As a former top producing radio advertising sales Account Executive for radio stations in markets of all sizes I saw great radio advertising campaigns and I saw lousy ones.
In the advertising campaigns that worked there were some common elements that ran through virtually ALL of them I’ve done some analysis and I’ve determined that there are five of these common elements that you need to be concerned with if you want your radio advertising to be as effective as possible. In ALL of the radio advertising campaigns that worked there were 5 elements present and here they are…
To have effective radio advertising …
1. You must choose the right market
All too often we choose a station or stations to run our ads that are really out of our trading zone. Since most people primarily shop for goods and services within a five to ten mile area of their home make sure that you advertise on a station that will reach the people you want to reach geographically. The station you are advertising on might be a strong station where your business is located and yet not be effective at reaching your target market. Make sure it’s strength is in the area where you want to draw your customers from
2. You must choose the “Right” Station
You wouldn’t want to run an auto parts ad on a station that primarily targets women. And you wouldn’t run an ad for car stereos on a station that targeted older adults. But, the facts are that millions of dollars are spent every week on advertising that doesn’t target the right market because the wrong station is chosen. Don’t chose to run ads on a radio station for your business just because you like the station. It has to make sense for your business.
3. You must run the “Right” frequency of commercials
It’s amazing the numbers of business owners that use radio advertising for the purpose of “getting their name out.” This is a bad mistake. The only reason you should ever spend your hard- earned money to advertise what you sell in any media is to sell more of your products or services than if you didn’t advertise them. That’s it--No other reason. So if you want your radio advertising to be effective, you want to run enough commercials so that your target customer or client hears your message a minimum of three times and preferably a minimum of seven times.
4. You must have the “right” message that sells what you offer.
It’s not important to be creative or cute with your advertising. The only criteria from which your advertising should be judged should be whether your cash register is ringing or not. If your message doesn’t make your cash register ring (a lot) it isn’t working.
5. You must have the “right” timing in order to sell what you are offering
If you were advertising on a music intensive during the first day of the gulf war, you should have pulled your advertising from every radio station. The reason—everyone was tuned to CNN.
A radio station I once worked for had a standing agreement with a store that sold air conditioners. The agreement said that any night where the temperature was 70 degrees or more overnight, that the station was authorized to run air conditioner promotional spots two times per hour beginning at 6 AM and continuing until the temperature dropped below 70 degrees. Now that’s great timing. That’s also great marketing.
Copyright 2001 Susie and Otto Collins