On-Air Publicity: How to Promote Your Business on Radio

As one half of the Wayne and Jayne Morning Show on All Hit KBS Radio in B.C.'s Kootenays, Wayne Kelly has a voice for radio and with his business, On Air Publicity, he makes sure authors, experts, motivational speakers, life coaches and reality TV stars will too. Whatever your business, product or message, Kelly's six week e-based publicity course and tele-seminar series is designed to help clients answer the question, "How Do I Get On Your Show?"

"People always contact the media expecting something immediately. How great would it be for you to call up your local radio station and say, 'Hey, this is what I do. This is my business and this is how I can help you listeners. If you ever need someone to talk on this topic, feel free to contact me. I'm happy to be a resource for your show," he says.

It's a journalist's dream and after learning the ropes, Kelly promises that all his clients, no matter where they are in the world, will be able to contribute to any media in a meaningful way. After that, it's not uncommon for his clients to reach new heights of international exposure.

"I have a client from Seattle who has been interviewed in South Africa and Ireland. There are people who live in little towns on Vancouver Island and all they have to do is take the ferry and they're on television in downtown Vancouver, or radio stations in Miami and Dallas. Really, wherever you are in the world, you can get media anywhere."

The broadcaster sat down with AOL's WalletPop to discuss what it takes to build a business for radio, how you can maximize media exposure for your own business and the worst mistakes professionals make during a live interview.
How did this idea come to you?

I went to a conference. It was my very first seminar and it was this huge marketing conference with lots of speakers. It was in Los Angeles and I was completely intimidated. All these brilliant people were around me and they'd say, "What do you do?' and I'd answer, "I'm just a radio guy, just here to observe." They would laugh and say, 'Oh, you're on the radio. How do I get on the radio? I want to be on your show." All these speakers were asking me this and I thought, Whoa, to me it's really simple, but for most people, they have no idea what the process is and how they go about doing it. That was the beginning of On Air Publicity.

How did On Air Publicity go from conception to reality?

The first thing I did was write an e-book called The Insider's Guide to Getting Free Media Publicity. It took me eight months to write this e-book, trying to fill in all the information I could possibly come with, then I took the e-book, put it online and I sat back waiting to retire because I heard that once you put something online for sale, you make millions of dollars selling a product --that didn't happen at all. I was doing a motivational interview series and it was actually Bob Proctor [from The Secret] who said, 'You can't just put an e-book online and expect people to buy it. You have to do something else. You need to start tele-classes and tell people what you do.' From there, I did my first tele-class, and I still remember it, I had 12 people on the call and I sold four of them at the end of the phone call.

What are some of the key principles of your coaching?

The main thing is that I come at this from the angle of a radio host and producer. For me, the most important piece of the puzzle is that you deliver content that matters to the radio listener. My angle is always, is this relevant? Are you speaking in a way that entertains my listeners? Are you able to add value to the show or not? That's really the starting point. Once people realize what the value of their book, their product or their service is, and how it relates to solving a problem, then it adds value to a show. That's always my starting place when conveying what makes the techniques taught at On Air Publicity so much different than just getting interviews. You need to be able to deliver the content and that was a big thing that was missing. So many people, would send out a media release, they'd be fantastic and you'd say, as a producer, 'This is going to be a killer interview--let's book this person.' But they were never as good as the media release, they were always a disappointment and many radio stations won't even air those interviews. I always thought that was really tragic because people were paying thousands of dollars to PR companies to get them the attention and yet, they were falling apart when it came to the interview process.

What are the most common mistakes people make on air?

The biggest ones are, they sound like an infomercial, they're trying to sell without giving any information, they're not sharing content freely and they're not really playing in our sandbox like a team player. When you come onto the show, you kind of have to fit what Wayne and Jayne are talking about and fit into our delivery style in a way. People just have no idea how to go about doing that. The gist is they were trying to sell their book or trying to sell their service and that's really not what an interview is about. We want to get the content so that the people who are interested will then go find your book or find out more information about you.

How did you find clients in the first place?

It was a lot of word of mouth, actually. It has all been word of mouth that it has grown from. I would do an interview with somebody and they would suggest somebody else or they would get me in front of authors' groups. One thing I always focus on is delivering great content at all times, so that, to me, was just a word of mouth deal where the website started growing and then people started coming in more and more. You have to market. You have to be out there telling people about what you do and that's a big learning process for so many entrepreneurs. You always expect that the word of mouth is going to continue to grow, but it's such a major responsibility for ourselves, as solo entrepreneurs, to be out doing all of these things -- the facebooking or the other social networking. As well as, just randomly phoning up people, cold-calling them, introducing yourself and telling people what you do.

How are you coping with the business management side of your company?

For me, business has always been a hobby, so to me cash-flow is very important and watching where it goes is very important. My wife is great with money and of course, we have our accountant who takes care of everything as well. So, it's really not that intimidating.

What kind of feedback do you receive after your classes?

One thing everybody says is they can't believe how much I care. They really felt like I cared about them and their message. They also like the amount of time I spend with each person. In fact, I just got an email from one of my clients that says: 'Before I signed up I told you that I was going to need some prodding along and you have more than delivered on keeping me on track.' That was pretty cool.

Are these usually one-time clients?

Yeah, how it works is everybody is kind of a one-time client. They come in, they learn how to do their own PR, they go through the program, so they learn how to connect with media, they know how to watch for opportunities in the media, they know how to write a media release, know where to send the media release and to whom to send it and how to do a great interview. Once they have all those pieces, I do have clients that will come back and simply ask me a quick question like, 'What do you think of this?' or 'Should I send this?' It's the teaching part of the six weeks that's really the meat of the program. As people go through that, I'm teaching them how to fish, if you will.

Do the skills you teach work for all media?

Yeah, it works for every aspect, radio, television, newspapers, podcasts and magazines. It works for everything, as long as you can talk to the media and deliver what they want -- they will book you.

What are your business goals for the future?

My goals are to continue growing, but I also want to have more family time -- that's a very important piece of all this -- and I just think we need to get more authors success in connecting with media and making people aware of their books. The most important part of my job is hearing from clients that say, 'I booked Dr. Laura, I was on Good Morning America, or I was on A-Channel in Toronto. It doesn't matter where it is, when people send me these stories and they're excited -- that to me is success.

As business people, how can your clients make sure they stay ahead of the story?

I think you identify who you are and what your value is to people, when you see the opportunity, that's when you jump. You build up your little list of radio stations that you're going to stay in touch with, so when a story breaks -- whether it's another celebrity cheating, and you're a relationship expert -- you can call in to these radio shows and they already know that you're the expert in that field. So, you're really building your brand and you're building connections all around you. It's all about relationships. I have people that are on my show regularly who are my 'go to' people and I have them in every industry whether it's fitness, comedy, nutrition or parenting. I have a stable of people, which doesn't mean I don't try out new people -- I do that all the time as well -- but you want to have that core group that listeners can get to know and as they get to know them, they begin to trust them. They then sign up for their updates and then buy their products.

Any last advice for our readers?

You know, I can't imagine life without doing something like this. Whatever their expertise is, take a small step to make it happen because once it starts growing, it is so exciting to have a business where you can create your money if you want. I have a dollar taped on the wall here and it just says, 'It starts with this one.' To be able to have people buy something that you created is the most exciting thing in the world, especially when they use it and they get so much more in the way of results. I always encourage people to start and once you're on the journey, you just learn so much more. You always find people that come along that can give you a hand up and to me, that's the greatest thing ever.