Month: February 2020

5 Funniest On-Hold Messaging Service Scripts

You know the headache of being on hold with a company for several minutes. The annoying sound of elevator music plays in your ear at an insanely loud volume. Then, you’re stuck. You’re stuck listening to whatever automated script the company chooses to play on their on-hold messaging service. You roll your eyes and suck it up as you have no other option.

However, as a business owner, you have the option to use a script on your own on-hold messaging service that’ll keep your customers intrigued and make them forget they’re even on hold. Being on hold doesn’t have to be a painful experience. It can be fun when done the right way.

Don’t subject your customers to boring elevator music. Continue reading below for the top funniest on-hold messages that prove you can have fun with it!

Importance of Humor in an On-Hold Messaging Service Script

You know the pains involved with being kept on hold. As a business owner, you don’t want to put your own customers through this same pain. Instead, you want to create an on-hold message that’s humorous, fun, entertaining, informational, or just silly.

The best on-hold wait time is one that goes unnoticed because the customer is having so much fun with the message that’s playing. The type of message that you decide to play on your own messaging service is up to you, but here are a few examples to get the inspiration flowing.

1. Lakeland Auto and Marine

“Thanks for choosing Lakeland Auto and Marine. You’ll find us in Port Clinton, Ohio about 4,000 miles west of France and left or right of Lake Erie depending on which way you’re coming from. We’re also directly in line with the sun, so if you’re gonna stop by you might want to bring a hat.”

This on-hold message from Lakeland Auto and Marine is all about being silly. Their location is in their name, so it’s easy for them to have a bit of fun with where they’re located.

While customers are on hold, they’ll be laughing about the silly directions given to them and might even appreciate the suggestion to bring a hat as the sun can get quite brutal as it shines down on an auto lot.

2. Town and Country Hotel

“Thanks for choosing Town and Country the San Diego hotel with free sheets and revolutionary in-room toilets. Friendly dogs are always welcomed at Town and Country. We’ve even set aside a special area for them where they can do doggy things like running, city planning, and solving advanced puzzles that require critical thinking. Book your pet-friendly room when we return.”

This hotel had a lot of fun creating their on-hold message. It’s clear from the message that they’re a dog-friendly hotel and have special areas for dogs to run around in. Yet, instead of saying that, they decided to have some fun with it instead.

You also have to love that hint of sarcasm when explaining that they have free sheets and in-room toilets!

3. Binkelman

“Lots of people fantasize about making love to Continentals Maximizer Prodrive selection analysis software, and we understand why. It helps design a fish and power transmission belt drives for your drive system. You just answer your drive specifications, and Maximizer Pro shows you belt options that will deliver the maximum energy savings for your application. That’s pretty hot, I know, but while Maximizer Pro is all out freaky sexy, it’s also cold and emotionally unavailable, so please don’t fall in love.”

Here’s a company that’s product is software. An otherwise boring topic of discussion, software in this on-hold message is seen in a whole other light. This company uses its message to convince its customers that the software product is desirable.

The message also tells a little bit about the software as well, which works out well for an informational message. The message ends with a silly statement that almost makes the customer feel attached to the product!

4. Walter’s Goodyear

“”Are you afraid of robots? Well, who isn’t? They’re creepy and their internal oils could leak on your couch and your pants, but it’s time to get over our fears so Walter’s Goodyear has hired a robot to answer our phones. Say hello to Vince. “Nice to meet you.” Vince why don’t you tell our friend about our 1795 oil change. “It is an oil change that cost 17 dollars and 95 cents.””

This company uses a fun message with a human voice speaking with a robot that the company hired to tell customers all about their services. The human voice on the recording is funny and uplifting and the robot’s voice sounds more artificial. The robot goes into details about the services offered and this makes it informational, but fun!

5. Rumpf

“Is stress getting the better of you? Then take trombone lessons and eat more horse meat. Romantic trombone music has been clinically proven to reduce the effects of the hormone cortisol and, of course, the unique molecular structure of horse meat stimulates the deeply suppressed urge in humans to gallop, and it’s hard to be stressed when you’re galloping. Take it from us, we’re galloping to the phone right now to take your call and we couldn’t be more relaxed.”

This company decided to address the topic of stress to its customers on hold. How ironic is that? Yet, this makes the message quite interesting.

The message also ends with a funny statement that they’re galloping over to the phones right now to answer the customer’s call! Customers can have a good laugh while waiting for someone to gallop on over.

What’s Your On-Hold Messaging Service Script?

Do you have an on-hold messaging service script? What does yours sound like? Is it fun and uplifting, or is it boring elevator music?

Bring your customers some light-hearted fun while on hold with your business. Click here to receive a quote on on-hold messages and phone greetings!

