You need to advertise your station to build cume, but there is no budget?  Unconventional and creative marketing is far less expensive than conventional approaches.  Getting new listeners to sample a station starts with creating awareness and cutting through the advertising clutter.  Many terrific marketing methods don’t require a budget – just creativity and energy – and can be used to grow the audience.  Consider these marketing ideas for no or little cost:

  1. The Power of Stunts. A morning show stunt gets attention, creates talk, and causes people to tell their friends about your station. This works great for many formats with big morning shows.  Create a great stunt to generate a buzz, and don’t wait for April Fool’s Day (it’s a must to do that day).
  1. Free Gas Fridays. The first frequency-related number of people to show up get free gas at a client’s service station.  Or, charge the station’s frequency a gallon.  Either way, set a 20-gallon maximum.
  1. Mining New Cume At-Work. Connecting with at-work listeners doesn’t have to be costly.  People really do listen to the radio all day at work, and the at-work hours of 8 am to 5 pm make up the biggest Nielsen daypart.  Consider ideas to mine for the at-work cume, such as visiting offices and awarding prizes when you find listeners registered for your We Caught You Listening contest on the station’s website and social media.
  1. Halloween Spooktacular. Stage a Halloween party for core listeners.
  1. Safe Halloween for Kids is sold to clients and staged at a motel. Kids come dressed in costume with their moms and trick or treat in each room occupied by clients. The food and surroundings are safe.  
  1. Boo at the Zoo is a special station event thrown at the local zoo.
  1. Get Exposure With Charities. Gain recognition for your station at charitable events with joint promotions.  Expose your station to thousands of people.  It requires a little work, but the marketing and cross-promotion value is free!  With Thanksgiving coming up, conduct a charity event to give turkeys to those in need. Document the goodwill and positive work done for the community in a press release after the event.  Update the station website with this info and pictures.  Make sure to have station signage at the event.
  1. Thanksgiving on the Mayflower. The best stunt gets the most press!).  Rent a Mayflower moving van, dress the air staff as pilgrims and Indians, and award a family a fully catered Thanksgiving dinner.  Invite TV stations; stage this early on Thursday so you get on the 5 o’clock news.  Email John Lund for a complete profile on how to execute this promotion. 
  1. Deliver your logo coffee mugs with donuts to the morning TV news crew, watch them drink on camera, and mention the gift—free food always gets free mentions, just like radio!
  1. Create a contest that rewards people who walk in front of live TV cameras while wearing your station’s jersey and cap, or have your station interns get in front of the camera.
  1. Get retail clients to hang your banner when they film their TV commercials at their stores. Ask them to keep station banners in their window or maintain contest-entry boxes.
  1. Take ownership of concerts to impact thousands. If there are printed tickets, adhere a station logo sticker to the back of the ticket saying, “We hope you enjoy the show.” Arrange with the concert promoter for a special pre-sale (before public sale) where the listener accesses early ticket-buying privileges using a special code on the station’s website. 
  1. Create an after-concert “replay” on your station. Promote this by placing flyers on car windshields in the parking lot and selling this promotion to a client. Ask for in-car listening and recycle to morning listening with a contest.  Invite concert attendees to call the morning show the next day to share their concert reviews. 
  1. Have talents outside concerts in station jackets before and after the event, shaking hands and thanking listeners for coming. Then, hand out cards inviting listeners to listen to the morning show and replay the concert that night.

Pic by Freepik.com.

John Lund is President of the Lund Media Group, a radio programming consulting firm with specialists in all mainstream radio formats. Did you find this article useful?  You can leave a comment below or email John at John@Lundradio.com.