My wife Tara and I have taught my daughter that when she asks nicely for something and says Please, she’ll be much more likely to get what she wants.

Your advertising works the same way. When we figure out what to SAY in your ads, and radio listeners respond favorably to them, you get what YOU want – new customers and increased sales.

(A consistent radio campaign even helps remind your current customers to come see you more often AND it reminds them to refer others to you. Cool side effect of an ad campaign, eh? You don’t get that with short-term advertising and “Sale of the Century” advertising.)

The first question most people have though is “What are your ad rates?” Or…”How much is this going to cost?” Here’s the reality: Ads that don’t work (no matter how cheap) ARE expensive. When you get little to zero return on your cheap ad investment, you’re still losing money on that great deal. You’re still losing money on that “ad package” that was too good to pass up. You probably said, “What the heck, let’s try it.” That’s why you eventually get frustrated with all local advertising (you’re not doing it right – please allow me help you with that).

So…ads that bring you a consistent flow of new customers are not expensive. It’s like investing in stocks that can’t fail. But those ads that bring in the customers might actually cost more than the ones being pitched to you by sales reps that don’t know how to make advertising work. If your monthly sales were 20% more than the same month the previous year, and you’re advertising on the radio, and saying great things to the listeners, you’re still going to say “Advertising is too expensive” ????

Of course, you have to “run the numbers” and make sure that you can afford the right amount of ads on the particular radio station you’re interested in. If you can’t, look at a different radio station where the rate per spot is less. Because you need to have enough ads airing each week to make an impact. One here and one there isn’t going to cut it. But it’s OK if you start on a radio station with a smaller audience. As you grow because you caused some of that audience to do business with you…then you add another station – another audience. And so on…and so on.

Do you think the big advertisers started out with ads on all 8 of our radio stations? No. They started with one or two. And when their ads started working…sales grew. The next 6 months to a year, they saw enough increase to add another station. It’s OK if you start smaller. Stop trying to reach EVERYONE. Start smaller with the budget you have now. Be comfortable with that monthly investment. As you grow, so does your budget.

The thing that I never understand is when a business sees success from their radio campaign, and they say they’re going to try some TV now. What? You’ve just figured out what works, but now you’re trying TV? I think it’s because so many business owners think that if you’re on TV, then you’re “big time”. But that’s not how it works. All you should be trying to do is convince more people to do business with YOU instead of someone else.

People are people. It doesn’t matter where you advertise to them. Radio just happens to be the most affordable way to effectively do that for most local businesses. But only if we SAY the right things! Remember? Like when my daughter asks nicely…and says please – she gets a much better response from Mom and Dad.

Have a great day!

Duane Christensen

Results Radio Townsquare Media – Sioux Falls

605-940-7984

My work website: http://duanechristensen.townsquareinteractive.com/ (And if you’d like a business website like this, or nothing like this, give me a shout. I’ll point you in the right direction)

And if you have questions about the cost of radio advertising, which radio stations would be a good fit, or how to get started attracting more customers, don’t be afraid to ask. I like to help good businesses take a bigger slice of the market.