I just landed a new job selling advertising for a T.V. station. Any ideas how I can sell it?

Question

This T.V. station is brand new and nobody's heard of it yet. It plays old T.V. shows, a real estate show and a cooking show. You can only watch this station if you don't have cable. I don't have a degree in advertising and my sales experience is all over the phone (cross-selling bank products). Any ideas on how I can pitch this? I'll be making cold calls and going door to door to small businesses.

Answer 1

Well not saying that people only watch it if they don't have cable would be a good start.

Many small businesses can't afford big station advertising but would like to have the exposure of a smaller station. So this would be a good area to pitch to. Suggestions:

1) Offer 15 minute info commercials to a group of 1 - 3 companies - I myself would be interested in this so click on my icon please.
2) Offer groups of 30 second slots at great prices and offer to randomize them so the company has (say) a 1 in 10 chance of getting a good spot.
3) Offer the opportunity of sponsoring a show.
4) Offer the opportunity of a group of (say 3 or 6) groups of "expert" shows.

Pitch to the small business at a price they can afford it for a limited time - say 6 months. The companies will get larger with the adverts - ditto the TV station. Review peak prices when this happens.

Answer 2

I don't know if you are allowed to sell for paid (30 minute spots) or Direct Response ("call this 800# right now to order") but that might be a good place for the station to start. There are companies out there that exist to specifically sell this kind of advertising to stations. They order more if they like the # of responses they are getting. If that would work out, you could use the success of the paid programming to show potential advertisers that people really are watching because paid programming got responses and ordered more air time.

Answer 3

Since your station does not have "ratings" and demographic information to show as a benefit (age group that watches and how often), my suggestion would be to put together a block of ads that groups of people can split the cost on for a certain time period. For example- an April Madness campaign- :30 spot grouping shared by two businesses in a strip mall at a time would cost x amount of dollars. The ad is for april savings and the tag at the end is for store one for :15 with a deal for the consumer mentioned briefly and then store two with their name and an incentive. While the voice over is talking about april savings during the first :30 the two business store fronts or inside shots can be shown. Create however many of these ads for the amount of businesses that buy in- 6 businesses would be 3 ads... your marketing or sales manager can give you pricing discounts that will help you close the deal. Also- Look into Co-Op money: now is the time to get carpet money, levis money, agricultural money like almonds, raisins etc. Co-op money is a contribution towards the cost of advertising for their resellers. For example if a clothing store sells jeans they can apply for co-op money that will pay a percentage of the ad cost if the ads do not run late night etc. Your manager should have told you about this venue- it really helps. You can research major catagories online on your own. I would also advise you take the time to read tv, media and radio specific advertising books from libraries that are not older than 4 years old. My last piece of advise here is to offer to include the store owner in the ad because every one feels they know their store best- you can have them in the shots, doing the voice over while the shots show their stores. Appeal to their sense of vanity- and be sure you understand what the business does and for whom before you ask them to spend money with you to tell the public. Lastly, remember who watches this type of tv- nostalgics; seniors, home based moms, cooks, home buyers, want to be's. Your age niche sounds like mainly 25-49 for most of it and 45+ for the oldies. If you can view Fox on cable in your area (same type of broadcasting) see what type of advertiser is paying for time there> You are offering community visibility to small business who may not otherwise be able to afford to advertise. TV ad result is hard to track, so a store promo or contest to bring in foot traffic during the ad period is the easiest way to build records- do not promise them immediate and wonderful results- promise them name familiarity so that when they need what the store is offering they will remember them not only now but in the future! Best of luck to you!

Answer 4

To garnish interest state/province wide hold an ebay auction for a prime time spot for a week or a month. you will make some money off it and it you do a couple of press releases (which you should do anyways) you could mention the auction, you should also do a commercial for yourself maybe present a really horrible commercial and challenge others to do better!

and if you do the ebay auction I will bid, especially if you offer to film it for people.

Answer 5

It will also be important for you to know the demographics of the target audience. What type of person does not have cable? What are the typical characteristics of them? How old, male or female, etc. This will be important because you should be targeting business that are looking for that type of customer.

Answer 6

First make them interested, then show them that your station can benefit their business.

maybe that is an audience that they may not be able to reach.
Also try online advertsing too if you can.
maybe on a locals site for advertising.

Answer 7

One word: Advertorials