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In the Broadcasting Industry we look at unique ways to increase ratings and revenue. One New Media Element we aren’t maximizing the resources of is text messaging.
Radio as a medium only gets 8 cents in every dollar spent on advertising worldwide.
MOBILE MESSAGING is a new technology that Radio has more to benefit from than any other medium.
What can the mobile phone and personal marketing do for Radio? Much more than you probably imagine!
When you leave home everyday, what are three items you can’t leave home without? Your keys, your wallet and your cell phone, that's pretty much it. This helps explain why the mobile phone is the hottest new communications channel and the fastest growing adoption of technology in US history!
Radio has the opportunity to embrace this technology and own it. While mobile marketing is available to any business; Radio’s greatest asset – its audience and its close connection to that audience – is the difference!
Radio is essentially one way messaging, adding the mobile phone allows Radio to become truly interactive with its audience, even when they are not listening to the station!
Radio should simply adopt the mobile phone as a wireless extension. Radio being the oldest form of wireless – the cell phone being the newest! No other media combination allows personal consumer interaction, unbounded by place or time to the same extent. 14 other markets outside the US can’t be wrong!
Now on air promotions, surveys, live contests and remotes are increasingly more engaging for your listeners. Consider how many listeners actually try and win a phone-in radio contest. Only 2.5% of listeners attempt, 97.5% believe they will never get through to win and only hear a busy tone. Participation rates can increase enormously when you allow listeners to enter via a text message. Thousands of listeners can enter simultaneously and each receives a response in seconds confirming they are entered to win. Listeners can now vote in polls and receive back an immediate response with current poll results and an invitation to stay tuned for the final results.
Benefits from a programming perspective are: Improve TSL, help grow ratings, build station loyalty, build a database of P1’s and reach out to your loyal listeners when they are not even listening to tune back in. Here’s an example – “The BONE: B listening in 30 minutes when Bon Jovi talks 2 us live in studio. 4 ur chance 2 win the album HAVE A NICE DAY reply with “BON JOVI” thanks 2 PepsiMax.
Benefits from a sales perspective include: Achieve higher rates on every order! Address advertiser pressure for accountability and gain data to prove radio schedules work, elevate radio compared to other mediums for ROI (Mobile marketing delivers 10 times the response rate of direct mail which is currently ranked no. 1 for ROI by agencies). One of radio’s limitations is its inability to show a product – now you can create a visual element. Very few clients will buy verbal communication only. Now one of Radio’s biggest weaknesses can be eliminated with the ability to deliver on demand, timely information directly into the listener’s hand. Advertisers/agencies want more than a 60 second spot. Radio can now offer really unique concepts to clients with the marriage of two wireless mediums, Radio and the Mobile Phone.
The opportunity presented by mobile messaging opens the door to a new world of interaction with the listener and is only the beginning of what will be possible in the very near future.
This may scare you! Right now in Asia, 7 cents in every dollar spent on advertising goes to mobile marketing. Radio has the ability to own this new communications channel and be the driver. If you don’t, the brands and the agencies will just do it on their own and Radio will continue to struggle and lose more market share.
So how does Radio embrace this new technology? Here are some guidelines!
Mobile is only a Response Channel: This new medium is reliant on an effective and clearly communicated ‘call to action’. Mobile cannot work on its own. The best driver for personal communication to the masses is Radio. The cell phone is in effect: an advertising delivery system for Radio!
Mobile Marketing Best Practice: There are a few critical points in implementing a successful mobile marketing campaign that generates real ROI results. All support one aspect of the golden rule of direct marketing: The right offer, at the right time, to the right audience.
Get Permission: Far and away the most critical component of a mobile messaging campaign, asking your listeners for permission to market to them will help distinguish your campaign from SPAM. One thing the mobile industry is doing a great job of, is ensuring SPAM does not become the ugly monster it is today for email. The reason is simply that subscribers pay for SMS messages. No one wants to pay for messages they did not choose to receive.
Track Results: Your mobile messaging vendor should offer Web-based reporting tools for campaign tracking. Metrics should be viewable at both the aggregate and individual user levels.
Personalize Every Message: The right offer, to the right audience at the right time. To ensure all three criteria are met with your mobile marketing campaigns, give users the ability to control all three. You may be sending an offer for half price movie tickets, however, if your message arrives at 3:00 am on a Sunday, you have risked annoying one of your coveted opt-in P1’s and violated a cardinal rule of direct marketing.
Perfect Targeting: The most compelling benefit of mobile marketing is the fact that it is highly personalized and direct. The opt-in process should strike a balance between obtaining relevant demographic information and maintaining a simple, painless end user experience. As you continue to grow your Opt-in list, periodically query your subscribers for additional information. Tracking user patterns becomes an essential part of the nurturing process.
Would You Want This Offer? Mobile marketing is invasive! You’ll be delivering messages to devices people rely on in a variety of activities. Unless your offer is compelling and contains an incentive or reward, people will opt-out in droves and your stations brand will be tarnished. Make sure that your offering is something your listeners want. Fun marketing messages also facilitate viral marketing.
Word of Mouth: A favorite radio term, viral or word-of-mouth marketing refers to what happens to your marketing messages after they are delivered to your targeted list. Strong offers prompt listeners to forward them to friends and colleagues, which in turn spike message traffic for your advertisers or sponsors, and build brand awareness/increase sales for the station.
TXT ‘MCVAY’ to the number 36617 or go to www.hipcricket.com/McVay To Learn information on how your station can increase ratings and revenue by Text Messaging Elements
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