radioinfo | October 1, 2012
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH — If you realized your part of town had neither a good Italian restaurant nor a good Chinese restaurant, would you think the solution was to open a really great Italian-Chinese restaurant? Of course not!
The Problem
When it comes to our websites, radio is locked in that kind of thinking, unfortunately. We’ve created a lot of Italian-Chinese restaurants. The prime example is all the rock and talk stations that have massive “Hot Babe” galleries. Radio stations that target guys have found they get tons of hits from people coming to their website to view those photos. If you suggest they take them down, they’ll think you’re nuts.
Yet, I’m going to suggest just that. Keeping those galleries fresh is a distraction for you, and they don’t help build your overall brand. Sure, those hot babes get lots of traffic. However, I’ll bet if you tracked it, you would find (as I have) that people who come to see your hot babe pics often don’t visit other parts of your website. Furthermore, for the people who are coming to your website to learn more about what makes you famous, they’re clicking on your site with specific intentions that have nothing to do with scantily-clad women.
When you put up photo or video galleries that have nothing to do with your radio station, you’re like the guy who ate at McDonalds every day in hopes of becoming an NFL linebacker. You’re confusing fat with muscle. Here’s what makes your station website successful. Make it easy for your fans to find the content they want and expect to find there. Usually, that means taking things off rather than putting more things on.
However, you don’t want to give up the hits you’re getting! I get that. You’re selling advertising, and you don’t want to make it tougher to do so. Don’t totally lose the hot babe photos; move them.
The Solution
For the restaurant example above, the logical answer is to open both a good Italian restaurant and a good Chinese restaurant. They’d be totally separate from each other. You might have customers who frequently visit both restaurants. Those same people would probably never set foot inside an Italian-Chinese restaurant.
That’s what you do with the hot babes. Create another website. Put ‘em there. New websites are easy to start. Then, use your marketing know-how to send people back and forth from your radio station site to your hot babe site.
See, if your spicy pics are getting hits, they may well be a great business idea. I’ll bet that content would get a much bigger audience on its own site than on your radio station site, and your sales team could sell advertising on both sites. You want to talk to a wide range of guys online? Here’s our radio site and our hot babe site. Buy ‘em together for massive advertising power. This idea applies to whatever content you have at your website that doesn’t have anything to do with your radio station … that you don’t want to give up because of the hits you’re getting.
If I walked into your Italian restaurant and found Kung Pao Chicken on the menu, I wouldn’t think I found the best of both worlds. I’d think you were nuts. Make it convenient and easy for your radio station’s fans to find what they love about you, and for hot babe fans to find what they want. Problem solved!
Chris Miller, owner of Chris Miller Digital, is a leading radio consultant specializing in research-based strategic planning and smart use of digital media. He can be phoned at 216-236-3955 or e-mailed atchris@chrismillerdigital.com.
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