Can sports radio teach you anything about running a quality blog?
By Nick Hoover, Niby Design Group
Sports radio is great. I love listening to a quality sports announcer railing on a player or coach—you can almost hear their spittle splashing on the microphone.
Being a radio host seems like a pretty fantastic job. But like all jobs, someone has to make money. Sports radio makes money by selling ads, and to sell ads you need people listening. The bigger the audience, the more ads get sold, and the higher the prices those spots command.
If there is one thing sports announcers have mastered it’s the lead into a commercial break. A great lead in keeps you glued to the radio. You don’t want to risk missing the discussion when they come back from commercial break.
As I listened to these radio masters ply their craft, I started thinking about the headlines I was creating in my marketing materials. Are they powerful enough to make people click through? I started really listening to the commercial lead in to see if I could glean any secrets to writing effective headline copy.
1) Ask An Interesting Question.
“How will the loss of Lebron’s headband affect his play in game 7 of the finals?”
“What do the 90’s Bulls and this year’s Heat have in common?”
This one is used a lot. Getting listeners thinking is a great way to engage with them. Asking a question is also an effective technique you can use for a blog title. An example might be: “What’s the right amount of weight for three common stream conditions?”
2) Produce Consistent Quality Content
Each radio show has a segment they do every day: “One Last Thing,” “Stone Cold Lead Pipe Locks,” “Around The Horn,” etc. These segments are consistent. Listeners will stick through a commercial break to hear what is new in the segment. Plus, it’s easy content to schedule and plan. You can do something similar on your blog. Consider running a monthly photo contest, or a secret fly of the month. To be effective with this strategy, you need to be consistent. Pick a date on the calendar and pump out the content on a regular basis.
3) Bring Up A Shocking Statistic
Sports Radio is built around stats and the analysis of numbers. I love hearing a unique stat that puts a game or situation into an interesting perspective. You should do the same on your blog.
Example: “There are 3,500 redsides per mile on the lower Deschutes… we’ll help you catch a few.”
Sports Radio has been making money for a long time. It’s safe to assume they know a thing or two about keeping listeners engaged. We can learn a lot from what they are doing and apply it to our marketing materials to make them better.
For more information on Nick and how Niby Design Group helps its clients optimize online marketing, see www.nibydesigngroup.com.
