6 Digital Marketing Strategy Ideas For Radio and Television Stations

As a professional in the broadcast media space, you know the power of radio and television advertising can reach thousands of people a day, but what if I told you that you can do a lot more with your marketing strategy? If you only stick to advertising on your channel, you are very limited in the audience exposed to your station, show, or segment. With 307 million internet users in the United States alone, you can capitalize on your target market’s internet usage to create a well-rounded digital marketing strategy. There are two common approaches to digital marketing campaigns: One-off campaigns and continuous campaigns. One-off campaigns are used for a singular event or purpose. These campaigns only happen once. Continuous campaigns continue to run for longer periods of time. An example is a ‘Subscribe to our email’ form. Related to continuous campaigns are recurring campaigns. These are campaigns that happen each year, semi-annually, etc. Think of these like Toyota’s Toyotathon event which has been held once a year for the last 25 years. Both one-off and continuous campaigns should hold great value in your marketing plan to increase leads and revenue. I have curated several ShortStack campaigns to inspire your digital marketing strategy. Using ShortStack to host marketing campaigns, giveaways, contests, lead generation content, and more gives you a professional-level campaign without hiring someone in-house.

One-off Campaigns

Event Registration Form

Is your station hosting an event? Whether you’re hosting a big bash, like the Dance Again Virtual Festival, or something a little more low-key, such as a local 5K run that supports first responders or an in-person reading of a local author’s new book, a form to register event-goers is a must. Forms can include fields for any type of information you wish to collect (though it’s best to only ask for information you absolutely need). You can even use them to create segmented email lists for future marketing efforts. Once a viewer or listener is signed up, you can use an autoresponder email to inform them of important event-related information. Additionally, if you are looking for a way to run a giveaway and offer some freebies, using an event registration form is a great way to do so. To do this, add the Instant Win feature. Within the settings, you can decide how many prizes to distribute. You can take things a step further from simply having winners and losers and assign specific coupon codes or items to each winner via a coupon distribution (or in ShortStack jargon, a code list). In short, a code list is a .csv file with coupon codes or items that you add to the Instant Win feature. When you do this, the winner will not only see that they won, but will also see what prize they won. Interested in adding unique coupon codes to your campaign but need some help? Check out our step-by-step Guide.

Branded Photo Frames

Engage your fans while collecting user-generated content (UGC) with branded photo frames. Branded photo frames allow you to offer a custom frame that people can add to photos they submit for your contest or image gallery. Photos you collect can then be shared and uploaded to social media and further promote your station’s online presence. Branded frames are the perfect addition to your daily show’s featured viewers' segment or an event you are hosting.In the previous campaign idea, I mentioned a 5K race that raises funds for the city’s first responders. This is a perfect opportunity to use branded photo frames. Attendees can submit pictures to an event gallery they take at the event. The photos would include different frame options you provide, such as a frame with the event’s name and another with the event and sponsor logos. Furthermore, you could encourage people to snap pics with first responders and your hosts on the ground. After all, in-person interaction is an integral part of building and keeping a community together. What better way for listeners of your morning show to meet the faces behind familiar voices at an event than with a picture and a creative frame to commemorate the event. While we didn’t go out and serve pancakes on Pancake Day 2021, we did host a fun branded photo frames contest. You can check it out here.

Subscriber-Only Giveaways

Looking to increase the value your loyal fans get from subscribing to your email marketing list? Host a subscriber-only giveaway!Send out an email with an invitation link. Our invite-only links act as one-time-use passwords – only those who receive the email and click the link will be allowed to enter your contest. Only your *true* fans will learn about and be able to enter your giveaways through your monthly or weekly newsletter. Better yet, this is one more incentive for people to sign up for your list and actually open and read your emails. Hint: Invite-only giveaways can be implemented as either one-off or recurring campaigns!

Continuous and Recurring Campaigns

Secret Code Contests

Are you looking to run a giveaway that engages your audience and increases the likelihood that folks will tune into your show? Then a secret code contest is right for you. Here’s the lowdown:

• Someone tunes into your station at a predetermined time.
• Your show’s host(s) reveal a code word for that day.
• The audience member goes to your contest landing page and enters the code word along with their information for a chance to win that day’s prize.
• Wash, rinse, and repeat the next day.

By requiring the day’s secret code to enter, you ensure people are engaged with your program. This type of contest could also be hosted on your social media accounts to help you build a following. You could share the day’s code word in a post or something more ephemeral, like an Instagram Story.  

Daily Shout-Outs

Another great way to engage listeners and create participation is through a daily shout-out form. For radio stations, users can add their information and the song they want to be played or a message for their special someone. For news broadcasts, daily talk shows, or other TV programs, have your viewers upload a sweet picture and display it during a specific segment. Take for example, what Fox8 News does with ”Mugshot of the Day” a wholesome segment in their morning news show where they share a viewer-submitted photo of their morning cup of coffee. You can choose to add a little swag bag prize or entrants can simply bask in their 15 seconds of fame. To further your engagement, showcase previous winners in a gallery on your website. You can also combine daily shout-outs with our branded photo frames which I explained earlier.

Viewers’ Choice Awards

Interested in knowing what show, character, actor, host, song, etc, are your audiences’ favorites? Host a voting contest. A vote to enter contest asks entrants to vote on their favorite entry and then enter to win. You can also host this campaign if you simply want your viewers to pick their favorites without entering their information into a form. This can even be used to see whether your viewers watch your morning show or evening show? After all, who doesn’t love a little friendly competition? In addition to asking your audience to vote for their favorite show, you can run this campaign with community favorites, or a “Best of [insert city, month, or year]” contest. Ask your audience to nominate their favorite places, community events, or even show segments. Once the nomination period closes, everyone can vote for their top pick. Viewers' choice awards and best of campaigns are run in a very similar way except they have one difference: nominations.You can ask for nominations or simply allow your audience to vote. Either way, we can help streamline the voting process with multi-stage voting. Multi-stage voting is perfect when you have a lot of entries and votes on each entry. It allows you to narrow down voting options each week and only move the entries with the most votes forward (you can decide how many entries can move on the to next round!).

In conclusion, digital campaigns can be a great way to engage your radio or television station’s audience. Your station’s online presence can turn loyal viewers and listeners into happy fans and attract new eyes and ears to your channel. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to turn off the “On Air” sign and get to work on your next marketing campaign.