Getting a TV Spot
Golden offers our dealers free custom TV spot tagging. That’s right, FREE! If you’re a Golden customer all you have to do is fill out a form at www.GoldenTech.com/TV/ and upload your store logo. We will send you back a download link. It’s really that easy! So, once you get your high-quality TV commercial, what do you do with it?Advertise on Local Broadcast TV
You don’t need your own “Mad Men” advertising team because chances are that you would best know the market that you live in and what TV stations people love to watch. So, call the TV station or local cable network you want to advertise on, and they will put you in touch with a sales rep who can give you all the rates you could imagine. They can work with any budget. They’ll even give you a schedule (called a “traffic” report) of when your commercial is expected to run. When you’re happy with that, all you have to do is give them your TV spot download link, your money (of course!) and you’ve made an ad buy! If you want, Golden can also connect you directly to the station(s) you plan to air on and we will deliver HD quality spots directly to them online. You can advertise on local TV for as little as $30 and up, depending on the size of your “market” (based on population and coverage area). While prime time or “peak hour,” time-slots cost more, the exposure may definitely be worth it. For most DME suppliers, you can’t beat the value of advertising on daytime TV shows such as “The Price is Right.” The local news is also a sure bet for targeting adults aged 50 and over. While you can save some money playing your commercial during off-peak hours, the chances of someone seeing your commercial at night when your business is closed, and then calling you the next day to follow up are pretty unlikely.Cable TV
You can find the best bang for your buck in broadcasting by advertising through your cable provider. You can insert your commercial into any cable program. The same rates go for local TV. Off-peak hours are available for only a few dollars (we’ve seen rates as low as $12 a play), but you absolutely cannot beat the audience of a major college sporting event that is important to your local area. Again, since you know your area best, call the cable company that serves your community and ask to speak with a sales representative. What’s amazing about cable is you can localize down to your immediate local community to maximize your impact.Online Video Advertising
Embrace the power and reach of social media by uploading your TV commercial online. There are two major places you should upload your TV spot online: Facebook and YouTube. Facebook allows you to promote your TV commercial from your business Facebook page. When you update your status just click “upload video.” Once you post, you can then click the blue button on the bottom to “boost post” and put money behind your post as an online advertisement with many customizable controls to reach people that live in your community and haven’t liked your Facebook page (yet!). You can also upload your commercial to YouTube which allows you to embed it on your website for free. Even if it doesn’t ever play on television, you can still gain notoriety by having your custom tagged commercial embedded on your website.In-Store
You can also use your free custom TV spots from Golden as a product loop in your own DME store. It works well to remind customers just why they came in to visit you in the first place, and it can be a useful tool in listing out (on screen) many of the benefits that the Golden products could have. It’s great to be able to remind customers about the features and benefits in a medium that is visually compelling. It’s also very helpful when, for instance, you are talking with another customer and you can’t give every customer immediate attention when they walk into your store. Providing initial product information is a great way to really draw the attention of your customers while they begin to browse.Media Players
Golden offers a turn-key HD media player kit ($59.95 available at www.GoldenTech.com/OrderPlayer/) to make it easy for you to set up one or more TVs in your store as a digital billboard. Dealers who have ordered and started using the Golden Digital Media Player have already seen an impact on sales! Mark Gawel, Owner of Access ONE by MSG in Fort Wayne, Indiana, said, “I’ve watched our customers become so interested while sitting in a Golden Lift Chair!” Mark adds, “Actually, they are so well educated and aware of the product by the time a salesperson tends to our customer, a sale has already been generated!” Some dealers have quickly learned you may need more than just one! Some are placing one by Golden scooters and another by Golden lift chairs. They are easy to update anytime with a flash drive whenever Golden releases a new product video, which is automatically sent to dealers who have registered their players.Touchscreen Desktop / iPad Video Players
Another great resource is having a desktop computer with an interactive touch screen or mobile device, like an iPad, which is ready to show your customers the same product videos that we have listed on YouTube for you to watch at any time. You can have your sales team bring them to a customer to show them more information on the product they’re interested in, even if you don’t carry it in store. So don’t think a “TV Spot” is just for TV anymore!
Tim is the director of digital media at Golden Technologies, Inc.