How to Develop an Audio Marketing Strategy in 2020

With so many different mediums out there, it is hard to identify and plan the right marketing strategy for your business. What you have to remember about marketing strategies is that the ultimate goal is to connect with your target audience.

While audio marketing was briefly eclipsed by visual media, the number of individuals engaging with audio media like podcasts and the radio is actually on the rise!

Many businesses have been out of the audio marketing game for a while now, which is why we are going to show you how to develop a successful audio marketing strategy in 2020!

Why You Should Choose Audio Marketing

Audio Marketing is a great tool to connect to your target audience! In recent years, it is shown that audio content has the highest retention rate.

The nature of audio allows listeners to engage at any time, unlike visual or written content. Millions of people are now listening to the radio on their way to work, streaming music or books in the background at work, or listening to a podcast while they work out at the gym.

Due to the fact that most audio content can be enjoyed while a person is doing another specific activity, many listeners tune in to their favorite audio media for a dedicated amount of time.

Think about it, you can’t read a book on your drive to work, but you can listen to one. You can’t dedicate time to watch an hour-long TV episode if you are on a run outdoors, but you can definitely tune into a podcast!

People in all age ranges, genders, socioeconomic status and backgrounds are listening to audio media! This is a market that still is under-saturated and any business can weave their audio marketing content seamlessly into it. Now is your chance to try it out!

Identify Your Target Audience

The most important aspect of any marketing strategy is to identify your target audience. Many businesses make the mistake of not being specific enough in regards to this!

A business that sells active wear might say, “We want to target women that go to the gym.” This leaves out a ton of factors like location, age, and socioeconomic status. All of these factors play a huge role in how you can effectively advertise to your specific audience!

Your target audience is going to affect the type of audio content you put out, and where you are hosting your audio content!

If you are advertising a product towards the elderly, it may not make sense to host your audio content on Spotify or YouTube, because the likelihood of it reaching your audience is slim. In contrast, if you want to market a product to teenagers, you might not want to use the radio to market to them because individuals that don’t drive usually do not listen to the radio.

Take time to identify your target audience and then do background research on where your target audience is consuming their audio content!

Different Types of Audio Content

Once you select your target audience, you will be able to choose the type of audio marketing you want to create and where you want to host your content!

There are a few different types of audio marketing you can try out:

Podcasts
Audio Commercials
Audio books
Voice Search

Most people are familiar with audio commercials already, however, this type of marketing strategy can cost a lot of money if you want your commercial to air on a big radio station during the prime listening time!

However, you can try creating a podcast about the product or service you are trying to market by creating your own material and hosting your content for free!

Whatever type of medium you choose, there are several things to keep in mind to make sure your target audience is hooked to the content your producing and driven to check out more information about your business.

1) Build the Sound of Your Brand

We can still recall radio jingles or funny commercials years later! Companies that are successful at marketing take time to build the sound of their brand so that when their content is consumed, the listener knows exactly who that content belongs to!

Take time to choose the voice behind your audio marketing plan and create a hook that draws your listener in every time.

2) Provide a Service or Offer Help

The second thing to keep in mind when creating your audio marketing strategy is that your audio content needs to address a need! If your commercial is just explaining a product without explaining how it can help improve the lives of your listeners, you can guarantee that no one is actually listening.

The purpose of the product or service you are trying to promote needs to be crystal clear. Following up on this, the listener needs to know where they can go to learn more about the product or service if they want!

3) Captivate Your Audience

The last thing you need to remember is to dazzle your audience through your audio marketing strategy! There are millions upon millions of pieces of content that an individual can choose to listen to.

What makes your content different? Is it hilarious to listen to? Is it the most informative? Is it shocking? Does it build upon itself?

Choose an angle and stick to it! The growing number of podcast and podcast listeners show us that people are truly interested in all sorts of things! Make what you have to say engaging and you will surely be able to connect to your target audience.

Don’t Wait, Start Your Audio Marketing Strategy Today!

Now you can see that audio marketing is more relevant than ever before in our society. While some strategies like radio commercials do still cost a pretty penny, there are lots of other affordable avenues to try to make sure your company’s voice is heard!

Narrowing down your target audience and choosing a platform to market your business are the first steps to success. To really drive this strategy home, remember to create a sound brand, share your purpose, and enthrall your audience!

Have more questions on the best audio marketing strategy for 2020 and how to get started? Feel free to contact us! We’re here to help you succeed.

