Overview
When Carl Bliss, Interactive Media Manager at Northwestern Media, couldn’t find the technology to strategically connect with listeners of his organization’s radio stations, he decided to build it himself.
Fortunately, he didn’t get too far into the process before finding Journity.
Organization:
Northwestern Media, St. Paul, MN
Situation:
Northwestern Media owns 15 radio stations in six states reaching almost one million listeners each week. The challenge was building enduring connections with listeners of each station.
Solution:
Use Journity to reach the right listeners at the right time with the right message.
Results:
∙ Converted new listeners to fans
∙ Increased donor support to one station
∙ Delivered timely, customized messages
There’s More to the Story
When Carl Bliss, Interactive Media Manager at Northwestern Media, couldn’t find the technology to strategically connect with listeners of his organization’s radio stations, he decided to build it himself.
Fortunately, he didn’t get too far into the process before finding Journity. The personalization platform helps nonprofits connect one-on-one with their digital audiences.
“We knew we were collecting a lot of information about our website visitors, but we were leaving much of that on the table. I saw Journity as a platform that we could use to act on that data and get the most appropriate call to action in front of each site visitor.”
Bliss manages digital properties for the Christian radio network which owns 15 stations around the Midwest. To boost awareness and engagement for the stations, he needed to make stronger connections with listeners.
Now he’s doing just that using Journity.
“I look at Journity as a platform that gives us different ways to create customized calls to action,” he says. In just one year he’s launched 32 campaigns on the platform to successfully support Northwestern Media radio stations.
In one campaign, Bliss used Journity to reach prospective listeners in Madison, Wisconsin who were looking for traditional Christmas music on the radio. First, he created a Google adwords campaign targeting people in Madison who were searching online for streaming Christmas music. The ads pointed prospects to Northwestern’s local station LIFE 102.5 which was playing Christmas music around the clock. Journity handled the next step.
When people clicked on the Google ad and landed on the LIFE 102.5 site, Journity delivered a customized message with a “listen now” button so visitors could hear the station immediately. That instant gratification helped build the station’s audience. “Journity was great at putting that connection together on our website,” comments Bliss. “And it didn’t take a lot of finagling to get it done.”
Bliss reports a big spike in visitors to the site in December. The success didn’t stop there.
“The real win for us was in January, February, and March when the listeners stayed with us. That awareness in December translated into long-term growth.”
In a different campaign for 98.5 KTIS, the network’s biggest station, Bliss used Journity to build the station’s donor base. Visitors to the website must log in before streaming the station. Using information from Journity, Bliss compared those logins with the station’s donor database and generated a list of frequent listeners who weren’t on the donor roll. Then Bliss used tools in Journity to design and launch customized calls to action asking non-donors who were frequent online 98.5 KTIS listeners to help support the radio station.
Bliss has also used Journity to support on-air fundraising for 98.5 KTIS. To generate contributions, radio hosts directed listeners to the website. When they arrived on the homepage, visitors saw message linking to the donation page. The campaign produced more clicks and contributions because it made it faster and easier for visitors to donate.
“The ability to personalize messages with Journity changes the way we’re looking at our sites,” says Bliss. “With Journity we’re able to make connections at just the right moment.”