Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

First you need to define your target audience more precisely. Think about how you will create awareness without spending a fortune. You really want to "get [y]our name out there" only to the people who are likely to listen and the people who would want to advertise to them. Everyone you reach who is NOT in your target audience just decreases the efficiency of your marketing effort -- and costs you money without much prospect of increasing profitability.

Re-examine your business plan. What's a listener worth to you? Is the revenue going to come from advertising? If so, how many listeners will you need to attract the right advertisers? That will tell you how much you'll be able to invest to build a listener base.

The marketing and promotion plan need to be developed in concert with the business plan, not independently of it.

Creating and implementing a media relations plan that includes traditional (print/broadcast) as well as social media are great ways to get the word launched and perpetuated. Social media, in particular, allows you to communicate with your fan base and generate conversation, which they will will hopefully share with their friends.

Let any businesses that sell music or stereo-type equipment about your station and provide them with handouts to share with frequent customers that may like your genre of music.

Perhaps live broadcast event from in a local park, mall, parking lot,(permission and granted, of course), or other location likely to attract your audience, being sure to invite the local media via press release announcing the info, with handouts (which can be used as flyers/posters to announce in local library, other public announcement bulletin boards and markets, college/universities. Consider a free standing sandwich board/sign on the location and if permitted, around town to let people know the date/time the introduction of your online independent radio station to the community.

Using current listeners is always useful. Radio stations past and present have done this through simple steps like making and distributing bumper stickers (letting their current listeners market for them), events (sponsoring concerts and such), and more recently through social media (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Last.fm, etc.).

I suspect that you are on a tight budget. If there is some room in your budget, working with an independent music magazine could be useful. Could be ads. Or perhaps find some arrangement where one of your DJs writes a column for the magazine (providing the radio station some publicity in the ByLine, and also sowing that the radio station has experts based on the magazine using the DJ as a writer).

Being an online radio station, I am guessing that you are not geographically focused? You aren't the "online station of independent artists" in a specific city? If you are based in and focusing on a geography, it gets a little easier, as you can partner with venues and media (local independent music magazines) to promote your station. If not focusing on a region, you need to work with national magazines and also may have to have events in multiple markets, which increases costs (travel) and time (finding right venues and such).

Since you're already on Facebook, like other pages that address streaming music, get familiar with the discussions on the page's wall, and then in a non-spammy way let the other people know of the availability of your station.

And please drop me a line at the gmail account empoprises - I write a music blog, and although it doesn't have a large readership, I'd like to check out your station.