There is a standard quote in advertising, attributed to John Wannamaker – “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half.”
As a small or medium sized business owner…do you feel that way, too?
It always begs the question: What is the BEST advertising for your business?
Direct mail? TV? Newspaper? Yellow pages? Radio?
I think we can agree, the absolute BEST advertising for any business is word-of-mouth. If someone tells their friend about your product or service, the odds of that friend selecting you, calling you, coming into your store, logging onto your website, placing an order, buying from you – increase exponentially. If someone has a great experience with your company or business – they might tell one person, and wholeheartedly recommend you if they are asked directly.
And we also know the converse is true. If someone has a bad experience with your company, they’ll probably tell ten people, interrupt conversations to toss in their two cents, even write letters to the editor and maybe even call the consumer crusader at the local TV station. Ugh!
The odds are NOT in your favor.
A well-crafted radio commercial can act just like word-of-mouth advertising. Word-of-mouth is one-to-one, radio is one-to-50,000. How ’bout them odds?! That should be one of the top goals for your radio advertising – to achieve top of mind awareness or, simply put, conquer the word-of-mouth category.
There are some times when radio isn’t appropriate:
- Many B-to-B situations don’t work well for radio.
- A mom-and-pop dry cleaner (single location) in a city of half a million, radio might not be the answer. But a chain of dry cleaners throughout the city would be perfect for radio.
- A car dealership (single location) in a city of half a million people is perfect for radio.
Seems to be contradictory, doesn’t it? On the surface, it can be. The key is to craft a radio commercial and message that is going to resonate with your customers and get that word-of-mouth on your side.
If you’re running a radio campaign right now, I’d love to hear what you’re experiencing. Please comment below.
Thanks!