creamer told the annual Client Conference attendees that they want to "do a better job of promoting radio in the broader marketplace."

Warren Kurtzman of Coleman Insights says "Programmers shouldn't obsess about the negative impact of running commercials" - at least in the short term. People listen when the spots come on.

What Happens When the Spots Come On is available HERE

Channeling All Engines with Tim Miles Including Giraffes Toward Your North Star

Tim Miles, Partner of The Wizard of Ads

The coming year is going to be fun and adventure-filled for people and companies who keep their wits about them.

In spite of the election sniping, Mayan prophesying, and the ninety-nine other excuses to hunker down with your head in the sand, you can prepare yourself to gain market share this year. Get on board for the journey and I will load you up with simple (but not easy) strategies, ideas and actionables to help your small business grow in Portland.

However, if you want to do your own thing, that's cool. If you expect to keep doing the same things you've always done, you might be in for trouble.

If you're with me, reading this, I suspect you're not only good-looking and smart. You are also proactive to boot.

This year with small business mavens, like yourself, I'll do my best to help keep you on course. Our journey, at least parts of it, may be uncomfortable. Growing pains always are.

Expect us in 2012 to provide you with columns in every newsletter. We'll provide you with a video podcast each month and answer your specific questions. (click and start asking!)

I'm coming to visit the Rose City twice - the first time in May (details forthcoming) and another time in the fall.

In May, we're going to talk specifically about how marketing works on our brains or doesn't work, as is often the case. We'll talk about personality and neuroscience and the effects of generosity. We'll talk about why the proper use of sound works sooooooooo well in slipping past the security guard in your head that protects the area that makes decisions.

We'll talk about giraffes ... in jazz clubs ... wearing sunglasses ... playing clarinets.

We'll talk about Dr. Seuss and icebergs and introverts and extroverts.

And, most important, we'll talk about how to channel all these engines - including the giraffes - toward your north star - your unwavering goal.

That's my goal for us in 2012. It's going to be an exciting year. It starts with your questions.

As for the rest, stay tuned.

Tim Miles

PS. Want to read more of TIm's stuff? He writes everyday at www.TheDailyBlur.com.

Hot Flashes and Opening Lines with Dan O'Day

Telling a story is different than writing one. Getting the right people's attention is key. An ear-catching opening line can make all the difference in a "move-the-needle" radio campaign.