HOW TO GET FREE RADIO ADVERTISING 


The greatest expense you're going to incur in conducting a 
successful business is your advertising. 

You have to advertise. Your business cannot grow and flourish 
unless you advertise. Advertising is the "life-blood" of any 
profitable business. And regardless of where or how you 
advertise, it's going to cost you in some form or another. 

Every successful business is built upon, and continues to 
thrive, primarily, on good advertising. The top companies in the 
world allocate millions of dollars annually to their advertising 
budgets. Of course, when starting from a garage, basement or 
kitchen table, you can't quite match their advertising efforts at 
least not in the beginning. But there is a way you can 
approximate their maneuvers without actually spending their kind 
of money. And that's through "P.I." Advertising. 

"P.I." stands for per inquiry. This is a kind of advertising 
most generally associated with broadcasting, where you pay only 
for the responses you get to your advertising message. It's very 
popular - somewhat akin to bartering - and is used by many more 
advertisers than most people realize. The advantages of PI 
Advertising are all in favor of the advertiser because with this 
kind of an advertising arrangement, you pay only for the results 
the advertising produces. 

To get in on this "free" advertising, start with a loose leaf 
notebook, and about 100 sheets of filler paper. Next, either 
visit your public library and start poring through the Broadcast 
Yearbook on radio stations in the U.S., or the Standard Rate and 
Data Services Directory on Spot Radio. Both these publications 
will give you just about all the information you could ever want 
about licensed stations. 

An easier way might be to call or visit one of your local 
radio stations, and ask to borrow (and take home with you) their 
current copy of either of these volumes. To purchase them 
outright will cost $50 to $75. 

Once you have a copy of either of these publications, select 
the state or states you want to work first. It's generally best 
to begin in your own state and work outward from there. If you 
have a money-making manual, you might want to start first with 
those states reporting the most unemployment. 

Use some old fashioned common sense. Who are the people most 
likely to be interested in your offer, and where are the largest 
concentrations of these people? You wouldn't attempt to sell 
windshield deice canisters in Florida, or suntan lotion in 
Minnesota during the winter months, would you? 

At any rate, once you've got your beginning "target" area 
decided upon, go through the radio listings for the cities and 
towns in that area, and jot down in your notebook the names of the 
general managers, the station call letters, and the addresses. Be 
sure to list the telephone numbers as well. 

On your first try, list only one radio station per city. Pick 
out the station people most interested in your product would be 
listening to. This can be determined by the programming 
description contained within the data block about the station in 
the Broadcasting Yearbook or the SRDS Directory. 

Let's say that you're listed 250 different radio stations. 
It's best to list the stations you want to contact alphabetically 
by the city or town they're licensed to serve, with a tab 
separating each state. The next step is either a phone call or a 
letter to the station manager of each of the stations. 

This first contact should be in the way of introducing 
yourself, and inquiring if they would consider a PI Advertising 
campaign. You tell the station manager that you have a product 
you feel will sell very well in his market, and would like to test 
it before going ahead with a paid advertising program. You must 
quickly point out that your product sells for, say $5, and that 
during this test, you would allow him 50% of that for each 
response his station pulls for you. Explain that you handle 
everything for him: the writing of the commercials, all 
accounting and bookkeeping, plus any refunds or complaints that 
come in. In other words, all he has to do is schedule your 
commercials on his log, and give them his "best shot." When the 
responses come in, he counts them, and forwards them on to you for 
fulfillment. You make out a check for payment to him, and 
everybody is happy. 

If you've contacted him by phone, and he agrees to look over 
your material, thank him and promise to get a complete 
"package" in the mail to him immediately. Then do just that. 
Write a short cover letter, place it on top of your "ready-to-go" 
PI Advertising Package, and get it in the mail to him without 
delay. 

If you're turned down, and he is not interested in "taking on" 
any PI Advertising, just tell him thanks, make a notation in your 
notebook by his name, and go on to your next call. Contacting 
these people by phone is by far the quickest, least expensive and 
most productive method of "exploring" for those stations willing 
to consider your PI proposal. In some cases though, circumstances 
will deem it to be less expensive to make this initial contact by 
letter or postcard. 

In that case, simply address your card or letter to the person 
you are trying to contact. Your letter should be positive in 
tone, straight-forward and complete. Present all the details in 
logical order on one page, perfectly typed on letterhead paper, 
and sent in a letterhead envelope. (Rubber-stamped letterheads 
just won't get past a first glance.) Ideally, you should include 
a self-addressed and stamped postcard with spaces for positive or 
negative check marks in answer to your questions: Will you or 
won't you look over my materials and consider a mutually 
profitable "Per Inquiry" advertising campaign on your station? 

