Sales Office by Debbie Bush

Local Focus, Innovation Keys To Growth

With national spot continuing to erode in an uncertain economy, TV stations need to redouble their local sales efforts, developing new ways of tapping the marketing dollars of local businesses and finding news ways of motivating and compensating local account executives. Virtual auto and home and garden sales and job fairs are examples of how stations can grab a bigger share of the pie.
By
TVNewsCheck,

Local television continues to change. That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone in the business.

The question is, are you changing, too?

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We aren't just selling spots on our TV station anymore. We are selling advertising on our digital channels, websites (and niche sites) and mobile platforms. Mobile DTV is just around the corner. 

At the same time, national advertising is eroding, especially in smaller markets, and the national budget gets smaller and smaller every year.

The key to our survival is growing local business, not by just by selling spots, but by changing how we do business and how we reward the sales teams.

One of my fellow Raycom general managers, Dan Jackson, KCBD Lubbock, Texas, agrees.  "We have to stay hyperlocal. We have to keep developing our key relationships in our communities," he says. "We have to give our clients new opportunities to expand their brand on our three screens" -- television, Internet and mobile.

What does that mean? General managers may have to take a hard look at the cost of sales and make hard choices. KCBD made that decision almost 15 years ago. Local account executives are paid on local businesses only where there is a billing address in the DMA. Two regional account executives handle all of the "out of DMA" billing. New direct business in the market is paid a much higher commission rate.

The other thing we have to do is look for local projects that help our clients grow their business. Focusing on local projects allows the station to determine the content and the inventory. For instance, my station, WFIE Evansville, Ind., has taken on a number of local projects that regional and national advertisers wouldn't be interested in. The station is doing quarterly hour-long sales shows that focus on local businesses surviving in our recovering economy. The shows also air on 14.2 and on www.14wfie.com.

WFIE is also doing two projects that used to be the property of newspapers -- an auto tent sale and home and garden sale. Both are "housed" on the Internet and television and don't require expensive real estate like convention centers to "house" the projects. Raycom stations are also taking on job fairs. WIS Columbia, S.C., was the first Raycom station to offer a "virtual" job fair.

"The key right now is to make sure we can survive and continue to grow our local business," says Jackson. 

Lubbock is DMA 143. Evansville is DMA 102. Both of us are cautiously optimistic about the recovering economy. Like Evansville, the local business conditions in Lubbock are good, but national is still struggling. And in Lubbock, Jackson isn't anticipating many political dollars.

The future is local advertising. And for general managers that means we must be more creative in how we run our television stations. We must make tough choices. And it is more important than ever to be engaged and develop deep relationships with decision makers in our communities.

Sales Office appears every other Friday in TVNewsCheck through the cooperation of the Television Bureau of Advertising, which solicits the columns about sales and advertising from its staff and members. Debbie Bush is the general manager of Raycom Media's WFIE Evansville, Ind. Raycom, an employee-owned company, is one of the nation's largest broadcasters. It owns and operates 46 television stations in 36 markets in 18 states. Raycom stations cover 12.6% of U.S. TV households and employ nearly 3,500 individuals in full and part-time positions.

 

