ABC's of Radio

It's almost useless to review lists of alternatives for advertising if you haven't developed well-written ads. Writing ads is a skill. There are important aspects to think about, including the wording, graphics, arrangement of wording and graphics, coloring, how your audience will interpret the ads, their placement, etc. Poorly done ads can hurt you worse than not having ads at all. Therefore, very carefully consider getting help to write your first ads.

Note that a common mistake among inexperienced ad writers is to write the ad to themselves, rather than to their current and potential customers. Your ads should clearly state the benefits (of products and services) to customers, not the benefits to you -- clearly state the ads in terms that the customer will value, for example, easy access, low cost, easy to use, reliability, etc. Your ads should answer the customer's question: "What's it it for me?" Your ad should also specify what they are to do next. What action should they take and how do they take it, for example, who do they call and how.

Radio announcements -- A major advantage of radio ads is they are usually cheaper than television ads, and 94% of all people still listen to local radio every week. Ads are usually sold on a package basis that considers the number of ads, the length of ads and when they are put on the air. A major consideration with radio ads is to get them announced at the times that your potential customers are listening to the radio and the critical placement criteris is chosing the right station to reach your clients. Usually, that is NOT the station you listen to, so do your homework looking at listener profiles and qualitative data. That is called Positioning...

Deciding and Conveying Your Unique Selling Position

Positioning includes identifying the unique market position, or "niche", for your organization. Positioning is accomplished through market analysis. Market analysis includes finding out what groups of potential customers (or markets) exist, what groups of customers you prefer to serve (target markets), what their needs are, what products or services you might develop to meet their needs, how the customers might prefer to use the products and services, what your competitors are doing, what pricing you should use and how you should distribute products and services to your target markets. Various methods of market research are used to find out information about markets, target markets and their needs, competitors, etc.

A: If you're thinking about using radio advertising, you're in good company. Advertisers spent close to $20 billion on radio in 2000--and even during the 9/11 crisis, radio never fell victim to the slump experienced by print and other media. You can buy radio locally, regionally or nationally, depending on the audience you're trying to reach. And you can use radio quite effectively to target specific ethnic groups, select demographics (young men, age 18 to 34, for example), or people with interests in common, such as football or racing or hunting enthusiasts.

Radio spot production is not a do-it-yourself job, so you'll need an agency or production company that has experience creating spots that motivate members of your target audience or expertise in marketing your type of product or service. Above all, the spots produced should be appropriate to the target audience and what's being sold.

Sixty-second spots are still the norm in radio, unlike TV, where :30s predominate. And whether you take a lighthearted or reverent tone, your spots must be evocative and engaging, using music, sound effects and dialogue to create "word pictures" that involve the listeners. If you're advertising in a small market or where the personality of the on-air talent on a particular station lends interest or credibility to your message, you may choose to use personality endorsements and have the station do the copywriting for you.

3. Evaluate each station's proposal, looking for reach, frequency and cost per Point (CPP) or cost per thousand (CPM) The "reach" is the number of individuals in your target group who will hear your marketing message. "Frequency" isn't the number of times that you run your spot; it's the number of times a member of your target audience will actually hear your message. And the "cost per rating point" (CPP) is the cost to reach 1 percent of your target audience population, or Cost Per Thousand targets Reached (CPM). Also, the bulk of your spots should run in dayparts that draw the largest percentage of your prospects, not run-of-station (ROS), which may include multiple, lower-cost spots that air in the middle of the night, when fewer of your prospects will be listening. A good media buyer will negotiate those for little to nothing as added value.

4. Select the best stations for your campaign, and negotiate your buys. Don't buy a canned package, unless it meet your criteria. Make frequency your top priority, and then include as much reach as you can afford. In other words, it takes multiple exposures for your message to be effective, so make sure a core prospect group will hear your spot multiple times, then buy as many additional prospect contacts as possible. When you hear someone say that they used radio and it didn't work... this is why... they didn't invest enough money to reach a high enough frequency or they chose the wrong radio station with too small an audience or the wrong lifestyle, or they had a poor offer that didn't stimulate the listener to act.

