When social media platforms became popular and created a unique and innovative way to connect with listeners organically, many radio stations shifted their digital focus solely to social sites and started to neglect their own station websites. While social media is an important part of any radio group’s digital presence, it’s also important to remember who really owns those platforms and therefore who monetizes them. When we’re only creating content for Facebook we’re really just helping Mark Zuckerberg get richer because once we post anything it essentially becomes their content, the same goes for YouTube and many others.
Station websites, however, are 100% owned by a radio group. Yet, so many of us neglect our websites, cluttering them with static content that stays the same for months, failing to update info when we make programming changes and bypassing them by posting the bulk of the local content generated straight to social media.
If a radio group really wants to turn their station websites into revenue generators, they should take a step back and follow these three simple steps.
Step 1: Focus on clickable/shareable locally generated content. Without growing their terrestrial audience at all a station can quadruple their website traffic just by turning a monthly visitor into a weekly visitor, but that’s only possible if the content above the fold is dynamic instead of static. The premium featured real estate of a website should highlight things that people are most likely to click on and share. Instead of looking at other station websites we should look at how websites that generate all their revenue from web clicks are designed. Deadspin, BroBible, and Tasty are just a few that come to mind. We should follow their lead and get rid of the flipper scrolling through graphics, that look like ads, showcasing promotions that typically run for weeks. Then use that featured premium space to highlight clickable/sharable, recently updated local content. This still allows stations to highlight those same on-air and big station event promotions, but in a way that’s timely, drives specific listening appointments for the current week, or promotes a specific aspect of an event. Ex: “Artist A Talks About Playing Station Event A” instead of a “Station Event A is INSERT DATE HERE” post that stays the same until the event ends.
Step 2: Make ads that look like content. There’s nothing wrong with selling web banners, but there’s also no law that says they have to look like ads. Finding ways to make advertiser’s banners look more like content will help drive those click through rates and keep the clients coming back for more. Then those banner ads can be supplemented by advertorial content that looks just like one of the posts the programming staff would create. We’ve all seen this done with sponsored posts on other platforms and it’s actually a trick that radio invented years ago. Anyone who ever listened to radio legend Paul Harvey will remember how he seamlessly transitioned from a daily news story to talking about Bose headphones and, thanks to his smooth baritone delivery, you were twenty seconds into it before you realized it was an ad.
Step 3: Create synergy with your other platforms. The big advantage radio stations have when competing in the digital world is our big terrestrial megaphones, but to be effective they have to be used properly. Just like vague on-air teases don’t work, neither do vague mentions of your website or social sites. Don’t just tell me to like the station on Facebook or check out the station’s website, tell me why I should do those things. We’ve got to be specific when using each of our platforms to drive traffic to the other, telling listeners exactly what they’ll get, where they need to go to get it and a specific time to do so. I can’t tell you how many stations I’ve seen promote listen to win contests without narrowing that window to listen at all or, worse, make it complicated to figure out what time a specific DJ is even on the air. We should constantly be asking ourselves what we can do to create calls to action that will drive traffic from each of our platforms to another one of our platforms. What’s the most effective way to use the website and social media to drive on-air listening and vice versa what’s the best way to drive our social following and website pageviews on-air?
Station websites should still continue to have all of the important information that every station puts online, event calendars, on air schedules and advertise with us, either as their own tabs or as a scroll down on the homepage. But, only if all of those contain current, accurate information. A station website should never have a tab that leads to a back-page that’s outdated or completely empty, even temporarily. If that’s the case, simply deactivate it until new content can be generated.
It’s also vitally important that all websites are responsive, automatically adjusting to different devices and screen sizes. As of 2018 more than half of all web traffic, 52.2%, was generated through mobile devices, and that number will only grow. So, station websites have to look and function well on laptops, tablets and mobile devices.
Need help creating dynamic station websites, turning your on-air staff into digital content creators, utilizing freelance content creators, figuring out how to create synergy between your platforms, or pricing and selling digital? Call me today to schedule a free assessment of your entire operation at 817-600-9398 or email me at andy@radiostationconsultant.com.
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