The latest radio listening data from Rajar shows that a record number of people are tuning into radio in the UK with 50 million tuning in every week.
But while population growth has helped this, the radio landscape is more diversified than every before with a huge choice of stations available. So how can you entice people to listen to your station when the big players in the market have the big names, big budgets, and big advertising campaigns.
It can be hard to compete, especially if you are in a small market. But I would suggest that the best way to do so is with two clear objectives:
- Serve your audience better than anyone else can
- Be open to the reality of the situation
By being hyper-local, talking about the things that matter to your audience, providing them with information and entertainment they won’t get anywhere else, being consistent in your approach, and making sure you tell people what you are doing – all the time – you can connect with an audience.
But it’s important that you – and the entire team – are realistic about how people consume radio.
Even among the largest stations, I notice from the Rajar stats that, despite getting more listeners, they are not necessarily listening for longer or even as long as they were in the last audience survey.
Channel hoppers
The way the radio audience figures are calculated, in terms of their overall numbers (reach) is based on listening for just 5 minutes per week. The average hours per listener stats are for most stations below 10 hours per week.
That leaves a lot of room for people to be tuning in to multiple stations and I think perhaps that many of us are now using radio in the way we have always used TV. We don’t stick with a set channel, we tune around for shows (and perhaps even songs) that we like.
It’s important then that we don’t get despondent and think that there is no room in the market for our station. There is, but the idea that people will tune in at 7am and listen all day is not as realistic at it once was.
An average listener might be a Chris Evans devotee and will listen to his Virgin Radio breakfast show, but then switch to Ken Bruce for PopMaster on Greatest Hits Radio. At 11am they might be on the move again, perhaps to your station if the offer is compelling, before switching over to BBC Radio 4 for The World at One!
What’s in it for me?
To compete in a market where it’s easy to channel hop and choice is growing fast, you cannot just say ‘listen to us because we are local’ even when that is your primary selling point.
Instead you need to translate what you do into reasons for someone to listen. What’s in it for them.
Being local may be important, but in a marketing sense there is likely to be a better way to engage people in what you do. I often use food analogies and would stress at this point that your town may well have lots of local restaurants, but they don’t thrive by simply being local.
Wherever possible, try to demonstrate your value rather than just tell people that it’s there.
Ensure that you are using audio clips – the BEST audio clips – on your social media. Video can work brilliantly of course too, so how can you use it to entice, excite, and engage?
On demand is in demand
It’s also important to think about your on demand offering. We are living in a less linear world, where people choose their TV viewing on Netflix and other streamers, music on Spotify, and news from a variety of websites, apps, and social media.
The advantage for small stations of not being in Rajar is that you don’t need to think about getting people to listen longer – you just want them to consume as much of what you produce as you can. So make it easy.
While you may have a catch-up service for your whole shows, this might not be the best idea for community interviews and features. How about making these available as standalone audio on your website or as podcasts?
As always, content is king and if your station is producing good stuff that can really only be produced by you, then you can complement the wider media landscape and compete.
