That’s what broadcast groups are thinking of themselves as nowadays, thanks to lots of folks like me (even if too many of them remain radio or TV groups with tangential digital assets, but that’s another story).
If you’re a local media company, part of your job is to maximize the success of your client partners on their terms, whatever those are: Foot traffic, awareness, the ring of the cash register, etc. It’s not simply to stock more items in more categories and pitch them harder.
It constantly amazes me that so many of our digital assets are built to sell to our clients and so few are built to educate them and deepen our relationship with them.
If I ran a local media company, here are a few of the things I would do that might be different from what you’re doing:
- Create a digital destination (a corner of our digital portfolio) specifically for clients and potential clients – open to anyone (yes, even your competitors – because they are lazy and will watch you in slack-jawed awe).
- Blog regular tips about how to use our local media company’s portfolio of assets to get the best results – including real-life case studies
- Provide access to this content via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and make sure to share it with your current and potential clients
- Interview clients on how they achieve their greatest success with our portfolio of assets – use video and post it
- Interview station staff and sellers on how clients can maximize their success using our assets – use video and post it
- Introduce would-be clients to new assets that can amplify the impact of their over-the-air buy
- Take client questions and offer answers: A Q&A section
- A digital “suggestion box.” Offer the opportunity for would-be clients to offer ideas and feedback on how we could meet their needs better. Report back on how those ideas are implemented (just like Starbucks does).
- Keep the focus of all this on value: Educating clients so that their problems can be solved better, faster, and cheaper. This is not about song-and-dance. It’s not a pitch. It’s solid information clients can use to make their jobs better and their businesses more successful. This is not an email blast – it’s not spam. It’s value – and value is defined in their eyes, not yours.
I’m hoping that a few intrepid broadcasters will reach out in the comments below to say “I’m doing exactly that, and here’s the URL that proves it.” I welcome that feedback!
Too often, we’re so obsessed with “selling” we lose sight of one simple truth:
Clients want to buy not because they want to be sold but because they have a problem and they need our help solving it.
Help them buy better.
