I don’t want to sound overly simplistic, but that’s all there is to it.
If you want to be successful marketing your small business on the radio, all you need to do is find out what’s working and do that!
Conversely By Otto Collins
What’s the secret to powerful, results oriented advertising on radio?
It’s like anything else in life—just figure out where the gold is…And start digging
, the other way you can learn something is, figure out what the unsuccessful people are doing and don’t do those things.
I sold radio advertising in small, medium and large markets for 14 years.
And I saw it all.
In this article I want to share with you what I believe are the biggest and most common mistakes small business owners make in trying to market their small business on the radio.
Then after I share these things—ask yourself if you do them.
If you do them, STOP! If you don’t do them don’t start!
So here they are….
The three biggest marketing mistakes I saw small business owners make with their radio advertising!
Mistake # 1
Failing to plan your radio advertising budget and strategy in advance.
It was always amazing to me that small business owners sometimes succeed in spite of themselves.
While it’s true that one of the biggest advantages of advertising on radio is that you can react quickly to competition or changes in the marketplace—it’s also true that there is an inordinate number of small business owners who don’t plan their advertising and marketing strategy. This is marketing suicide
You’ve got to decide on a course or a plan and stay with it. If you don’t you’ll be acting on every wind that comes your way. Plan every aspect of your marketing and advertising. Most importantly, decide in advance what media you are going to use and determine a budget for your promotions. If you plan an effective marketing strategy and your competition does not—
You’ll win.
Mistake #2
Their radio advertising wasn’t consistent with the theme or direction of all their other advertising.
There is a carpet store in the city where we live that will advertise one thing on the radio, something else in the newspaper and something totally different on his billboards. If you want your potential customers to know what your business is all about, your message needs to be consistent with all the advertising that you do. Remember the old adage—"the person who doesn’t stand for something will fall for anything" ?
Make sure that the message of all your advertising is consistent with all the other promotion that you do. .
Mistake # 3
Buying advertising on the "wrong" station or targeting the "wrong" market.
Many small business owners will buy time on the radio station that they like or the one that they listen to. This is a big mistake. Only spend your advertising dollars with a radio station because it makes sense for the business-not because you personally like the station. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that, just because you like a particular station that your potential customers do to.
Mistake # 4
Your ads don’t run with enough frequency to make them work properly
20 Years ago, there wasn’t as much clutter and demands for a persons attention wasn’t as great. Back then, the so called experts said that the average person needed to be exposed to your message a minimum of three times in order for their message to work.
Now, with all of us being on information overload, that number is now up to 7. Which means that in order for your potential clients and customers to react positively to your message they need to be exposed to it a minimum of 7 times. How much do your customers hear your messages? Is it enough?
If you’re not promoting heavily enough, you could be throwing your money away
Copyright 2001 Susie and Otto Collins