Online Auction
Check out: http://theradioauctionshow.com to see the Radio Auction Online. You can listen to our show online at wrnn.net on Saturdays from 8am-until 8:30am on Saturdays.
The 30 minute show starts out by explaining how the auction works. Then, we hi-lite items with various taped interviews from our dj's and/or descriptions of the merchandise. Bidding begins online at 8am on Saturday and ends on 8am on Thursday. CLICK HERE to listen to the first edition of The Radio Auction Show.
We've promoted the auction on all of our stations, as well as used eblasts, banner ads, hover ads, and peel back ads online.
Neofill will give you a setup form, that just takes a minute to fill out. You may then email or fax it back. Within a week or so, they'll have a site set up for your use.
After you decide on your name, you need to start promoting it HEAVILY...on all stations. Make banner ads (and spots!) to solicit items. This part is VERY important, because the more traffic you have on your site will lend to higher revenue.
Next, you'll need to start collecting items. You need 1 person as a go-to at your station. This person should receive a copy of your "merchant set up forms" and work with the business manager to make sure the trade has been approved. DO NOT put anything up without trade approval first!
Your go-to should use an excel, or something similar to keep a running total of all of your items. I keep one that includes the retail value of the item, the minimum bid of the item, and the final sell price of the item. At any time, I can forward this to my business manager so she can reconcile her trade forms.
Your go-to person can either send the information to Neofill for them to input, or can be trained to do it themself. I do it here, because it allows me to put an item online up until Friday. If you have Neofill place the items online, you must submit it a week in advance of your auction. If you require Neofill to make a certificate for the item, you also have to give them enough time to make it, you approve it, and mail it to the station. I find it's much easier to make the certificates in-house and upload the items myself. We've also purchased an embosser (similiar to a notary embosser) to emboss our certificates so that they may not be copied.
We require all winners to pick up a gift certifcate for the item at the radio station. When they pick up, they must present a photo id (that we photocopy), and sign a "winning bidder form" so that we have a record that it has been picked up. This is nice for 2 reasons, we have record of the item being picked up, plus our winning bidders have to go into our client's showroom to pick up the item (up sale!!!).
Once the items have been paid for (you can see this in the backend), I input all of the orders...this is nice because I don't have to follow up with the reps...and they don't have to worry with the extra work. We've created a new "agency" listed as Neofill Agency and set them up to take off 8%. This is nice because I don't have to worry if my math is correct. I just give the orders to traffic, and they use the "Neofill Agency" and automatically deduct Neofill's portion. All orders are "Interactive" revenue type.
We do not use reserve amounts, because Neofill does not believe this is a good idea. A reserve is basically a secret amount that the bid has to get to before it will sell. We do, however, set mimimum bids. After playing with pricing, we've now established a structure to use for our minimum bids:
30% of retail for very large ticket items
25% of retail for everything else
If item does not sell, we reduce the minimum to 20% of retail on week 2
If item does not sell after 2 weeks, we'll reduce to 15% of retail
The 30 minute show starts out by explaining how the auction works. Then, we hi-lite items with various taped interviews from our dj's and/or descriptions of the merchandise. Bidding begins online at 8am on Saturday and ends on 8am on Thursday. CLICK HERE to listen to the first edition of The Radio Auction Show.
We've promoted the auction on all of our stations, as well as used eblasts, banner ads, hover ads, and peel back ads online.
Neofill will give you a setup form, that just takes a minute to fill out. You may then email or fax it back. Within a week or so, they'll have a site set up for your use.
After you decide on your name, you need to start promoting it HEAVILY...on all stations. Make banner ads (and spots!) to solicit items. This part is VERY important, because the more traffic you have on your site will lend to higher revenue.
Next, you'll need to start collecting items. You need 1 person as a go-to at your station. This person should receive a copy of your "merchant set up forms" and work with the business manager to make sure the trade has been approved. DO NOT put anything up without trade approval first!
Your go-to should use an excel, or something similar to keep a running total of all of your items. I keep one that includes the retail value of the item, the minimum bid of the item, and the final sell price of the item. At any time, I can forward this to my business manager so she can reconcile her trade forms.
Your go-to person can either send the information to Neofill for them to input, or can be trained to do it themself. I do it here, because it allows me to put an item online up until Friday. If you have Neofill place the items online, you must submit it a week in advance of your auction. If you require Neofill to make a certificate for the item, you also have to give them enough time to make it, you approve it, and mail it to the station. I find it's much easier to make the certificates in-house and upload the items myself. We've also purchased an embosser (similiar to a notary embosser) to emboss our certificates so that they may not be copied.
We require all winners to pick up a gift certifcate for the item at the radio station. When they pick up, they must present a photo id (that we photocopy), and sign a "winning bidder form" so that we have a record that it has been picked up. This is nice for 2 reasons, we have record of the item being picked up, plus our winning bidders have to go into our client's showroom to pick up the item (up sale!!!).
Once the items have been paid for (you can see this in the backend), I input all of the orders...this is nice because I don't have to follow up with the reps...and they don't have to worry with the extra work. We've created a new "agency" listed as Neofill Agency and set them up to take off 8%. This is nice because I don't have to worry if my math is correct. I just give the orders to traffic, and they use the "Neofill Agency" and automatically deduct Neofill's portion. All orders are "Interactive" revenue type.
We do not use reserve amounts, because Neofill does not believe this is a good idea. A reserve is basically a secret amount that the bid has to get to before it will sell. We do, however, set mimimum bids. After playing with pricing, we've now established a structure to use for our minimum bids:
30% of retail for very large ticket items
25% of retail for everything else
If item does not sell, we reduce the minimum to 20% of retail on week 2
If item does not sell after 2 weeks, we'll reduce to 15% of retail
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