Week of January 28, 2008

Friday 2/1, 2008

Now is the time to get serious about the available content and revenue opportunities online. There are more and more companies that will pay for your clicks and page views. Local money is pouring into online traffic. Your stations have a built-in promotion vehicle (cume) in order to drive traffic to your site; pay commission to ANY station employee who brings in new online accounts, not just the sales department. The company doesn't care where the money comes from or who they pay to get it. In the world we now live in, everybody sells! Everybody! Have a great weekend! Oh, by the way, Valentine's Day is coming ... are the packages ready?

Thursday 1/31, 2008

What? There is a hiring freeze? You can't employ that new promotion director because you can't add to the body count? Has anyone in sales resigned in the last 90 days? You may be able to "reclassify" a sales person position as a "sales promotion director." Many companies will allow you to refill open sales positions. (After all, it's revenue generation we are talking about.) Hire a "sales" person to do your marketing. The draw can be offset against promotional revenue anyway. Tomorrow, the one area that is growing revenue like a weed must be addressed -- and no, it's not your HD channel.

Wednesday 1/30, 2008

The discussion this week is how to operate your stations in a hiring/expense freeze. There are a few tricks you can do in order to comply with the corporate edict and get your stations the support they need to survive the upcoming Spring book. The toughest part is not having the support for the "new" station you launched last year or the older station that has been slipping. These stations usually need promotion or marketing in order to build awareness. In a cutback, you must crank up the creativity within the staff. Look for revenue-generating promotions that will pay for themselves. Use the database garnered from the website or previous marketing efforts to contact station P1s. Even that direct-mail piece from last year that has 5,000 entries sitting in a box in the promotion director's office has value. Use it again this year. It may be all you have! What? There is a hiring freeze? You can't employ that promotion director because you can't add to the body count? There may be a way ... tomorrow, right here at All Access.com.

Tuesday 1/29, 2008

Has your company made you cut back or freeze all discretionary expenses? Can't hire the replacement for the sales person who resigned last week? What to do first? Make an assessment of your brands. What stations in your cluster are solid performers? For example, do you have a station that programs News/Talk? There may be a natural pick-up in audience in an election year. The leading Country, AC, Top 40 or Urban with a strong morning show usually fares better than stations without heritage. There is a risk in not supporting these long-time leaders, but not as much as the less-mature properties. Trust and lean on your programming and long-time market-equity stations. If they sound great, they will be okay. Tomorrow, the "other" stations.

Monday 1/28, 2008

This week we will concentrate on how to operate your stations in a hiring/expense freeze. There are a few tricks you can do in order to comply with the corporate edict and get your stations the support they need to survive the upcoming Spring book. The first rule is ... don't panic! Try to keep a positive attitude with your staff. Remember, EVERYONE is having a slow Q1. National, regional and local business is pacing behind at most stations. You are not alone. Tomorrow, where to start when corporate says stop!