"PI" Radio Advertising

"PI" stands for per inquiry. This kind of advertising is most generally associated with broadcasting, where you pay only for the responses you get to your advertising message. It's very popular--somewhat akin to bartering--and is used by many more advertisers than most people realize. The advantages of "PI" Advertising are all in favor of the advertiser because with this kind of an advertising arrangement, you can pay only for the results the advertising produces.

Your first step is the initial contact after searching through the SRDS or Broadcasting Yearbook. Actual contact with the stations is by phone or mail. When turned down, simply say thanks, and go to the next station on the list. For those who want to know more about your proposal, you immediately get a "PI" Advertising Package off to them via the fastest way possible. Don't let the interest wane.

Your Advertising Package should contain the following:

• Cover letter

• Sample brochure, product literature

• Thirty-second and sixty-second commercials 

• PI Advertising Contract

• Self-addressed, stamped postcard for station acknowledgement and acceptance of your program.

Before you ask why you need an acknowledgement postcard when you have already given them a contract, remember that everything about business changes from day to day---conditions change, people get busy, and other things come up. the station manager may sign a contract with your advertising to begin the 1st of March. The contract is signed on the 1st of January, but when March 1 rolls around, he may have forgotten, been replaced, or even decided against running your program. A lot of paper seemingly "covering all the minute details" can be very impressive to many radio station managers, and convince them that your company is a good one to do business with.

At the bottom line, a lot is riding on the content of your commercial---the benefits you suggest to the listener, and how easy it is for him to enjoy those benefits. For instance, if you have a new book on how to find jobs when there aren't any jobs: You want to talk to people who are desperately searching for employment. You have to appeal to them in words that not only "perk up" their ears, but cause them to feel that whatever it is that you're offering will solve their problems. It's the product, and in writing of the advertising message about that product are going to bring in those responses.

Radio station managers are sales people, and sales people the world over will be sold on your idea if you put your selling package together properly. And if the responses come in your first offer, you have set yourself up for an entire series of successes. Success has a "ripple effect," but you have to start on that first one.