How to build an online audience of radio station proportions

As a commercial radio station program director would tell you, good things are worth repeating – in their case, ad infinitum!

That is why this here blog regularly revisits topics that smaller businesses – for whatever reason – might be proving sluggish to adopt.

One topic that really deserves revisiting is that of using the web to drastically build your email and/or prospect list: Because very few businesses are tapping into this rich vein of free promotion and communication, unlike larger businesses who invest heavily in this valuable capability.

Promote like your biggest competitors

Larger businesses have been across direct marketing for decades. In essence, this form of marketing allows you to deliver messages to individuals, unlike mass marketing, which broadcasts to large and usually anonymous audiences.

In the past, direct marketing was conducted via the two key channels of mail and phone. But since the start of the digital revolution, these channels have been joined by a raft of online messengers including email, text and social networks.

The brilliant news for smaller businesses is that these new digital kids in town have drastically slashed the cost of acquiring and building your email and/or prospect list.

Now with only a few low or no cost tools, you can build a respectable list of prospects who want to receive your messages.

But, as I’m about to demonstrate, the advent of social networks has allowed smaller businesses to reach prospects of unprecedented proportions.

It does this by creating and maintaining the “content funnel” illustrated here.