7 Simple Ways to Make Killer Radio Commercials

The startling fact is that 92% of Americans still listen to AM/FM radio, despite the plethora of digital platforms available. That’s higher than TV viewership (87%), or the use of PCs (54%), smartphones (81%), and tablets (46%). Most people use the radio to listen to the latest music, popular talk shows, or their favorite sports broadcast. From a marketing perspective, radio is still an effective way to reach your target audience. We’ve compiled a list of nine simple ways to make the most of those radio commercials, lasting a mere 10, 15, 30, or 60 seconds. Check it out!

1. Create Attention-Grabbing Radio Commercials

With a 60-second commercial, you’ve got 15 seconds at most to grab the attention of your audience. Your ad needs to answer the following listener questions quickly:

What’s in it for me?
How will this product/service make my life or the life of someone I know easier, happier, or better?

Remember that most people are not interested in the detail of innovative products. They simply want to know if it is better in some way than what came before. Once they get that message, you’re half-way to winning them over as a buyer, because they will listen more attentively to the rest of the ad.

2. Good Sound Quality

Unlike television or online ads, radio has no visuals. This means that it’s critical to get the sound production right. Poor sound quality, annoying voices, and other glitches will not endear the audience to your product or service! While the wording of your advert is important, how it is heard is paramount.

The best adverts are those with a clever script that sounds good too. Employing professional sound technicians, and voice-over professionals, is well worth the investment. It could be the difference between an ad campaign bombing out or being a run-away success.

3. Invest In a Good Jingle

Jingles are one area where opinion is divided. That’s because we have all heard bad, corny jingles.

The hallmark of a good, catchy jingle is that it can easily be sung by a wide range of people. Besides that, the lyrics of the jingle need to be clearly enunciated and include the name of your brand or product. Jingles can also include useful information, such as a telephone number or web address.

It is a well-known fact that people find it easier to remember songs than plain old prose. If you want your product ad to feature a brand jingle that millions of people will remember for decades, then invest in a good jingle.

Just as with the rest of your advertising copy, your jingle should include a call to action. Both the jingle and your copy provide ample opportunity for creativity. Use it!

4. Get The Right Time Slots

Most radio stations have a scale of fees depending on the time slots you choose for the airing of your radio commercials. Don’t fall for the trap of selecting the cheapest time slots. They are the cheapest because very few people are listening during those hours.

You need to tailor your time slot to your target audience. For example, if you manufacture breakfast cereals for children, the best time to air the radio commercial is at breakfast time, when kids will be listening. They will nag their parents to purchase the cereal in question they next time they are at the supermarket!

Similarly, advertising sportswear is best done in the commercial breaks during a sports broadcast. Advertising sportswear at breakfast time, or breakfast cereals during the live broadcast of an evening basketball match just doesn’t make sense.

As well as tailoring your time slot to the most appropriate target audience, you also need to tailor your budget to produce a full-length ad campaign.

5. Get Your Ad Frequency Right

You need to build recognition of your brand or product. It is said that someone has to hear an ad three times before they recognize it. Most advertising agencies will recommend that your ad is aired 21 times per week for 52 weeks in succession so that you gain optimum frequency and recognition.

Too many ads in one time period and your listeners will get sick of hearing your ad and zone out. Too infrequent an airing and no one will even remember you advertised in the first place.

Rely on your public relations and marketing consultants to interpret your marketing data for you, and recommend the best way forward on the frequency of your radio commercials.

6. Keep Them Nibbling At Those Sound Bites

Everything is a process. Once your listening audience gets used to hearing (and liking) your radio advertisements, you need to start an ancillary or follow-up campaign.

Big-brand advertising is very careful about phasing out the old ad and introducing the new one. You don’t want to upset the listeners too much by suddenly depriving them of their favorite ad!

7. Get the Right Radio Station

Consider the location of your business and the reach of your product based on reliable target audience data. For instance, there is no point in creating a radio advertisement that’s played exclusively on East Coast radio stations when your business and most of your customers are on the West Coast. There are three things you can do to find what you need.

Search for US radio stations by State. Alternatively, check out surveys to find out which are the most popular radio stations.

The third option, and perhaps most viable if you want to link your radio commercials to your other online platforms, is to choose to sponsor a local online radio station.

Online radio broadcasting has the advantage of being both national and global in its reach and can be a particularly good choice for those of you who have niche products or services.

Engage Marketing Consultants

A PR company like Killer Spots Agency knows what they are doing. We have made it our business to develop in-depth knowledge of all aspects of audio production.

As an award-winning marketing company, we invite you to listen to the countless samples of radio commercials that we have produced Contact us via live chat or get a quick quote via virtually any page on our website. We can certainly point you in the right direction, and soon have you coming out sounding like a symphony!

