The Target is the person to whom you are speaking. Make your programming target a real person, not a sales demo. Instead of Women 25-34, lets say your target is a 26-yearold single female who lives in Daly City CA, and works as an assistant retail store manager at Stonestown Mall off 101. What does she know about the subject of your promotion? Familiar? Unfamiliar? Is this a new concept to her? How does she feel about it? Love it or like it? Used to love it, now unsure of it? Knowing how your Target relates to the subject is the only way that you can communicate with relevance. Being relevant is the difference between being cool and compelling, or being un-relatable and a tune-out.

Next comes Benefit. This is where your copy answers the unspoken target listener’s question “What’s in it for me?” Programmers and jocks are happiest when “what’s in it for me” is really obvious. Like, “what’s in it for you is…you’ll be taking a free vacation to the Bahamas” . But the nature of our business, especially sales promotion business, is that we’re supposed to turn on the listener to a product or experience that has benefits that aren’t so obvious. You can make lemonade out of lemons with these sales promotions if you simply take the time to envision the benefits for the listener. What’s the benefit to the listener of making your station their most listened to radio station? Fill in the blank every quarter hour, “what’s in it for you to listen to me is….”, and you’re closer to surpassing your ratings goals this Fall. One tip on presenting the Benefit: give the listener the “carrot” of your contest before you roll through the “how to win”. For example, tell them about the $1,000 prize before you roll through the contest mechanics. Otherwise the listener’s experience is akin to someone giving you directions on how to find your house before you’ve told them you’re inviting them to a party.

Difference is the competitive advantage between you and your competition. It’s especially important if many of the Benefits are identical between you and the competitor. What if you both play the same music? What if you both give away trips to the Bahamas? The Target may regard you identically unless you articulate the Difference. What’s the difference between the way your station would take a vacation in the Bahamas and the way the competition would. What’s the difference between the way you throw a party and the way the other guys would. This is about style. You read all the time about how successful stations need “Attitude”. Well, actually attitude is all about “difference”.

Pose these questions to your script:

What does the listener know about this thing?
How does the listener feel about this thing?
What’s in it for me to listen to your message?
What’s in it for me to participate in your promotion?
Are you describing WIIFM before you give the station's website or phone number to participate?
What’s the difference between the way that WE do this promotion and the way the competition does it? Is this clear?

Is the Hook Up Front?

The goal of the first sentence is to get the listener to pay attention to the 2nd sentence, and so forth. 

Trimming promos from :30 to :15's might be the simple directive.  "Get to the point" might be a simple way to coach.  But the real deal to improve the stickiness of your station is to get the hook up front.  By the way, :15's are basically long enough to accomplish 2 things:  A-get attention, and B-communicate the benefit of taking 1 action. 

What's the job of the opening of the promo?  To get attention.  Without accomplishing that,  the rest of the message won't be communicated.  PPM may well listen to it.  But the consumer won't hear it to take the marketer's desired action, unless they are paying attention.

What's your Website?

Easy fix to improve web visits.  Tell them the website url  after they want to know it.  Not before.  Poor scripting will give the website url first, then tell the listener why they should visit it.   Very frustrating for the genuinely interested prospect.  "What's that address again?"   All we need to do to fix this is flip the sentences.  Put the carrot first.  Put the horse before the cart.

What's the Hook?

From the perspective of your target listener, it's interesting.  It caught her ear.  It distracted him so he broke his focus and put it on you.  

You yourself have responded many times today to hooks all around you.  Think about that.  Don't just be a passive consumer.  Consider how marketers all around you have succeeded in getting your attention with hooks.   Training your brain to think like this improves your own skill improving the construction of your station messages.
 

Get Attention: Identify and Promote a Bandwagon that Matters to Your Target

I  was  really taken with Dan Mason's advice to Programmers at the 2007 R&R Convention.  Mason said  "Find a Bandwagon and get Your Station on a Bandwagon every day.  You'll make a difference in your community".