Once you have an agreement from your contact at the radio 
station that they will look over your materials and give serious 
consideration for a PI program, move quickly, getting your cover 
letter and package off by First Class mail, perhaps even Special 
Delivery. 

What this means is that at the same time you organize your 
"radio station note book", you'll also want to organize your 
advertising package. Have it all put together and ready to mail 
just as soon as you have a positive response. Don't allow time for 
that interest in your program to cool down. 

You'll need a follow-up letter. Write one to fit all 
situations; have 250 copies printed, and then when you're ready to 
send out a package, all you'll have to do is fill in the business 
salutation and sign it. If you spoke of different arrangements or 
a specific matter was discussed in your initial contact, however, 
type a different letter incorporating comments or answers to the 
points discussed. This personal touch won't take long, and could 
pay dividends! 

You'll also need at least two thirty-second commercials and 
two sixty-second commercials. You could write these up, and have 
250 copies printed and organized as a part of your PI Advertising 
Package. 

You should also have some sort of advertising contract written 
up, detailing everything about your program, and how everything is 
to be handled; how and when payment to the radio station is to be 
made, plus special paragraphs relative to refunds, complaints, and 
liabilities. All this can be very quickly written up and printed 
in lots of 250 or more on carbonless multi-part snap-out business 
forms. 

Finally, you should include a self-addressed and stamped 
postcard the radio station can use to let you know that they are 
going to use your PI Advertising program, when they will start 
running your commercials on the air, and how often, and during 
which time periods. Again, you simply type out the wording in the 
form you want to use on these "reply postcards," and have copies 
printed for your use in these mailings. 

To review this program: Your first step is the initial 
contact after searching through the SRDS or Broadcasting Yearbook. 
Actual contact with the stations is by phone or mail. When turned 
down, simply say thanks, and go on to the next station on your 
list. For those who want to know more about your proposal, you 
immediately get a PI Advertising Package off to them via the 
fastest way possible. Don't let the interest wane. 

Your Advertising Package should contain the following: 
1. Cover letter 
2. Sample brochure, product literature 
3. Thirty-second and sixty-second commercials 
4. PI Advertising Contract 
5. Self-addressed, stamped postcard for station 
acknowledgment and acceptance of your program. 

Before you ask why you need an acknowledgment postcard when 
you have already given them a contract, remember that everything 
about business changes from day to day - conditions change, people 
get busy, and other things come up. The station manager may sign 
a contract with your advertising to begin the 1st of March. The 
contract is signed on the 1st of January, but when March 1 rolls 
around, he may have forgotten, been replaced, or even decided 
against running your program. A lot of paper seemingly "covering 
all the minute details" can be very impressive to many radio 
station managers, and convince them that your company is a good 
one to do business with. 

Let's say that right now you're impatient to get started with 
your own PI Advertising campaign. Before you "jump off the deep 
end," remember this: Radio station people are just as 
professional and dedicated as anyone else in business - even more 
so in some instances - so be sure you have a product or service 
that lends itself well to selling via the radio inquiry system. 

Anything can be sold, and sold easily with any method you 
decide upon, providing you present it from the right angle. 
"Hello out there! Who wants to buy a mailing list for 10 cents a 
thousand names?" wouldn't even be allowed on the air. However, 
if you have the addresses of the top 100 movie stars, and you put 
together an idea enabling the people to write to them direct, you 
might have a winner, and sell a lot of mailing lists of the stars. 

At the bottom line, a lot is riding on the content of your 
commercial - the benefits you suggest to the listener, and how 
easy it is for him to enjoy those benefits. For instance, if you 
have a new book on how to find jobs when there aren't any jobs: 
You want to talk to people who are desperately searching for 
employment. You have to appeal to them in words that not only 
"perk up" their ears, but cause them to feel that whatever it is 
that you're offering will solve their problems. It's the product, 
and in the writing of the advertising message about that product 
are going to bring in those responses. 

Radio station managers are sales people, and sales people the 
world over will be sold on your idea if you put your selling 
package together properly. And if the responses come in to your 
first offer, you have set yourself up for an entire series of 
successes. Success has a "ripple effect," but you have to start 
on that first one. We wish you success! 
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End of Report.