***Don't Be the Missing Link

I had a conversation last month with the programming director of a radio station in Boston. He was complaining about how difficult it is to convince companies to advertise on his station. “Why is it so tough?” I asked. “Because we have no way to document how many people actually hear the ads we are trying to sell,” he replied. “So when a company advertises with us, they have very little idea what they are buying. There’s a missing link in our business, which is the direct and measureable connection with listeners. Cable TV has it, the Internet has it, but we don’t.” He went on to describe all the tactics his station uses to try to create that link. He runs contests to get people to visit his station’s Website and join a listeners’ club. He does phone surveys. He conducts focus groups of his listeners. He urges advertisers to include toll-free numbers in their radio ads, so they can measure customer response. He does everything that any radio station manager could do to gather statistics that would help sell ads. But with nothing but empty air between him and his listeners, it was a pretty tough sell. This guy is working really hard to use all the tools that are available to him. That got me thinking about business people I know who, unlike him, have tons of advanced marketing tools at their disposal - but who never take advantage of them.

• I know an Internet retailer, for example, who never monitors site traffic or takes any steps to increase it. She has hundreds of diagnostic tools at her disposal for monitoring and increasing sales, but doesn’t use them.n n
• I know a retailer who has inventory-tracking systems in place in his stores, but who never takes the next step of using that technology to measure customer response to his advertising and marketing efforts.

nBoth those people have tools at their disposal - advanced tools that would be the envy of that radio-station manager - but they just don’t use them. So, are you lazy about maximizing the way you use technology in your business? If so, technology is not your problem. You are the missing link between your company and your customers. Maybe it’s time to take a new look at all the available marketing tools you aren’t using and to add the advanced marketing skills that can help you get the job done.