5 Tips for Writing a Jingle That Will Get Stuck in People’s Heads

Are you struggling to keep your company top of mind for customers? Wish there was a way to better communicate your brand and its unique offerings, and captivate audiences everywhere? Then you may want to write a jingle!

Not sure what a jingle is, or how you should approach writing one? Intimidated by the idea of embarking on such a creative venture? We’re here to help!

In this article, we’re sharing the ins-and-outs of creating a killer jingle. So, you can write a catchy tune that sticks with customers long after they’ve listened.

What Is a Jingle?

When you hear of a certain brand, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Perhaps it’s the song in the commercial, the catchy one that speaks to what the brand is and what they do. Like carpet cleaning company Stanley Steemer commercial tune: “Call 1—800 STANLEY-STEEMER, Stanley Steemer keeps your home cleaner!”

That song is a jingle, which is a radio or TV advertisement set to a memorable melody or tune. A jingle is usually explicitly written about a brand and its products or services. And its sole purpose is to tell customers about a brand in a way they’ll remember.

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to what to include in a jingle. The jingle lyrics can include a slogan, a phone number, a business name, or even a description of the services they offer. Anything is fair game.

What Are the Benefits of Having a Jingle?

Now that you know what a jingle is, you’re probably wondering why you’d invest in creating one. Here are some of the major benefits of using a jingle for your advertising efforts.

They’re Easy to Remember

With so many companies and services out there today, it can be hard to stay top of mind for customers. But with a good jingle, you can stick in their head all day and have people consciously (and subconsciously) speak about your business.

Jingles can help you communicate your brand and value in a fun, memorable way. With one, you can be the first company customers think of when they’re in need of a particular product or service.

They Build Up Your Brand

A great jingle does more than make your brand memorable—it makes it fun and accessible. Jingles make brands approachable and can help communicate your brand voice and tone in a more effective way than print advertising. A lighthearted jingle can make customers feel good, and in turn, may make them want to engage with you and your brand.

They’re Cost-Effective

Advertising can be expensive—especially if your products or services are ever-expanding or changing. Jingles can help you establish a brand baseline that you can build upon for all your advertising efforts. So, when changes are necessary, you can simply tweak a line or two to reflect your new offering without losing what makes your jingle special.

Tips on Writing a Jingle

Jingles can be incredibly effective —when done right. Unfortunately, it’s easy to write a jingle that turns off customers or makes them think poorly of your brand. Fortunately, if you follow these tips you can ensure your jingle is fun, memorable, and making a positive impact on your business.

1. Know Your Product

To write a great jingle, you need to know what your product is, and what makes it unique. Before you start to write, jot down a list of everything you think a customer needs to know about your products. Be sure to lead with all of its unique or special attributes as these are the things that will resonate most with customers.

2. Know Your Competitors

Another thing you’ll want to do before writing is to study your competitors. Do any of them have jingles? How do they differentiate themselves from others or position their unique selling points?

It’s important to know these things if you want to create a jingle that’s distinctly yours. The last thing you want is an advertisement that brings your competitors to mind. So, do your homework in advance and create a jingle that can stand above your competitors.

3. Make It Simple

The best jingles are simple and easy to remember. They use repetition and rhyme and keep the language simple. Remember that recall is the most important part of a jingle—so focus on simplicity first and foremost and avoid using flowery words or jargon.

Figures of speech can be a fun and effective way to make your jargon simple and snappy. Try to incorporate puns, hyperbole, and even similes to make your song unique and effective.

Keep in mind: your jingle should be simple enough that anyone can recite and understand what it’s communicating. Be sure to choose your words wisely and err on the side of simplicity. And make sure it ties into your overarching brand story.

4. Listen to Famous Jingles

It sounds simple, but you can’t write a great jingle without knowing what one sounds like. Take some time to scour the Internet and listen to as many as jingles you can. Think about which ones work and which ones don’t, and why that may be the case.

Analyze some of the most famous jingles—ones like Fanta and Kit Kat. What makes them a success? What do they say about the brand, and how does the jingle effectively communicate their brand offering? By knowing what works about these jingles, you can better write your own.

5. Choose the Right Music

When it comes to a jingle, the music is just as important as the lyrics. The music and tempo have to be appropriate so the jingle can easily be sung by the voiceover artist (and whoever is listening along). And it should be in whatever music genre that would gel most with your target audience.

Additionally, if you plan to use an existing tune, be sure to make sure you’re legally able to do so. No one wants a nasty legal battle because of a jingle.

Ready to Write a Jingle?

Writing a jingle can seem intimidating, especially if you’ve never written one before. But it’s not impossible if you work at it! By following the tips in this article, you can write a memorable jingle that customers will remember for years to come.

Looking for more help? Check out our jingle production services!