RadioActive Media : Marketing, Promotions and Advertising: Radio, Television, Magazine, Internet.

800-599-RADIO | Text DR Radio to 511-511 | 714-787-0101 International

By the RadioActive Media Team

No element of a direct response campaign is more important than the call-to-action. As a consumer, I’m often bewildered by ad messages that don’t make sense. Big, expensive, pretty award-winning ads make me mutter “What was that? What did they want me to do?” What a waste of money and effort.

When you craft your call-to-action, start with the goals you want to achieve. Do you want more prospects, more leads, and more feedback? What action do you want your audience to take? Are you driving traffic to a website or to call/text? How many different ways do you want them to reach you? Thoughtfully list all the different ways and follow each through with great detail to track the response of each method by media vehicle, by day and by time slot.

Direct response requires easy and clear instructions in a call-to-action. When you only have thirty or sixty seconds to make an impression, demonstrate an excellent perceived value and ask for the order or action, you need the kind of talent and expertise that can achieve that conciseness and reaction. Talent to write strong, exacting copy. Expertise to set up, handle and track the great amount of details required to track every possible point of response.

When using radio, you only deliver the message by audio, so the message is even more important and you need to take up more of your precious time to repeat the call-to-action.

Let’s talk about how we make it easy. If we want them to know about our website, we use an easy, short URL address like www.auction.com. If we want them to make a call, we like a vanity number like 800-Auction or an easy to remember number like 800-777-7700. If you want them to text, choose an easy “short code,” the actual number after the client word or phrase, like DR Radio to 511-511.You want the URL, text message and phone number all to be memorable.

Direct response results are trackable and measurable. To that end, several URLs, codes and phone numbers can be used to discern response by media vehicle. Copy can suggest to Rush Limbaugh listeners to mention “Rush” when you call or go to the site for a discount, free shipping or the like. The same holds true for any other talk show host. Or enter a memorable code like KRTH6 (for 6AM). Change the code for each live read and you have tracking.

For more great ways to create a great call-to-action, consult Jeff Pollak at RadioActive Media at 800-559-RADIO (7234) or text DR RADIO to 511-511.

@radioactivemed

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800-599-RADIO | Text DR Radio to 511-511 | 714-787-0101 International

By The RadioActive Media Team

Today’s ad agency can’t survive by just knowing one thing well. New-age agencies doing the best by their clients have a wide variety of skills and knowledge, not just to be cutting-edge, but to get the job done correctly and completely with measurable results of performance.

Digitalization has completely changed how agencies do their business. While new technologies offer greater speed and flexibility, these new times demand a wider spectrum of expertise to handle the complexities of consumer engagement.

Strategically, today’s agency must know and accept that you can’t place advertising for one medium in a void any longer. Almost all serious businesses with advertising budgets have a web presence.  This makes it a requirement that advertisers choose to get marketing strategies from professionals who understand the various elements need to fit together.

Think of the various considerations as you plan your campaign. Let’s say you plan on using radio advertising.

Let’s take a look at the answers needed just to determine the digital, copy, tracking and testing requirements of a client’s call-to-action to define and generate the parameters for each campaign. There are many other issues such as budget, campaign duration, creative format, talent choices, testing, station/daypart selection and the like. We’ll address those in future posts.

How the Multi-Disciplined  Agency Interviews the Advertiser

Agency: What action do you want your audience to take?

Advertiser:  Buy something.

Agency: Where? Online? At a Store?

Advertiser: Either. Both.

Agency: Do you want to offer an incentive?

A coupon? A discount?

Directions? Locations?

Advertiser: Yes.

Agency: What action do you want them to take?

1)      Go to website

2)      Text to get coupon/discount/locations

3)      Call to order/ give or get information

Advertiser: Yes.

You see where we’re going with this…

Agency: How shall we track results?

1)      Coupon code
2)      Text a word to a code (RADIO to 511-511)
3)      Unique tracking link
4)      Unique phone number
5)      Other
6)      All of the above

Advertiser: Yes.

Of course.

So here is our list of considerations:

1) Drive traffic to website with unique URL

2) Allow to text for coupon/discount/locations

3) Allow to call to order/get info with unique phone number

All of these require:

1) Copy considerations

2) Coordination with:

a. Telemarketers
b. Webmaster
c. Text vendor
d. Other possible liaisons

Yes, the devil is in the details and so are the results.

But great news! Digitalization makes everything faster. Creative is delivered to radio stations in audio files by email. Contracts, trafficking, and invoicing go that way too.  Testing all the various elements before a campaign starts is critical, but a fairly quick process as well.

Perhaps best of all: direct response reporting is also fast. Text message campaign results are available 24/7 with instant analytics. Radio schedules can be verified in a few days so the next decisions about refining campaign elements like creative and offer configuration can be changed just as quickly. The campaign moves on to new, improved benchmarks.

@radioactivemed

The purpose of the program: to find information about DR programs (and the frequency of any alerts)
Message and data rates may apply
Text STOP to cancel alerts
Text HELP for information
A statement of privacy disclosure