I once had a furniture store owner tell me that radio didn't work. I suggested that he put his money where his mouth is. I asked him to take a $100 bill out of the register and give it to me. If radio didn't work, I would give him his hundred dollars back. I then called the station and had the DJ announce that the first person to come into the store to say that he heard the radio announcement would get a $100 bill. 25 people were there in minutes... RADIO WORKS.... The first person got the $100 and spent another $300 on a recliner while he was there. We gave a $100 discount coupon off the purchase of $500 or more to all the others. 20% of those came back in and used the coupon. Radio WORKS, if the message, station choice and affer are good.

Consider buying sponsorships--such as news, weather or traffic--because you'll receive the first spot in the commercial break and often a five- to 10-second "billboard" to say something about your company. Participating in contests will also get you lots of on-air mentions. So contact each station's promotions director or your account executive for information on upcoming events.

If you're wondering how important customer satisfaction is to your bottom line, consider this--in a recent SIMM survey published by BIGresearch, more than 80 percent of small-business owners ranked word-of-mouth as either "very important" or "important" in influencing their purchasing decisions. And nearly 90 percent responded by saying they sought advice from others before buying "regularly" or "occasionally." This underscores the tremendous importance of B2B marketing programs that effectively build two-way communication with your current customer base as well as ongoing programs designed to fuel buzz.

Right now, tactics that build word-of-mouth, as well as public relations efforts and communication with in-house lists, are producing the best results for marketers. But this could change at any moment. The majority of the B2B marketers surveyed by MarketingSherpa said they are ready to change tactics on a dime--which is great advice even in the best economic times.

There's no easy answer. But if you have the stomach for it, the answer might be yes.

Q: I'm a heavy radio advertiser, currently reaching 32 percent of my area's 18- to 34-year-old population with a frequency of 2.9 each week, 52 weeks in a row. How much will my store traffic increase if I increase my schedule to reach 48 percent of the population with similar weekly frequency? How many more sales will I make?

A: Your question is far more complex than you realize, but I will do my best to answer it. All things being equal, increasing your reach from 32 percent to 48 percent (an increase of exactly 50 percent) should increase your radio-driven traffic by exactly 50 percent. Now for the problems:

1. All things are never equal. My answer assumes there will be no change in the number of competitors in your marketplace or in the attractiveness or aggressiveness of existing competitors--yet rarely do these remain static. If your competitors drop the ball, you may experience a significant increase in traffic without increasing your ad budget at all. Likewise, if your "share of voice" increase is matched by similar increases from your competitors, yours will be effectively nullified and store traffic will remain at current levels. But what if they increase their ad spending and you don't increase yours? You want to do the math on that one?

2. What percentage of your traffic is currently radio-driven? What percentage is location-driven? What percentage are repeat customers? What percentage are referrals? Yes, a 50 percent increase in reach (without a decline in frequency) should increase your radio-driven traffic by 50 percent. But can you tell me how much of your traffic is currently due to your advertising alone and is coming for no other reason?

Are you beginning to understand why it would be completely irresponsible of me to predict the bottom-line impact of an increase in advertising? But this is my day to be irresponsible, so here's my best attempt at an answer: My instinct is that 50 to 70 percent of the typical retailer's store traffic is due to location, signage, repeat customers, referrals and so on, and the remaining 30 to 50 percent of store traffic is advertising-driven. This would mean that a 50 percent increase in effective reach should increase traffic by 15 to 25 percent.

To summarize what I said earlier, advertising-driven traffic should increase by the same percentage that you increase your effective reach, all other factors remaining equal. Now if you can just plug in the exact number of selling opportunities that your stores have each day as a direct result of advertising alone, then-presto--you'll have your answer.

Bottom line: Every business owner must decide for themselves what percentage of their profits to take out of their company and how much to reinvest in their facilities, equipment, advertising and people. Sadly, due to the near-universal fear that "if it doesn't work, I've wasted my money," very few entrepreneurs are willing to advertise as aggressively as they should. Consequently, I would like to see you go to the next level--if you can afford the dollars--and stomach the risk.

A closing thought: There's only one thing that business owners are more reluctant to spend profits on than advertising, and that's training their people. Their eternal question is, "What happens if I train them and they leave?" But here's a better one: What happens if you don't train them and they stay?

