Cleanup on Aisle Four (Part 2)

The BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):  If not tended to strategically, brands can become cluttered, busy, and listening can be less satisfying.  It’s on us to clean that mess up so our fans have a good experience when they tune in.

Why It Matters:  Radio is fighting for every quarter hour.  There’s so much competition for ears and eyes, that if we don’t offer up a clean listening experience, the audience could leave.  Think of it like the backseat of a car.  One where you might find empty water bottles, Cheerios on the floor, empty McDonalds bags, and the jumper cables you used last month.  If that’s yours, clean it up and friends will wanna ride somewhere with you.

Let’s clean things up so listeners have pleasant and easy listening experiences.  In our last Planet Reynolds, we touched on several areas to do that – your plot, character development, the content you choose, and your benchmarks.  Find that here.

Let’s move on with new areas for strategic clean up conversations:

Show Imaging, Teases, and Promos:

  • Is it time to update your show’s imaging? What’s the theme or core message?  Does the production value feel very 1980s?  Or does it reflect the vibe of today’s audience who abhor hype and hyperbole?
  • When was the last time you had a teasing exercise? Find a few stories and write teases.  Wanna extend listening or compel an image there’s something to miss? Elevate your writing skills.
  • Do you run promos outside the show? What’s their focus?  An image?  Or your signature feature so you continue to build equity for it?

Show Prep:

  • Evaluate your entire show prep process. How can it change to get better content and better treatments of that content?  Prep should happen the day before a show when you’re at your most creative and have access to resources.  That’s when you come up with your best stuff.
  • What will you do tomorrow to keep your fans from straying? New treatments to high equity topics help keep your P1s engaged.

Digital Efforts:

  • Look at the last week of social posts. How many are the reason people engage you there?  Hint:  they always, always, always come for content.  Never try to coerce listeners to leave social media and turn you on.  It doesn’t work and you’ll become newsfeed clutter.  You grab them with content.
  • What unique feature(s) can you do on social to accrue images so when they’re in the car (where most radio listening is done), they think of you?
  • Lori Lewis is my go-to on social media. She’s super smart and was just interviewed in Barrett Media.  It’s worth the three minutes.  Read it here.

On the Streets:

  • We don’t get out much any longer, mostly because everyone in radio is doing fourteen jobs. But those that do have an edge.
  • Can you develop a year-long campaign to meet people in your market, so they give you a shot? Can the campaign be monetized by sales (you’ll be a hero)?
  • Finally, go to where there are tons of people. Shaking hands for 30 minutes at places where there a lot of potential listeners has a much higher ROI than sitting at a Jiffy Lube on Saturday for two hours (no disrespect to Jiffy Lube!).

Okay, I’m tired of typing so let’s leave it there.  Hope the last two Planet Reynolds have helped you advance your game.  I’ll leave you with a fresh exercise to hear your content as the audience does.

Aircheck Roulette:

Ask someone not associated with your show to choose one 15-minute segment from any show last week.  Listen to the content done in that quarter hour and honestly answer these ten questions:

Were we local?  Were we on a Hot Topic?  Did we share our honest perspective?  Did we share a story about our lives that connected us to the typical listener?  Did we do something with the topic besides just chatter about it?  Did we leave listeners wishing the break had gone on longer?  Did we provide in the first 15 seconds a hook, so they leaned in to hear the rest?  Was there drama in the break to keep listeners engaged?  Was audio available around the topic and did we use it?  Was it fun?

The more yeses you get to the ten questions above, the more I’ll admire you.  Tell me about it (better yet, send me the audio) so I can revel in your epic-ness!

Doing some or all of this puts you in a growth mindset.  It ends up being addition by subtraction.  Clean stuff up, have strategic conversations in all these areas, and when listeners turn you on, their experience will be so rewarding they won’t leave or if they do, they’ll come back for more.

Go get it.