Radio-Hed-Logo-2By Jeffrey Hedquist

Time is money. Whether your client is paying $10 per spot or $1500 per spot, every second is precious and should be spent enticing, convincing, seducing members of your audience to pay attention and consider giving your client… money.

Clients have a tendency to waste precious seconds telling your audience something that should be obvious. Don’t let them. They may not know better, but you do. Make every second count.

They may be proud of the individualized personalized service their people provide, but to the audience, that’s expected. When they tout their “premium brands,” elegant atmosphere, exquisite cuisine, helpful staff, board-certified technicians, or caring providers, listeners are thinking, “So what? Those are expected. Those are the price of admission to qualify you to ask for my money.”

If your client’s claim would generate the comment, “I should hope so,” then it should go. It’s wasting your client’s money.

Many “I should hope so” statements are clichés. Find ways to make them unique or explain in conversational terms, not ad-speak.

Prospects are asking, “Now… what do you offer that’s special? Show me that you know me and can have unique ways can you help me.”

Tailor your client’s offers and claims for each individual circumstance. Free convenient parking may not be so unique in Batavia, IA, but in some large cities it’s a big deal. Just don’t drop in the phrase “free convenient parking” – explain it.

Leave out the obvious. Replace it with the un-obvious, the secret sauce, the unique, the unexpected.

If you take the time to comb through your client’s scripts to weed out the obvious and replace them with stuff that answers “What’s in it for me?” will your clients get better results?

I should hope so.

© 1997-2014 Hedquist Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Audio

  • The R.A.P. CD - September 2003

    Demo from interview subject, Joe Meinecke, WKLH/WJMR, Milwaukee, WI; plus imaging, promos and commercials from Dave Foxx, Z100, New York, NY; Anthony...