Q: A few years ago, I advertised a Memorial Day sale, and business that weekend was better than ever. Soon I was advertising sale after sale. Now it seems like I can't get a customer through the door unless I'm aggressively advertising deep discounts, so I'm making less money than ever. Can you tell me how to advertise so that my customers will let me make a profit?

Transactional customers care only about today's transaction, and their only fear is of "paying too much." Relational customers, on the other hand, are looking for a brand or a store they can trust. Their only fear is of making a poor decision--"buying the wrong one." Are you an expert I can trust? Convince me so in your ads, and I'll remember you when I need what you sell.

Transactional shoppers will go to whichever store is advertising the lowest prices. These are the shoppers you've been reaching, right? But customers who go back to the same stores over and over are shopping "relationally." In other words, there is something, or an assortment of “something’s”, that draws them back time after time. Other than your prices, are there any compelling reasons to do business with you? Tell me so in your ads, and I'll remember you when I need what you sell.

The goal of the transactional shopper is for you to make no profit on them. But the relational customer is happy for you to make a profit as long as you meet their needs. Are you going to meet my needs? Convince me so in your ads, and I'll remember you when I need what you sell.

Ads for groceries, furniture, electronics and cars would seem to indicate these retailers believe in attracting only the transactional shopper. Yet aren't these the same categories that crave strong "branding" and the relational customers it brings? Think about it. What are the odds of building a long-term relationship with ads that shout "You Must Act Now! Limited Time Offer! Tomorrow May Be Too Late!"

Am I suggesting that you abandon transactional advertising? In a prior day, I may have said yes, but that would have been unwise. Today I am suggesting only that a portion of your budget be diverted from the transactional effort and directed toward relational selling using an entirely different medium, radio. Relational customers will switch to you, but only if you say the right thing and keep on saying it. But above all, you must deliver the experience you promised, because relational customers hate hype.

Spending all your money on advertising but getting no results? Find out whether you're guilty of committing one of these huge blunders.

Q: I've spent a ton of money advertising in lots of different media, but it doesn't seem like I have much to show for it. Can you tell me plainly and simply how to advertise so it will work?

A: I applaud your honesty. The simple truth is, most advertisers feel just like you do, but their pride won't let them admit it. Unfortunately, I don't have a "success pill" for you to swallow, but I can describe each of the most common mistakes you will need to avoid:

1. The quest for instant gratification: The ad that creates enough urgency to cause people to respond immediately is the ad most likely to be forgotten immediately once the offer expires. It is of little use in establishing the advertiser's identity in the mind of the consumer.

2. Trying to reach more people than the budget will allow: For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix must have enough repetition to establish retention in the mind of the prospect. Too often, however, the result of a media mix is too much reach and not enough frequency. Will you reach 100 percent of the people and persuade them 10 percent of the way? Or will you reach 10 percent of the people and persuade them 100 percent of the way? The cost is the same.

3. Assuming the business owner knows best: The business owner is uniquely unqualified to see his company or product objectively. Too much product knowledge leads him to answer questions no one is asking. He's on the inside looking out, trying to describe himself to a person on the outside looking in. It's hard to read the label when you're inside the bottle.

4. Unsubstantiated claims: Advertisers often claim to have what the customer wants, such as "highest quality at the lowest price," but fail to offer any evidence. An unsubstantiated claim is nothing more than a cliché the prospect is tired of hearing. You must prove what you say in every ad. Do your ads give the prospect new information? Do they provide a new perspective? If not, prepare to be disappointed with the results.

5. Improper use of passive media: Non-intrusive media, such as newspapers and yellow pages, tend to reach only buyers who are looking for the product. They are poor at reaching prospects before their need arises, so they're not much use for creating a predisposition toward your company. The patient, consistent use of intrusive media, such as Radio and TV, will win the hearts of relational customers long before they're in the market for your product.

6. Creating ads instead of campaigns: It is foolish to believe a single ad can ever tell the entire story. The most effective, persuasive and memorable ads are those most like a rhinoceros: They make a single point, powerfully. An advertiser with 17 different things to say should commit to a campaign of at least 17 different ads, repeating each ad enough to stick in the prospect's mind.

