WHY RADIO ADVERTISING?

Why Radio Advertising?

Why radio advertising could be the thing you ever did for your business.

In the marketing world, radio has earned the reputation of being the odd step-cousin. We know the one; no one knows quite what to do with him. Especially at family gathering when everyone tries hard to avoid sitting with him.

Much of that reputation comes from radio being tough to track. On one hand, radio does work. Businesses do notice an increase in sales when they add radio to the mix. However, radio doesn’t test well. In surveys and other tracking methods, radio tends to be the one with the dismal scores.

A good friend of mine, who’s also a marketing consultant but before that he sold radio for many years has a theory about that. He says radio works on a subconscious or unconscious level. People remember the ad, but not that they heard it on the radio. So they tend to credit a different medium for the ad, like the yellow pages. Yellow pages get a boost while radio drops a few points.

Regardless, radio should not be ignored because it does work. And many marketing consultants will probably tell you radio is an excellent medium to reach a local market.

However, I feel there are possibilities beyond merely reaching local customers.

Below are some other positive reasons to use radio. They are as follows;

Affordable:

When you compare spot to spot, radio tends to be one of the least expensive media out there. However, one spot is not going to do it. To reach your target market, you need to purchase several spots. That’s why radio can also turn into one of the more expensive media. However, there are ways to keep your costs in line yet still reap the benefits of radio for instance, buying less spots but running them all in one or more weeks, so your customers are more likely to hear your message.

Psychological:

If you voice the commercials yourself – hearing your voice makes people feel like they know you. People tend to buy from people and businesses they know and trust. Hearing your voice helps them feel as if they know you. These psychological aspects may be another reason to consider running a few radio ads in your local market even if you have an internet business.

Speed:

You can your spot up and running in no time.

Loyalty:

Listeners choose stations based on the music or shows they like and they tend to be quite loyal to that satiation. If you know what your customers enjoy listening to, it’s an excellent way to reach them.

Background medium:

Radio tends to be on in the background, which means it tends to be ignored. Generally, your target market needs to be exposed to your ad more times than other marketing media before they will act upon your message.

Creative exercise:

How can you use radio in your business? Would radio work for your business? Let’s find out.

Take out a sheet of paper and a fun pen. (I ‘m partial to gel pens.) Draw a line down the center.

On one side, put the header: why advertising on radio is a good idea for my business. On the other side, put the header: why advertising is a bad idea for my business.

You might be more comfortable starting with the side that’s easiest for you. Then when you work on the other side, you can simply turn the reasons around.

For instance, let’s say you started with the bad idea. One of your reasons was: my product is completely visual. You could turn it around by saying “because my product is so visual, I‘ll have to work harder to create pictures in my customers minds. And because the customers create their own pictures, they are more likely to remember them”.

Service drives accountability:

Today, service means being accountable for delivering the information required to measure the effectiveness of your solution. Doing the fundamentals right is often the difference between five and six figure incomes for most radio sales people.

Through our work outside of radio consulting we are regularly involved in a number of radio buys. We buy radio for number reasons, not the least of which is to sample the techniques used by the major radio companies. We see proposals from the top three public companies in 10 of the top 20 markets. Trust me; parity is not just in the ratings.

We are still stymied by the lack of interest on the part of sales people in accounting for the effect of the advertising they sold. Follow-up is relatively non-existent. Further, a proposal, is only minutes away – there is virtually no interest in how the station might support the efforts of the client, or really any kind of needs assessment. We call it “premature elaboration”, and it’s about as useful as the source of its pun.

A retail mindset plagues radio. Sales people sound similar to baristas: “Do you want whipped cream on that double –short R.O.S.? supporting clients through the entire sales cycle-not just until they “sign on the line which is doted”.

Accountability through the sales process:

Advertising ROI responsibility is a hot potato that gets passed around from client to buyer to media and back to client. Grabbing your piece of that responsibility is a key to significant gains in revenue and you don’t have to be an accountant to understand it.

Here is how:

Before the sale:

·                     Decide whom are you pricing for. Moreover, what is the most profitable business for your station? Our experience is that new business gets the deal. Does that make sense? It might if you are trying to measure customer results. After all, comparing someone’s sales before they did radio. After using radio, provides strong evidence that can support a return on investment argument. But typically the best business comes from customers that know just what they want, right? Why isn’t radio priced for them? Pricing should be about more than when the spot runs.

·                     Understand the business goals of the client. Take time to listen and understand the client’s business fundamentals.

·                     Set the clients expectation around what their program should accomplish.

·                     Urge the client to buy a solution or program, but don’t blow credibility by valuating promo units or web space beyond their true worth. You never know who is reviewing that proposal that proposal of yours.

During the sale:

·                     Make it easy for the client to know when their spot will run and when it actually did run.

·                     Simplify the process required to change spots so spot sound more urgent as client – critical events get closer. Anticipate change by setting expectation around how changes can happen rather why they can’t.

·                     Take responsibility for distributing critical assets (copy, music, demos) effectively. If you respect internal deadlines clients will too.

After the sale:

·                     Make all the data around a given campaign available. Provide simple, accurate reporting.

·                     Confirm the units ran as they were supposed to.

·                     Review the client’s performance with them. Did you set expectation reasonably?

·                     Ask the client what kind of results they saw.

Document the client experience in a simple manner.