How to Grow Your Local Brand as a Media Company

As a sales leader at a media company, you spend most of your time focused on helping clients advertise and build their own brands. Sometimes it's hard to remember that you're also a B2B business that needs branding yourself. 

Recent data from Hub Entertainment Research shows that US consumers say they're watching a lot more TV than they did prior to the pandemic. And according to a 2020 Nielsen study, remote workers are listening to radio at the same rates as employees who were not working remotely — an astonishing 95%!

What this data tells TV and radio stations is that it's important to differentiate yourself from the competition. Below are four ways to do just that — and tips to help you grow your local brand.

4 Ways Media Companies Can Grow Their LOCAL Brand

1. Have a Website Presence

You tell your advertisers about the importance of having an online presence, but does your business have one?

Although having a station website is essential, we're explicitly referring to your B2B sales organization. Do you have a website where potential advertisers can see your marketing services and contact your sales team? If not, an internet presence is critical for media sales. Your website should include items like:

•  A blog where you write about advertising trends and best practices, as well as local updates applicable to advertisers in your city or region 

•  A resource center that allows businesses to download free resources from your website that will help them make smarter marketing decisions

• All of your marketing services laid out on the website for others to find and learn more about before having to contact someone directly 

• Great optimization for search so that it's easy to find when current and potential advertisers are looking for answers

2. Build a Business Blog

Blogging is an excellent way to establish your local media brand as a thought-leading company, and the people who sell for your organization as experts. By creating a business blog, you're allowing local business owners and advertising decision makers to get their information from you vs. a competitor down the street (whether that's another station or a digital marketing agency).

The goal of your blog posts should be to become a local resource to clients and prospects alike. You want to write about the topics that your target prospects would care most about at the many different stages of the buyer's journey that they may be at any given time. This includes questions like:

• How do I promote my new business? 

• How do I increase foot traffic? 

• What are the different types of marketing KPIs I should be aware of when tracking ROI?

• How do I know who my audience should be? 

• What kind of ROI can I expect?

• What is ____ (insert any marketing channel or product)? How does it work? 

• How big should my marketing budget be? 

As you can imagine, this list can be very long and there are a lot of questions, objections, and concerns that you can, and should be addressing on your blog to help build credibility and trust with potential advertisers and to get found earlier in their journey.

3. Build a Social Media Presence

Not only should your TV or radio station have a social media presence that is listener/viewer facing, but your B2B sales organization should too. To start, build a LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, and Twitter, and start working on building a following by sharing your blog posts, third-party research, and anything your advertisers would find valuable. 

What can't be overlooked as well is the value of your salespeople and sales managers' presence and interactions on LinkedIn through their own profiles. If social selling and utilizing LinkedIn regularly to connect with prospects isn't part of your sales strategy - this is a good reminder to make it a priority. Plus, the more content you're producing on your website and blog, the more content they'll have to share - getting them in front of prospects in an organic way day in and day out. 

4. Use Your Platform to Promote Yourself 

Not only is every media company going to benefit from a powerful online presence, but you have the capabilities to promote yourself on your own station as well or with the vast digital products that you sell. When we work with media companies, we help them tap into their own assets to support inbound marketing campaigns - ensuring more eyeballs or ears drive visitors and clicks, and ultimately leads, to their website. 

Like your clients must build their brand, it's also essential for you to build your brand. These four tips are the most foundational steps that we believe every media company needs to have on a local level in order to compete in today's world. It's about being helpful and relevant to local advertisers - while also generating more leads earlier in the funnel to help your salespeople ensure they are talking to the right people at the right time.