8. Late-week schedules: Advertisers justify their obsession with Thursday and Friday advertising by saying "We need to reach the customer just before she goes shopping." Why do these advertisers choose to compete for the customer's attention each Thursday and Friday when they could have a nice, quiet chat all alone with her on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday?

9. Overconfidence in qualitative targeting: Many advertisers and media professionals grossly overestimate the importance of audience quality. In reality, saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people. It's amazing how many people become "the right people" when you're saying the right thing.

10. Event-driven marketing: A special event should be judged only by its ability to help you more clearly define your market position and substantiate your claims. If 1 percent of the people who hear your ad for a special event choose to come, you will be in desperate need of a traffic cop and a bus to shuttle people from distant parking lots. Yet your real investment will be in the 99 percent who did not come! What did your ad say to them?

12. Confusing response with results: The goal of advertising is to create a clear awareness of your company and its unique selling proposition. Unfortunately, most advertisers evaluate their ads by the comments they hear from the people around them. The slickest, cleverest, funniest, most creative and most distinctive ads are the ones most likely to generate these comments. See the problem? When we confuse response with results, we create attention-getting ads that say absolutely nothing.

A: You might think that drivers of Lexus, Mercedes, BMW and Land Rover automobiles can be successfully targeted through a careful selection of cable networks and time slots. However, this isn't really the case. Much like ZIP code-targeted direct mail and location-specific billboards, zoned cable is wonderful for targeting a specific geographic area, but psychographic targeting through channel selection is mostly an overrated myth.

How many different channels do you watch in a week? Which one "targets" you? Likewise, how would you categorize a person who owns these three vehicles: a new Mercedes sedan, a late-model Dodge pickup and an old Corvette? Is he a refined Mercedes customer, a green-teeth pickup driver or a romantic who lives in the past? Believe it or not, this is not a hypothetical example--I speak of a real person. My point is, your customers are much more complex than you might have realized.

The idea of targeting a certain type of car buyer through mass media is largely a pipe dream perpetuated by sales reps who want you to believe they have an efficient and cost-effective way of reaching your perfect customer. Generally speaking, mass media (TV, cable, radio and newspaper) should be used for building a reputation since they'll reach not only your customers, but also those people who influence your customers. The truth is, decisions are rarely made in a vacuum, but emerge far more often from word-of-mouth recommendations that come from friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members whom you reached with a memorable message. Unless you can get a printout from the DMV that lists everyone who has registered a Lexus, Mercedes, BMW or Land Rover, I'd suggest against trying to target through mass media. Concentrate instead on creating a powerful message that will be remembered by everyone who hears it. I've never seen a business fail due to reaching the wrong people, but I've seen hundreds fail because they were saying the wrong thing.

Having set aside mass media, is there a way to target customers who live in your town, drive the cars you prefer to repair and are currently in need of your service? Actually, there is. Allow me to share the story of Russell Taylor, a real-life example of how our society is quietly going digital. Taylor is a university-degreed geographer, a husband and a homeowner:

Russell's mother, who's from a different generation--one that doesn't immediately think of searching the Internet when they have questions about a product or service--reached inside her kitchen cabinet and quietly handed her son a telephone book. "I think this might solve your problem."

The Internet is no longer a new and strange phenomenon. America has grown accustomed to it, and we're turning to it for information with increasing regularity. According to Google.com, more than 55 billion searches were conducted on their search engine alone last year, and nearly 80 million searches of a commercial nature are conducted each day. That's a number equal to about one-third of the total U.S. population. And that's per day. Your customers are among those conducting commercial searches. Is your information online for them to find?

My advice: Buy mass media--radio from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. to reach the baby boomers. Send them to your web page in the radio commercials and show them your TV commercial or a 2 minute introductory video on the opening page. And use dirt-cheap, pay-per-click Internet ads tied to specific keyword strings (such as "Lexus repair Austin") to reach the Gen X customer who's using the Internet like a phonebook. As time passes, you'll see your Internet ads begin to outperform the much more expensive traditional media because, day after day, boomers get older and the Xers become a little more in charge of America. Remember, those Xers are already 27 to 38 years old.

