Putting together a DR buy is fun…but not easy.

You need to understand your client’s business, goals, and objectives. You also need to know what the product is about, what its price is, who the customer is and what their buying habits are. Are you going to run a national campaign? Or do you want to be in specific markets? Can you sell this product on radio?

There are many variables in this game. Are you placing the buy on the right station? Is the format right? Are you reaching your target audience by purchasing that station? Are you buying the right dayparts? Are you happy with the creative? Is the message clear? Are you getting the best rates ever? Too many questions, right?

Well not yet…what are you going to test first? The market? The creative? Or the format? You can’t test them all at the same time.

You start playing the game after you come up with a game plan. The fun starts after placing the buy, you can’t just place it and be done with it. You have to follow up with the results.

It is always an ongoing buy.

It doesn’t matter if the buy is driven to a call center or to web as long as you get the results. You are lucky if you are getting the daily results. You can give a call to a station in your buy in the middle of the week and let them know that they have received two calls since Monday, and if they want to be on this buy for more than two weeks, for example, they need to do something in order to deliver better results. 99% of the time, you get the help and end up with much better results.

It is not end of the world if you are not getting the daily results for the campaign. You can always take a look at the overall results after the campaign is over and negotiate lower rates for the next round if the results are not good or you can ask for bonus weight.

The key is that you want to work with stations/reps that “get” DR and understand that we are not just placing a three-week buy and want to buy certain GRPs. You want to work with reps that understand that your buys could be 52-week buys if they work with you on getting results.

And remember radio is a frequency medium…you have to be patient until you see some good results.

Askin Emir is Vice President of Media at The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the RSS link above. Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com