Are Your Radio Ads “Skippable”?

/ Duane Christensen

When someone hears your radio ad… what do you think they do? Are they interested, entertained, or intrigued? Or are they annoyed, bored, or oblivious? There’s a great novelist and screenwriter, named Elmore Leonard, who has a quote that sums up how your radio ads need to be written. He said, “I try to leave out the parts that people skip.”

Radio Advertising for Sioux Falls

In 1972, Elmore read The Friends of Eddie Coyle by the late George V. Higgins. It inspired him to “loosen up” and not be as rigid, to get into scenes quicker; Fifty-Two Pickup, (1974) Swag, (1976) and Unknown Man No. 89 (1977) remain the essential trilogy of the Elmore Leonard sound, the setting no longer the old west, but urban Detroit.
It’s never a bad idea to “loosen up” with your radio ads.

Dude. That’s all you have to do.

The WORDS are THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR ADVERTISING EFFORTS.

But unfortunately, most advertising you see or hear includes many “skippable” words within them. Don’t let it be yours.

How do you keep an ad from being skipped over? You have to put in the work up front. You have to do the research. You need to sit and think (yes, thinking is a lost art form – but if you get good at it, you can write your own paycheck). You have to get into the head of the people who want or need your product or service. What’s going through their mind? What do they care about? (Hint: It’s usually not how long you’ve been in business)

  • People want solutions to their problems
  • They want to buy from someone they can trust
  • They like to be entertained

And please, SKIP THE BORING AND IRRELEVANT STUFF.

So, remember those things when you’re putting your next radio ad together. If you think that radio ads are just the name of the business, a laundry list of what that business does, and the phone number 5 times, you’re going to be really upset with the lack of results you get.

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.”   -Elmore Leonard

Duane Christensen

Results Radio Townsquare Media

Sioux Falls, SD

605-940-7984

duane.christensen@results-radio.com