CRS In Action: Cracking The Code On Digital Revenue

Country Radio Seminar

“Don’t be afraid to go digital, it works,” said BRIAN BYERS, host of the “BYERS & CO.” morning show at WSOY-A/DECATUR, IL. BYERS opened the panel “Crack the Code to Digital Revenue: Real Ideas to Drive Digital Dollars” yesterday (2/14) at COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR (CRS) in NASHVILLE. Last year in the U.S., businesses spent $247 billion recruiting advisory employees, he said. And while it may be difficult to connect with a younger audience, BYERS affirmed that what won’t work are brochures, job fairs or bad radio ads. 

Following BYERS’ presentation, SOCAST Dir./Sales and Marketing ERIC EISEN said, “Digital is definitely core to connecting your advertisers and core branding in this digital era. It is important to connect your listeners to advertisers using [digital].” Radio is starting to sell more digital,” he said, noting that about 25% of radio customers are buying digital from stations. This puts radio in a good position to drive buyers’ journey from the awareness stage, by creating on-air spots, to the digital integrated stage. He also noted that digital and radio are not separate, and should be actively paired together. 

JACKI PETERSSON, Sr. Account Manager at EMMIS WLHK (97.1 HANK FM)/INDIANAPOLIS, spoke about the digital selling tools she uses for the station, and two key strategies that she has observed as being helpful. The first key item is developing a deep, ongoing understanding of what the client needs and what they are trying to accomplish. She added, “This is not accomplished after one meeting.” Her second tip was creatively using the digital and social platforms that you have in an effort to match your clients’ brand with your stations’ brand. While the platforms continue to evolve, “It’s really not about the technology, it’s about figuring out how to creatively use the technology,” said PETERSSON. 

Final panelist STEPHEN ST. PIERRE, PANDORA Dir./Central Region Sales, took the audience to the base level of selling digital fundamentals: understand the rules; know your competition (ex. INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE); sell the audience not the platform; know your role in the funnel (e.g. awareness, engagement, discovery, purchase, retention); and follow the consumer (e.g. smart speakers, mobile devices, etc.). He noted in his presentation that the one product all of the attendees have in common is audio. PIERRE said, “Digital is not a problem, it is an ecosystem, and the more we can encourage ourselves and sales people to understand the fundamentals of that ecosystem, it will then be easier to sell digital.“ 

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