How to begin your successful campaign
The majority of our clients are “expecting” this year. And you may be one of them! Decision makers from radio stations, broadcasting networks and nationally syndicated shows are huddled into conference rooms, alive with the hope that their radio campaign ideas for the year will be successful.
Some people bring ideas scrawled across post-it notes, cell phones, pads and napkins. Others have the entire campaign mapped out in bullet points complete with a timeline, budget and projected outcomes. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, you know it’s tough to come up with a campaign that listeners won’t just ignore or tune away from.
Foundations for a Top Flight Campaign
From helping victims of tsunamis to feeding the hungry to church building funds, Christians are bombarded with well-meaning campaigns designed to tug at our heartstrings and provide opportunities for sacrificial giving. With that as a motivator, here are eight essentials to consider BEFORE you get the campaign ball rolling:
- Prayer. Of all the ideas vying for attention, nothing good can germinate without love and God’s blessing. Ideas need to be brought together and prayed over. Thought about. Tossed about. Blended and prayed over with persistence.
- Love. A great campaign doesn’t necessarily generate the most ideas/money/kudos/paperwork. It generates love. Its message is backed by love. Its response is love. If love can’t be extracted from your idea and brought to the forefront, it probably won’t directly impact your listener.
- Decency and Order. Consider how God creates. With time and with love, with uniqueness in mind, decently and in order. Don’t let deadlines, initiatives and other perceived pressures get in the way. A great campaign is a living thing that, when executed in God’s timing, will remain evergreen.
- Money. We’ve found that generally it takes a minimum of 18 campaign ads per week to deliver an adequate, memorable repetition that produces measurable results. The number can vary with specific circumstances, or with the type of campaign.
- Time. Begin planning a major campaign at least six months before you launch.Don’t be a ministry whose calendar becomes glutted with a number of initiatives to be launched “ASAP” with no budget set aside, no time to create great messaging, and no permission from management to revise worn copy. Don’t be stuck in a rut, but pressured to “keep generating new projects.”
- Great messaging. There is such a thing as constituent resistance. With all the “gimme-gimme” messaging trying to capture our attention, listeners have learned how to say “no” before they’ve even heard the offer! Try offering an educational tidbit, an emotional story or a REAL solution to an immediate need or problem. The interaction between the listener and the call to action needs to contain an immediate benefit or your campaign will be ignored.
- Keep it simple. A confused mind does nothing. Create your campaign in small stages rather than trying to cover it all in one ad. Build layers. Develop the relationship. Be creative! We all love a good movie where the plot is revealed cleverly over time. Make it fun–make it a series! Don’t expect your listener to jump into a giving relationship with you at the word go.
- Patience. How long does it take you to decide to give to a new charity? A year? Allow your listeners the same amount of breathing room. Create urgency, but cultivate patience. Rule of thumb is to wait 52-weeks before calculating the results. Think of how patient God is with you and apply that to your beloved listener. Allow them to transform from passive listener to collaborator.
MOVING PAST THE RESULTS
We recently posted the reasons listeners aren’t giving to a radio station or network HERE. The bottom line is–even though they love your station or ministry, they’re primarily not giving because they can’t afford it. We certainly don’t want to squeeze money out of those who can’t afford it, but we do want to ask God how to be good stewards of air time, talent, listener funds and His Word so that your station or ministry can keep sharing uplifting music and inspirational messages that change lives.
How long does it take you to decide to give to a new charity? A year? Allow your listeners the same amount of breathing room. Create urgency, but cultivate patience. Rule of thumb is to wait 52-weeks before calculating the results.
Think of how patient God is with you and apply that to your beloved listener. Allow them to transform from passive listener to collaborator.
