BEST STARTUP SOLUTION AND GRAND PRIZE WINNER!

Broadcasters & Sportscasters Mentoring Group

Location
Calabasas, California

Business Profile

The Broadcasters & Sportscasters Mentoring Group is a non-traditional broadcasting school that uses a mentor-apprentice model for developing broadcasting skills. Working professional broadcasters train students inside local radio stations throughout the United States and Canada.

BMG’s broadcasting school apprentices come from all walks of life, including college students, careers changers, and companies looking to better promote their services via commercial airwaves or professional podcasting.

Flexible one-on-one training times and radio stations in which to train are chosen by students, which add to the appeal of the hands-on learning. BMG broadcasting apprentices start their broadcasting careers inside the business, with professional broadcasters serving as their personal mentor throughout their training and beyond.

Visit http://www.BroadcastingCareer.com/

Contest Entry

Challenge:
SMG is a unique broadcasting school that uses working broadcasters nationwide to train students inside their radio station. As a recent startup, our biggest challenge was to develop a lead generation system to deliver highly targeted and qualified leads on a shoestring budget.   We couldn't identify any specific place, publication or website our prospects congregate, since many are career changers. Our bigger challenge then became trying to determine the optimal place to intersect our offerings with prospects that were actively searching for our services.  Our sales cycle can be long, which necessitated a lead generation system that would enable us to cultivate relationship, and develop trust with prospects.

Solution:
We developed our 4 E system for lead generation, which is comprised of Email, Ezine, Education and Ecommerce. 

1) Email - We decided email would be the most effective way to communicate with large groups of prospects at varying stages of their decision making process. We created a system to capture email addresses with every personal contact or visit made to our site.  

2) Ezine - Since email also allows us to keep our message in front of prospects on a regular basis, we developed a weekly ezine pertaining ONLY to broadcasting related topics or events. To keep retention high, NO selling allowed. 

3) Education - This is a comprehensive endeavor, which involves: 
a) We write and post FREE educational reports 
b) Post responses on Yahoo answers
c) Post on industry related blogs 
d) Have started our own blog
e) Host free teleseminars & webinars with broadcasting industry guests
f) Exchange articles for newsletters with other ezine owners
g) Send out keyword optimized press releases 

All educational endeavors will link back to our site and funneled through our own email capture forms for follow-up via our ezine. 

4) Ecommerce - We've joined with industry leaders to host paid webinars and teleseminars, and co-authored an ebook. We also repackage our previously free webinars and teleseminars and sell them. Joining with industry leaders positions SMG as experts and trusted advisors. We've discovered the leads we receive from these efforts are closest to purchasing our services and represent the 'lowest hanging fruit'.  To date, our email list has grown to 5,888 leads, with only 221 unsubcribes along the way.

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