Marketing budgets have never been tighter for radio stations. Today more than ever broadcasters that have a marketing budget need to be focused on their return on investment. In a PPM world, unlike the Diary rated world you can be more precise with your targeting and in turn more effective since there are fewer PPM households being surveyed than in a Diary rated market.

Your most important listener is survey friendly

Survey-Friendly individuals are influencers. They want information and are willing to spend time with things that interest them. When marketing your radio station you need to focus on reaching these individuals. They want to give their opinion—ask them and do it on a regular basis. Although the rating methodology has changed between Diary and PPM rated markets your overall marketing strategy should not. You need to target those survey friendly households within key PPM geographic areas.

PPM vs. Diary rated targeting

Let’s review the differences between Diary and PPM rated markets. We know for instance that there are less households being surveyed in PPM markets versus those in Diary markets. We also know that there are 25 to 35% less zip codes that are important in a PPM market than in a previously rated Diary market. In Diary markets there are new people being surveyed each week while in PPM markets the same people are surveyed each week continuously for a period of between 9 months and 2 years. Within a PPM rated market it is important to reach targeted households often to reinforce the primary reasons users listen to you.

Marketing to promote usage in a PPM world

Remember in a PPM market your ratings are not determined on recall but on actual usage. The goal for a successful marketing strategy in a PPM market is to increase the actual usage for a station over a period of time. We can do this by delivering a consistent usage message about the benefits of listening to your station.

The PPM marketing recommendation

We recommend a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes direct marketing in the form of direct mail, telemarketing and email marketing. Targeted cable television can be use to supplement your direct marketing efforts. Your message should focus on why listeners use your station. Finally, we recommend developing a comprehensive social media strategy to reach targeted influencers and survey friendly individuals. This strategy will include both SEO and SEM internet marketing tactics.

Program your station to take advantage of PPM

In order to be successful in marketing your station needs to be programmed to take advantage of the new PPM methodology. In future posts we’ll discuss the programming techniques that prominent industry consultants recommend to their stations. If you’d like to contribute to our next post on Programing in a PPM World send an email to info@impacttargetmarketing.com or call us at 978-768-3970.