Value Talk: Chapter 3: Media Buying Tips, When a Broadcast Rep Walks Into Your Business

So now you think you are ready for advertising and a radio or TV rep walks into your office.  Usually, they’ll come with one of two approaches: 1) “tell me about your business and I’ll come up with something I have on the fly that may work with what you need,” or 2) “here’s my big idea.  I’ve done my homework on your business and let’s see if I’ve gotten the idea right.”  The second is definitely better than the first, but not every sales rep has read “The Challenger Sale” yet, and they should.

Anyway, things about the proposal they bring to you that you should consider.

They may very well focus on the number of spots you’ll be getting for the money your spending.  That’s all well and good, but make sure you ask and get the answer for how many estimated number of listeners/watchers of your target audience those spots will actually be reaching.  Also, when are those spots running?  Midnight to midnight? 6a to midnight? Drive time or Prime time?  That really matters if you have some idea of who your consumers are and when they might be listening to the radio or watching TV the most.  If you buy midnight to midnight spots, they’ll be really cheap, but I guarantee you that some will run at 3a in the morning.  Are your customers even up then?  You’ll pay more for buying specific dayparts, but your likelihood of actually reaching your audience will be much higher.

Reps can actually be helpful and teach you things. You can ask the TV rep to pull information together that shows you when and what shows your customers watch  the most on their station, and even how their station ranks against other stations.  Your radio rep can do the same thing and help you find when your customers actually listen to the radio most often.

In my humble opinion, side tips. They may want to try to correct me, but I really feel like the TV and radio online sites are still a little over-rated and pricey when you buy it directly from them. (There are ways to buy a bunch of sites collectively online – another blog post, perhaps.)  Unless they’re offering it as a promotion and a way for you to collect leads if you give something away, stay away from it for now.  (Any sales reps want to refute this?)    Also, some reps are being charged with getting businesses to fill space at their events.  If you don’t have a product to sample or it requires a lot of detailed discussion, stay away from radio remotes and booths at events.