1.  Search LinkedIn

Search LinkedIn for local media sales reps in your market.   You can quickly get a sense of their experience level and how many contacts they have to help generate new business for your station.

2.  Recruit Retiring Sales People From Other Industries

Go after retiring sales people from other industries, like car dealers, medical equipment, restaurants and insurance or financial brokers, who have loads of contacts in that respective advertising category to leverage as prospects for your station and are looking for some fun by working in broadcasting!

3.  Create Referral Agreements

Set up a mutual referral agreement with local web development and social media companies, who can help your clients get online and your station can help promote their clients’ new websites, mobile apps and social networks.

4.  Hire an Inbound Marketing Specialist

Cold calling isn’t for everyone, so think about hiring people who might be more interested in becoming an inbound marketing specialist for your station.   Their primary role would be creating sales and marketing content to attract new prospects.

5.  Let Sales Reps Own Side Projects

Recruit entrepreneurial sales reps by letting them know they can manage their own side business like social media management, building websites, search engine optimization services, etc. as long as they meet your quotas and you can get a stake in their business.

1.Ugliest Tie Contest

2.Ugly Truck Contest

3. Father’s Day Maekover

4. Tech Makeover for Your “Out-of-Date” Dad

5. Lawn Mower Race

6. Man Cave Makeover

7. Best Advice From Dad

8. Backyard BBQ Contest

9. Best Fishing Photo

10. Are You Smarter Than the Sports Guys?

Have a question? Ask LBS by emailing info@localbroadcastsales.com

1) Hunt for the Hidden Gem

Have your client “hide” a photo of a special gem on their website for your viewers or listeners to find.   You might hide a piece of costume jewelry somewhere around town or in your client’s store.

Consider running a TV campaign, but make one of the commercials different by featuring a special gem and the first viewer to call, text or email when they see it wins a prize.  (Great way to boost ratings too!)

2)  Best Apology Contest

One of the classic apology gifts from men is a piece of jewelry.  Have women share a story about the best apology they ever received from their husband or boyfriend.   Let your community vote on the best story to win a piece of jewelry from the sponsor. It’s a fun contest and something everyone in a relationship can appreciate!

3)  Celebrate a Wedding Anniversary Each Week

Instead of pitching a jeweler a short-term campaign around Valentine’s Day or the Holiday season, pitch them a year-round campaign celebrating special wedding anniversaries in your community each week.  Have your community submit stories about special wedding anniversaries and feature them in a short segment on air each week sponsored by your client.

Have a question? Ask LBS by emailing info@localbroadcastsales.com

Digital Sales Fundamentals

Start here to get grounded with solid sales fundamentals.

Step 1. 5 Keys to Digital Sales Success for New Hires with Stephen Warley

Step 2. Web Sales Basics with Stephen Warley

Step 3. Consultative Selling for the Web with Stephen Warley

Step 4. Top 5 Digital Advertising Categories with Sandy Martin

Step 5. Making New Hires an Instant Success Panel Discussion

Step 6. Jump Start Your Digital Sales Panel Discussion

Step 7. Time Management with Mary Carlomagno

Getting Appointments

You can’t sell them if you can’t get in front of them. Here’s how to meet more clients.

Step 1. How to Get Your Voicemails Returned with Dan O’Day

Step 2. How to Get Appointments with Paul Weyland

Step 3. How to Schedule Meetings with Stephen Warley

Communication Essentials

Sales is all about communication. The trainings below will guide you through better networking, delivering more effective presentations, and how to change your approach for different personality types.

Step 1. Sales Communications with David Topus

Step 2. Effective Networking with Diane Darling

Step 3. Presentation Skills with Karen Vigurs-Stack

Step 4. Selling by Personality Style with Gary Moore

Selling & Closing

And of course, you need to close well to have success.

Step 1. Selling Display Ads with Stephen Warley

Step 2. Closing Sales with Paul Weyland, Part 1

Step 3. Closing Sales with Paul Weyland, Part 2

Step 4. Closing the Deal for Web Sales with Stephen Warley

Step 5. Closing by Personality Style with Gary Moore

TV Sales Fundamentals

Start here to get grounded with solid sales fundamentals.

Step 1. 5 Keys to Selling TV for New Hires with Ron Steiner

Step 2. Sales 101 – Part I with Paul Weyland

Step 3. Sales 101 – Part II with Paul Weyland

Step 4. Business and Media Math with Ron Steiner

Step 5. NSI Rating Book with Ron Steiner

Step 6. Selling Against Cable TV with Rob Russo

Step 7. Making New Hires an Instant Success Panel Discussion

Step 8. Time Management with Mary Carlomagno

Getting Appointments

You can’t sell them if you can’t get in front of them. Here’s how to meet more clients.

Step 1. How to Get Your Voicemails Returned with Dan O’Day

Step 2. How to Get Appointments with Paul Weyland

Step 3. How to Schedule Meetings with Stephen Warley

Communication Essentials

Sales is all about communication. The trainings below will guide you through better networking, delivering more effective presentations, and how to change your approach for different personality types.