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Comments (5) -

Mike Seaver posted over 2 years ago
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In 1994, at the NAB convention, the over riding theme was "Local". If one only takes a look at that map, usually filed away somehwere in the off ice of the Chief Engineer (if you even have a Chief anymore) is an official FCC "Coverage" map. It defines the perimeters of the influence that your over the air signal has and, for the most part, who is going to be signing onto your web presence. Along with being an "official" document, this coverage map should serve as a definition of who your customers are, and where they live. If you don't serve them, but simply become a "repeater" station for nationsl, syndications, and other "out of market" products (the easiest, cheapest route) and do not super serve those within your coverage area, those folk now have other means to get that "out of market" information and most likely won't be turining to you to get it, thus depriving you of the revenue that can be yours if the customers (advertisers) know that people will see their commercials. Gone are the days of just "raw numbers". Most, if not all local sales are based on station perception just as are local radio sales. If the viewers/residents know that they can count on your station for the information they want and need and you also offer good entertainment along with it, be it from some other souce, you will build advertiser confidence that your's is the station people will be watching and the local sales will follow.
David Wolfe posted over 2 years ago
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Local television, in its efforts to change and adapt - may want to consider adding another benefit for advertisers – it’s called search engine optimization. Station managers and their respective sales reps should all have at least a basic understanding of SEO and how they can be of help to local advertisers needing see services. It’s something worth looking into sooner rather than later. Ask around! It won’t you take long to find local advertisers hiring SEO specialists. Others are either experimenting with, or already committed to Google AdWords – all in an effort to drive lead generation. If your account reps know this is happening - do they also know how to counter and bring these advertisers back to local TV? Here’s the good news. Less than 20% of consumers even click on a sponsored (or ‘pay-per-click’) ad showing up on search result page. And TV managers (by way of their own website) have something that is generally considered “authoritative” in see circles. That means a link from a local station website when properly formatted and positioned can be extremely valuable for a local advertiser when it comes to organic search results. Unfortunately, if your sales reps aren’t fully up to speed on these and other key facts in the world of SEO, your station could be leaving major dollars on the table. Advertisers shifting to pay-per-click and 3rd party SEO strategies are real world scenarios playing out in your own backyard at this very moment. Both represent big dollars that could otherwise be going back to your local station. Gone are the days when a TV station can upload a banner ad and hope the client will somehow see a payoff from it down the road. Don’t kid yourself. Click-through rates for banner ads land somewhere between dismal and non-existent. Most visitors don’t land on your site for that purpose in the first place – so why they should click a banner ad? And if they did – do your sales reps have the tools in place to show the client exactly when a visit originated from your station’s website? The general consensus among those who study see is that at least 200+ formulas are working together to determine search rankings. Not all are widely known – and Google of course can and does make changes at its own discretion. But what about the important areas we know can make a difference – such as authoritative links. Take a look at tile ads running on your website right now. Are you including text links? Have you included alt tags in your images? Do these text links and/or alt tags represent the same keyword phrase a consumer is likely to search for in your local market? Could your sales reps intelligently talk about this subject with an advertiser? Could your sales reps provide guidance to an advertiser that might buy your station if your package included an SEO strategy? Yes Debbie - local television does continue to change. As an Internet sales consultant to local stations, one of those changes should include all of us thinking beyond the word ‘advertising’. ‘Search engine optimization’ to be more specific. Fortunately for all of us - in many markets where TV/SEO programs are underway – there’s undeniable proof they work beautifully together! David Wolfe ntr.com 858 722 8505
Lee Redick posted over 2 years ago
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If you focus on the creation of a great message for your clients, you only have to sell 30 second spots! We've been up 20% to 50% each month for the last 2 1/2 years. I started here 3 1/2 years ago. Lee Redick GSM / LSM / NSM Telemundo - OKC / Univision - OKC / Univision - Tulsa
Richard Lyons posted over 2 years ago
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Major Challenges Facing Broadcasters 1. TV stations seek shelter and survival in a toxic new market, Outsourced Centralcasting Model is a “cheap” way into the infrastructure required for Internet interactivity with TV technology 2. Outsourced Centralcasting Model Improves TV Stations Efficiencies 3. Not Realizing the Promise of “Over The Air” (OTA) Interactive Television (iTV) Profitably and in the Near Term 4. Not leveraging bias toward Localism resonating with TV station’s key differentiators and FCC impetus, while exploiting the natural fear of Cloud Computing and storage security weaknesses. 5. Shared Centralcasting Model Will be the First Local Initiative to Challenge Telcos, Cable and IPTV 6. Shared Centralcasting Model will enable two way interactive (iTV) Web communications including video from the trusted and local TV station provider. 7. Because Centralcasting Model is shared each station will have the same best tools. If a better tool comes alone, the shared acquisition expenditure is reduced. 8. DTV and the Internet become as one. 9. Distinctions between Broadcast Master Control and the IT/Web NOC blur. 10. By bringing quality video to the Internet and compelling local TV station content to the internet, the local station “owns” the gateway to local IP engagement. 11. Metro Data / Co-Location Center for Broadcasters is needed a shared Media Processing Center (MPC) Local TV stations possess a history of trust and professionalism that will become valued Web relationships. MPC exploits viewer’s natural preference for neighborhood based publishing, social networks and security. Have a good NAB Rich Lyons 818-516-0544 rich.lyons@hotmail.com
Barry Allentuck posted over 2 years ago
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Companies like Effective Advertising Seminars help stations generate local revenue for the TV station, the digital channel and the website. A well thought out very comprehensive program that conducts marketing seminars for local businesses that are potential advertisers for the TV station. The process concentrates focus and ultimately generates more revenue in a short period of time than the station can do on its own. If you want to know more and are interested in a program llike this for your station call me at 954-655-6176

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