The latest issue of my Radio Advertising Letter features a critique of a subscriber’s radio commercial…
A discussion of why so many radio account executives lack confidence…
And an explanation of how & why most radio advertisements that try to “drive traffic to a website” do it all wrong.
This posting is for subscribers to add their own comments….
Comments on this entry are closed.
I have been an “O’Day-ophile” for years. And your advice is always spot-on. However, there are occasions that there are, at least, exceptions to the rules. You have always said, and I have always followed the axiom that if the call to action does not forward the possibility of the sale, don’t do it. Many are the times I’ve asked a car dealer, “So, how many of these have you sold over the phone?” The answer has always been, “None”. Point made and the client no longer wants his phone number in the commercial.
Websites usually fall into that catagory…EXCEPT (there’s that pesky exception) when the goods or service are A) expensive and/or B) they have no one at the business to close the sale.
That is to say, doctors.
This holds especially true for clinics that offer aesthetic treatments like vericose vein removal, botox or more involved procedures like breast augmentation, etc.
To see one of these doctors, you have to schedule an appointment, sit in a waiting room, then sit some more in a treatment room, consult with the physician and then, usually, pay for it. You can’t just wander in off the street and take a look at their huge selection of custom boobs (or would that be custom selection of huge boobs?) There’s not a sales staff waiting to help you make a decision. It’s also not likely you’ll get anyone on the phone willing to spend ten minutes with you answering the questions that you may have about a particular procedure or treatment.
This is where a GOOD website can be the next step in moving the sale forward. Because it can help provide the extra info and answer the questions someone is likely to have about an optional and probably costly treatment. And I have found, that many of these websites have domain names that coincide with the name of the clinic or doctor, reinforcing the branding of that business in the mind of the listener.
About the only way around this call to action is for the doctor to offer a free initial consultation. That is, by far, the best option. But most of the physicians that I have dealt with are not willing to go with it. So, as my job is to increase their sales, I send them to the website.
BTW, I’m not a website builder.
Unless sending a listener to the website is the way to take their money, it has no business being in the commercial. The obligation is on the advertiser to control the sale. Letting a radio listener wander aimlessly around a website is not control. IMHO.
Re: Confident sales people
I’m the opposite of your example in the letter. I have my afternoon air shift at the station I work for, and I love it. During the morning hours, I’m an account executive. I’m terrible at it. I have a lot of confidence in my ability to present an entertaining show on the air, but put me out on the street to sell advertising, and it all goes out the window. As far as training goes, I’ve read the books I can afford, and subscribe to many newsletters, including yours…I just can’t seem to get it to work. It’s frustrating.
Website over Phone number:
I’ve often found myself reading Dan’s letters, listening to telecasts, seminars…and even old tape’s (Damn the Creativity, etc)…they are fascinating, and, in my opinion, spot on!
‘The website has NO business being in a commercial” – Really?!?
IF you position your commercial to pull the attention of the listener, and IF it’s powerful enough to get them to act…why not give them a shortcut, or at least recommend a Google search to find the deets (details) of what the commercial is about?
How many Insurance companies are on TV or Radio? How many phone numbers can you remember?
Anybody?
How many websites?
I’m guessing ‘CompanyName.Com’ sticks out much more than 555-555-1212, and we can all list at least a few company websites from doing that.
I’m not completely against websites, I’d prefer them over phone numbers, but NO place for a website in a commercial?? I’ll throw my hand up with questions regarding that move.
Dan, I appreciate your continued guidance for the radio industry to rise above the slum it’s been cornholed into, and I’ll continue to follow your recommendations…but please, elaborate on this subject.
@Evan, @Harley: Your comments had me worried; I had to go back and reread my Radio Advertising Letter to see if I’d omitted a paragraph or something.
Turns out I didn’t.
I never said you never should include the advertiser’s website. What I said was, “Driving traffic to a website” isn’t enough. You need to send the targeted listener to the client’s website to take a specific action.
An insurance company that tags its spots with, “…or visit us online at….” is not advertising effectively.
An insurance company whose entire campaign focuses, let’s say, on price and whose commercials invite the listener to “go to XXX.com and see exactly how much YOUR health insurance would cost” would be a much smarter advertiser.
I do write about this at some length in the latest Radio Advertising Letter.
@Don C: It sounds as though your employer hasn’t put you through a genuine course for radio sales training — which is a terrible position to put you in.
Alas, I don’t have any to offer at the moment, but very soon I expect to offer — for instant download — an excellent Radio Sales training series.
In the meantime, I think you’d get a lot out of this:
How To Double Your Radio Sales By Doing Less, More Intensively
by Chet Holmes
https://danoday.com/doublesales
Hi Dan,
I DO agree with you about a “call of action” with website. My Last commercial I did was with Pregnancy Care Center and my call of action what ” chat on line @…..” this showed the listener that someone was there and it was still confidential! So far the ad had been very effective.
Good advice!
Loved your line about believing in your product:
“…the ability to help businesses achieve specific goals.”
Though meant to refocus AEs on what should be at the heart of their sales calls, it lends well to what every business should be doing in every sales message they put out there about their product:
“…the ability to help your product/service achieve specific goals.”
Wouldn’t selling be great if we could just learn to focus on the main, huge life-changing feature of a client’s product/service – and how it will dramtically improve the life of the person who uses it? My guess is that many sellers – AEs and businesses – got started with the belief they could really help people… “if people only knew that this product existed!” Now it’s all about seeing ’em all and selling a few, creating platforms – special shows, streaming, packages, associations – and not about helping people make their lives better.
@Jim G:
My guess is that many sellers – AEs and businesses – got started with the belief they could really help people… “if people only knew that this product existed!”
You are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, those business owners don’t realize it takes more than people knowing you exist to buy from you.