Q: I read in one of your books that in a branding campaign, the targeted customer needs to be exposed to your ad at least three times per week, every week for a year, in order for your name to go into long-term memory. According to what I've been told by local radio sales reps, I could accomplish this on any one of their stations with about 21 ads each week. But I'm in the diamond business, and diamonds are a visual product. And since we also remember more of what we see than what we hear, I want to advertise in a visual medium. Dollar for dollar, would you recommend that I advertise in the newspaper or on TV, or should I send out direct-mail catalogs?

A: First, let me challenge your statement that "diamonds are a visual product." The reasons for purchasing a diamond aren't visual at all. They're emotional. When a man buys a diamond, he's paying for the reaction of the woman he loves. Don't show him a diamond in your ads. Instead, cause him to imagine her reaction. Likewise, women enjoy wearing diamonds only because of the real or imagined reactions of others. Would a woman wear diamonds if she were stranded alone on a desert island?

Second, one of the greatest myths in the world today is that "we remember more of what we see than what we hear." In fact, quite the opposite is true. That great scientist of the eye, Josef Albers, says it quite plainly in chapter one of his landmark book, Interaction of Color: "The visual memory is very poor in comparison with our auditory memory."

Why is it that when you're driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on the radio? Ever stopped to think about it? You can close your eyes, but you cannot close your ears. Sound is invasive, intrusive and irresistible. You hear and retain information even when you're not listening. You hear even when you're fast asleep. How else would you know there's a burglar in the house?

The primary gift of the human creature is our ability to attach meanings to sounds. This is accomplished in three highly specialized parts of your brain--Broca's area, Wernicke's area and the Auditory Association area. In fact, your physical ability to coordinate the movements of your diaphragm, larynx, tongue and lips so that you can produce human speech is also owed to Broca's Area, a specialized extension of Auditory Association into the Motor Association cortex.

Ever been lying in bed reading a book and suddenly realize that you've been scanning the same paragraph over and over for a very long time and you have no idea what it says? Yes, your eyes were sending the written symbols to your brain, but those symbols were no longer being translated into the sounds they represent. The written word has no meaning until the brain has translated it into the spoken word it represents. According to neurologists, it takes the average reader approximately 28 percent longer to understand the written word than to understand the same word when spoken. This is because the written word must be translated into the spoken word before it can be understood.

If I were a jeweler, I would advertise aggressively 52 weeks a year on the radio and then use my Web site as a round-the-clock, instantly deliverable catalog to provide the customer with such details as finance options, product warranties, my company history and a map to the store. However, I don't think most customers are ready to buy your jewelry over the Internet just yet. So design a Web site that assists visitors logging on to research your products. It should offer some pretty pictures, communicate your message and entice potential customers to visit your physical store.

Q: I'm getting ready to start advertising on the radio, and I'm running into the word "frequency," something no one can give me a formula to figure out. Is there a way I can calculate how many radio ads I need to run per day, week or month? My only other options seem to be either to blindly take the word of the radio salespeople, or to take a wild guess at what I need.

A: Frequency is the average number of times a person has the opportunity to hear your message within any given schedule. It makes sense that you would need to run more commercials per day or week to reach a fidgety, channel-surfing audience than you would need to run on a station with lingering listeners. Because the listening habits of specific audiences are so distinct, the number of commercials you need to run to get the best results will be different for each station.

What you want each rep to figure out for you is OES, or optimum effective scheduling. The radio reps will calculate the turnover ratio (which captures the amount of time spent listening to a station for a particular length of time) x 3.29 (which researchers deem is the necessary multiple for the equation to equal three exposures per week). You can't do this on your own, as you need Arbitron figures to do the math. Arbitron is the media and market research company that measures radio audiences and their listening patterns. Most radio stations subscribe to that service and will have the information you need.

A: No, since frequency is calculated per week -- and in your two scenarios you'd be running different numbers of ads per week. But running one or two ads a day cannot be construed as frequency in any form, especially not with one or two commercials run willy-nilly, spread over morning, midday, afternoon and evening. And asking for specific or "fixed" times for those commercials, so they would continually hit the same audience for a more focused target, can cost you double.

