Radio is a business of information and promotion. The rest falls into one of those two categories when we’re not playing music. It’s typical to hear sweepers and personalities promoting the benefits of the radio station, like “The most music,” “The top country hits play here,” and “Information you can use.” These can be heard several times each hour of any given day. How often are you promoting your station website per hour?
Promotion Starts with Priority
It’s been a long time saying here that the relevancy of your station website will be directly determined by the priority you place on it. If the website is not a priority to owners and managers, it won’t be a priority for the air talent and salespeople. When it’s not essential to them, it will directly affect how important it will be to your listeners and advertisers. That ultimately affects the number of visitors you get and the revenue you can generate from the website.
We’ve always recommended treating your station website as another radio station that simulcasts what the parent does. With this mindset, it becomes more difficult not to think of the station website and its role in your revenue stream.
The first and best step to make in successfully promoting your website to the public is ensuring your team knows its value and how it fits into the overall mission. For announcers, it can be a tool for the content they talk about on-air, and it’s a way for them to extend their shows beyond their air times when they contribute to it.
For salespeople, it provides more opportunities for them to make more money. Do you have a “Digital Inventory List” so they know what opportunities are available? Do they know the value of displaying a banner ad above the fold versus not? Or the value that a page sponsorship could benefit their client?
How You Promote On-Air Matters
Typically, stations will tag the website address at the end of an imaging element. The announcer may also randomly slip in, “For more details, visit our website” without giving a specific location or reason why listeners should take that action.
Back when I was on-air, I was told by our consultants that talent should continuously sell listener benefits several times per hour. Help listeners ‘use’ the station with words that sell benefits, so they connect the station with the listener’s lifestyle or activities.
So, let’s apply that philosophy to promoting the website. Within recorded sweepers, sell the benefits of key areas of your website rather than simply stating that the station has one. Here’s an example.
“(SFX: thunder & wind) When severe weather hits our area, folks turn to launchfm.com to find out which schools and businesses are closed or have different hours. Find closings and more ‘news you can use’ at launchfm.com.”
“Did you miss ‘Swap Shop’ this morning at 9 am? NO WORRIES! Browse through all the latest listings and even submit your own at launchfm.com/swapshop.”
Personalities should tease the benefits of visiting the website, rather than simply noting that the website has more content. Have them single out just one benefit at a time. Here are some examples…
“We received a thank you shout-out from Gerald in {town}. He’s starting a new job on Monday – a job that was found on our ‘Local Jobs’ page at launchfm.com. Man, that’s awesome. Are you looking? You could find your next career at launchfm.com/localjobs.”
“Three locals were found dead in {town} last night. Find out how they died and who’s in custody for questioning in our top story at launchfm.com.”
“Your opinion matters! Today’s poll at launchfm.com is, ‘How do you feel about the new pay-to-park meters downtown?’ See how people feel and submit your vote on our homepage at launchfm.com.”
These examples contain specific reasons to visit the website. Not only do these direct interested people directly where they need to focus, but it also makes the website appear larger than just a place to stream the radio station. The listener might be interested in the latest swap shop listing, but they now better understand that the website is an integral part of the radio station.
Promoting the Website on Social Media
Simply sharing links to your website content on social media can be put on autopilot. We’re guilty of this, and auto-posting to social is one of our most-requested website functionalities. However, a social media best practice is to add a comment or question before everything shared on social media. Influencers and businesses who excel at social media make this common practice. It’s no different from adding a listener benefit in our on-air mentions. Would we get much traction from simply mentioning the website address on-air without context or reason to go there?
“Three locals found dead in {town} last night. Click to find out where and how.”
“Some area schools and businesses closed tomorrow for bad weather. Get the list here.”
“The Breakfast Bunch learns something mind-blowing about Jim’s recent past. Will you look at Jim the same after learning? Click to reveal his secret.”
You should find that you’ll get more engagement and shares (equating to more page views on your website) by engaging with the content you post and share on social media. Simple page shares without interaction do not facilitate many reactions from your followers.
If you can’t add context to the link, the page or post headline should immediately grab attention and entice someone to jump into the link. Even experienced writers will confess that writing compelling titles can be tough. However, it is a skill that can be mastered over time with practice.
Promoting the Website via Newsletter
An e-mail newsletter should be crucial to every radio station’s marketing strategy. Not only does it allow you to keep your listeners informed about upcoming events and promotions, but it also helps to build a sense of community and engagement with your audience.
Creating custom newsletters can be time-consuming. However, if you are consistently updating your website with content, like news and events, your newsletter can be on autopilot to bring in the latest news posts via RSS feeds. Ensure that your posts have those attention-grabbing headlines that make them more clickable.
Don’t think e-mail is dead or all spammy. Starting a newsletter is a cost-effective and efficient way for radio stations to reach their listeners, build relationships, increase listenership, and stand out in a crowded market. It’s also a way to create new revenue opportunities.
Promoting the Website on Other Websites
Sharing links to your station website on other websites is a great way to promote it. Not only does it put the address in front of more potential visitors, but it also works to increase the search engine optimization of your site. Here are some ways you can share your website link.
– Ensure a link is included whenever a story is made about you or your radio station.
– Include an author link to your site if you write a post for another website.
– Link to your website in your forum signature or in relevant forum threads.
– Submit your website to online directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Google My Business.
– Ensure your town chamber of commerce has links to your station website(s).
– If you use content with other media outlets (ie. get the weather from a local TV station), ensure they reciprocate traffic back to your station website in some way (banner ads, article links, etc).
Spamming your link on other websites can harm your reputation and may result in penalties from search engines, so do this caution and care.
Wrapping Up
Proper website promotion starts inside the radio station. Educate everyone about the value of the website and the role it plays. Instruct your programming team about the content available to promote and ensure that it’s done often and consistently. It’s all about getting more visitors to your site more often. Likewise, educate your sales team about the opportunities to sell and have similar goals to those of on-air selling.
Always be on the lookout for more ways to promote your website. Always remember that more visitors equate to more revenue opportunities.
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