Step 1. Sales Communications with David Topus

Step 2. Effective Networking with Diane Darling

Step 3. Presentation Skills with Karen Vigurs-Stack

Step 4. Selling by Personality Style with Gary Moore

Closing Sales

And of course, you need to close well to have success.
Step 1. Closing Sales with Paul Weyland, Part 1

Step 2. Closing Sales with Paul Weyland, Part 2

Step 3. Closing the Deal for Web Sales with Stephen Warley

Step 4. Closing by Personality Style with Gary Moore

Radio Sales Fundamentals

Here’s the place to get your grounding with solid sales fundamentals.

Step 1. 5 Keys to Selling Radio for New Hires with Paul Weyland

Step 2. Sales 101 – Part I with Paul Weyland

Step 3. Sales 101 – Part II with Paul Weyland

Step 4. Making New Hires an Instant Success Panel Discussion

Step 5. Time Management with Mary Carlomagno

Getting Appointments

You can’t sell them if you can’t get in front of them. Here’s how to meet more clients.

Step 1. How to Get Your Voicemails Returned with Dan O’Day

Step 2. How to Get Appointments with Paul Weyland

Step 3. How to Schedule Meetings with Stephen Warley

Communication Essentials

Sales is all about communication. The trainings below will guide you through better networking, delivering more effective presentations, and how to change your approach for different personality types.

Step 1. Sales Communications with David Topus

Step 2. Effective Networking with Diane Darling

Step 3. Presentation Skills with Karen Vigurs-Stack

Step 4. Selling by Personality Style with Gary Moore

Closing Sales

And of course, you need to close well to have success.
Step 1. Closing Sales with Paul Weyland, Part 1

Step 2. Closing Sales with Paul Weyland, Part 2

Step 3. Closing the Deal for Web Sales with Stephen Warley

Step 4. Closing by Personality Style with Gary Moore

Producing Creative

Here are the keys to producing creative that doesn’t sound like everyone else.

Step 1. Radio Commercial Copywriting with Dan O’Day

Step 2. Stop Writing Radio Commercials with Jeffrey Hedquist

Step 3. 10 Simple Ways to Harness The Power of Stories to Amplify Your Commercial Results

Talking Points

Here are the key selling points for why healthcare advertisers should consider webinars…

1) They are highly engaging because people can ask your client questions live.

2) They capture email addresses as people register for the webinar your client can use for future marketing campaigns.

3) They can be recorded and archived as additional content for your client’s website.

Examples

Here’s one example of a successful webinar.

WBZ-TV in Boston promoted and hosted a webinar for a new joint-reconstructive center at a local hospital, which lead to 7 new patients for the hopistal within a week of the webinar!

A few other digital advertising opportunities for healthcare advertsiers that can easily be integrated with broadcast are online video, mobile reminders and surveys/quizzes.

Next, assuming your client’s measure for success is increasing traffic to their website and increasing their patient base, here are some urgent care stats that might be useful.

Finally, here are some ideas…

Mobile Marketing

One idea I think you should seriously consider is mobile. Most likely someone is more apt to grab a phone in an urgent medical situation, rather than go to their computer. Part of your pitch might be setting up a mobile alert for them. . . . people could sign up for all sorts of health reminders on their website and via mobile.

“Wait Time” Clock

They might even have a “wait time” clock available on their website or as a mobile app to show how much faster it would be to go to their office than calling your family doctor or to go to the emergency room.

Preventative Resources

Help them establish their expertise in your community by hosting webinars, producing on-demand videos or even creating a few simple slideshows focused on easy preventative measure people could take to stay healthy. Post the content on your website, your client’swebsite, YouTube and Facebook.

Also, check out some LBS trainings on digital sales for more ideas.

1. Keep it simple
2. Make it memorable
3. Make sure it ties directly into your client’s goal

Here are some other hashtag best practices you might find helpful:

Hashtag Best Practices

Click here for some hashtag best practices.

Help From Twitter: How to Use Hashtags

Click here for help directly from Twitter.

Hasgtags: A Tutorial

Click here for a hashtag tutorial.

Yup, it’s true.  Here’s a quick reference on the do’s and don’ts of running contests on Facebook.

What You Can’t Do

Facebook does not allow any business to use their Facebook “features and functionality” to run a contest.  What does that mean?

Running a contest like asking viewers and listeners to enter a contest to win a prize by following station’s Facebook page is a violation of their Promotion Guidelines.

You also can’t use your station’s Facebook page to host a photo or video contest.   Using Facebook’s tools to submit photos or videos and then letting your followers vote to select a winner won’t fly.

What You Can Do

Facebook will permit a business to run a contest using a third-party application like WildFire. Here’s the deal . . . a good chunk of Facebook’s revenue comes from selling third-party apps. Basically, Facebook is happy to let you run a contest, as long as they get paid.

Before you run your next Facebook contest read Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines and the Social Media Examiner wrote a very easy to understand guide “Facebook Promotions: What You Need to Know.” It’s also not a bad idea to run your contest idea by your legal counsel.

So what if you violate Facebook’s Promotion Guidelines?  Most likely nothing, but they have reserved the right to shut down your Facebook page and possibly take additional legal action.

Have a question? Ask LBS by emailing info@localbroadcastsales.com