That kind of a schedule is going to be a waste of your money unless you tie in to a sponsorship of some kind that will add kick to the commercials. Sponsorships automatically provide "fixed" times that will concentrate your efforts without the extra cost. Sponsorships for weather, news or sports can be purchased up to seven days a week and typically can be purchased on a Monday-through-Friday basis for traffic reports. People listen carefully to these features, so you get a more "tuned in" listener who is more likely to hear your message. If you run a sponsorship every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for instance, the audience will get familiar with you fairly quickly.

These are maintenance schedules (low frequency over a long period of time). You should always run a small schedule like this over a minimum of 13 weeks. You should expect to receive a discount for running a sponsorship for 26 consecutive weeks (5 percent) or 52 consecutive weeks (10 percent).

A: No matter what size your business is, the best time to buy advertising is in the first quarter—always. The next best time is the third quarter. These are the months when most radio and TV stations are hungry and offer low rates and special packages to lure advertisers who may not otherwise bother to advertise, and that spills over to print media.

Inventory needs to be filled to make budgets, and the buyer is really in the driver's seat. Rates can drop by half in the first quarter, so look at your budget, and hunker down with the reps from your chosen forms of media. Always be willing to politely leave a deal on the table, and don't be discouraged by the word "no." Nine times out of 10, they'll call you back and say OK.

If it's an election year, political commercials receive (by law) the lowest rate that's been given to any client for the previous 12 months. And political campaigns can run as many ads for that low price as they want. So stations have to be careful about what rates they show.

But there's another way—it's called "free spins." Say you have a budget of $1,000 and you want to buy 20 commercials, normally $100 each, for $50 each. On paper, you pay $100 each for the first 10 commercials that air 6am to 7pm and get the remaining 10 as "free spins" to air 6am to 10pm or midnight. That gives the sales rep room to negotiate and it gives you total audience reach at no extra cost. That lets the rep show a rate of $100 per paid spot on the contract, while you come away having paid $1,000 for your 20 commercials.

You can enjoy an additional 5 percent discount if you sign on for 26 consecutive weeks and 10 percent if you sign on for 52 consecutive weeks. Your best option is to take your credit in the form of free spots to air 6a-12m. You don't have to run the same number of commercials each week to qualify—just something each week.

Buy "remnant advertising" and agree to purchase "up to" a certain number of commercials, or space, each week or month. For example, if a radio or TV station has unsold inventory in time slots that would benefit you, they can pop your commercial in at the last minute for a fraction of the normal spot cost. Once inventory is gone, it's gone, and they'd rather sell it at a lowball price than get nothing at all for it. Just be sure to specify the top dollar amount you're willing to spend per week or month and the time slots you'll accept in the contract. An unsold avail rotation can give you massive exposure for a very limited added investment. Most stations only offer this to their annual contract advertisers, so book your basic monthly advertising budget for the year and keep a cusion for unsold avails.

Learning to be a smart consumer in the TV and radio market isn’t always easy. If you’re worried about making the right choice on your own, consider hiring a consultant or an advertising agency to guide you. For most small businesses, radio is probably the best solution. Television is more expensive and often reaches a broader audience than a small company needs. When approaching radio stations, learn their demographics and look closely at how they match your target market. Sorting out demographics is one area where hiring an ad agency or consultant can really help. If the businessperson tries to do it on their own, they may get confused because every radio station in the country says they’re number one in a certain time spot or with a certain audience. And very few account executives are concerned about results as much as spot sales. Your account executive should act as a consultant, providing advise that includes multi-media expertice. For example, I have a radio station client who buys media for many different age groups depending on the courses they are selling. My stations prime audience strength is 35-64 year olds. When she targets 18-34 year olds, I refer her to a station that will make the best match for that product. Some reps would simply take her money, even though it is not the right station for the product.

Many business owners find that even local TV stations cover such a broad geographical area that they reach a lot of people who will probably never visit their stores. Unless you offer an unusual product or service that will draw people from far away, advertising on a TV station with a 250-mile radius may mean paying for 240 worthless miles. That’s why radio can be the best option for your advertising needs if you only need to reach your 3-5 county area. And with radio you have a significantly more cost efficient buy and the ability to select psycographic as well as demographic group.