Radio Rocks! No matter what the format

Radio Rocks!
No matter what the format
By Patrysha Korchinski, CRA
Easy Results with Radio – Maximizing Your Marketing Budget with Audio

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About the Author
atrysha Korchinski is a woman of many passions. Chocolate and children
notwithstanding, her biggest interest lies in helping small businesses
Ppromote their products and services in the most cost effective ways. In
the past that has included serving as a writer and business consultant
specializing in marketing through public relations.
After entering the world of advertising with a position as an account executive
at a local radio station, Patrysha became hooked on the power of radio as an
advertising medium for small business. While she'd fully appreciated radio as a
target when pursuing publicity, she always figured that only free publicity was
truly effective on radio. Since then, she has often said that if she knew then
(when she was running her own small business ventures) what she knows now
(about audio advertising), she could've retired ages ago – or at least spent the
rest of her life living off the proceeds of her business while writing trashy
romance novels on the beach.
Seeing the results that radio brought to her local clients, Patrysha launched
Easy Results with Radio with the intention of sharing her knowledge with other
small and home based businesses. Typically, these businesses are overlooked
by typical radio account executives and owners tend to not seek out radio
advertising assuming the cost will be prohibitive. They also tend to overlook
the affordable and targeted advertising available through podcasts.
And so, Patrysha has set out to create a site with products that bring the
power of audio advertising to small and home based businesses, allowing
them to grow and prosper with the knowledge contained herein.
Easy Results with Radio – Maximizing Your Marketing Budget with Audio

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About this e-book
This book is a very general overview of the advantages of advertising with
your local radio station and how it can enhance the marketing of your small or
home based business.
You will find this book useful if you:
1. Have been using other marketing methods to advertise a small
or home based business. If you are new to marketing, you may find
this book and radio in general to be a bit overwhelming, email me and I
will be happy to send you suggestions for more appropriate starter
resources.
2. Have not advertised on radio before. If you have advertised on radio
before then you will likely have heard all the information contained
within these pages by your local advertising rep. If you are reading
because you've tried radio and it “didn't work” then you'll want to stay
tuned to Easy Results with Radio for upcoming e-books and my
postmortem dead campaign analysis.
It doesn't matter what size your company is, or whether your business is
based online or offline. I'll get into discussing who should and can use radio in
future articles and e-books. This one is just about raising your awareness of
what audio advertising can do for your business.
It's the first part of the goal of Easy Results with Radio. The Why of
Considering Radio, our next projects will get into the nitty gritty of the who,
how, when, what & where.
If you have any questions in the meantime and want immediate assistance on
getting on the air, feel free to contact me with your questions.
The Legal Bit
This e-book is an original creation of Patrysha Korchinski, with the exception of
quotes that are attributed to the original studies and sources. Copyright is
reserved and duplication in whole or in part is prohibited without the express
written consent of the author.
If you want to share this work with others, please refer them to the e-mail list
at www.easyresultswithradio.com for their personal and free copy.
And now to the meat of the matter...
Easy Results with Radio – Maximizing Your Marketing Budget with Audio

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Radio Costs Less
Obviously, budget is a huge priority in small and home based business and
most traditional methods of advertising are out of reach to the small budget
and you've likely been making do with low cost (and low impact) marketing
methods that take time to build a response.
It only goes to reason, that if you own a small or home based business,
chances are that any thoughts about advertising on the radio are quickly
dismissed. After all, it must be too expensive for a “little guy” to get any
results with radio. Right? Wrong!
adio is a very inexpensive investment compared to almost any other
media. While this is especially true when compared to other traditional
Rmedia such as newspapers, magazines and, the former big kahuna of
advertising, television, it's also true when compared to most web-based
advertising methods.
While it's hard to beat the effectiveness of search engine optimization, article
marketing and the organic growth techniques of listbuilding, radio does
represent an impressive growth opportunity for online businesses to
reach a large market in a short amount of time. Naturally, it will not be as
tightly targeted towards your niche as online efforts are, but you will be
amazed at how effectively you can reach your target market with proper use
of radio.
For better niching ability, while taking advantage of the power of audio
advertising, you will want to consider podcast advertising.
We'll get into the details of costs involved in radio advertising a bit later, for
now it is enough to know that radio costs tend to be much less overall
than in any other media to reach the same number of people.
Return on Investment
Not that radio advertising should be evaluated on price point alone. Actually,
no advertising should be judged solely on the cost. All your marketing
and advertising costs should be viewed as an investment. As you know,
investments are not judged on the raw bottom dollar but on the return on
investment. So it should be with your investment in advertising.
Evaluation should be based on the question “how much return is generated
from the dollars spent?” An advertising option that costs $200 but leads to
$2000 in sales is a great investment. One that costs $2000 but leads to $200
in sale is not.
So how does radio compare?
It's head and shoulders above the rest of the media choices available.
Easy Results with Radio – Maximizing Your Marketing Budget with Audio

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The reason for this is quite simple. Radio campaigns have built in
repetitiveness. You've probably heard that repetition is a key factor in
turning a prospect into a sale, and that it takes between 7 and 9 exposures for
a prospect to take action on any given offer.
Well, it would cost a great deal of money to achieve that sort of repetition in
newspaper, magazine or television. While the story is a bit different with
Internet advertising, in that once you have a prospect on your site it only
takes them signing up to a newsletter or update list to be able to market to
the same prospect numerous times.
Of course, one must consider that the typical conversion rate for a free email
list is typically between 1 and 2%.1 Radio can bring a great deal of traffic to
the site in the first place, allowing many listeners to be led into your personal
marketing funnel.
Based on the figures for the station I worked at, which is a small station
covering several rural communities. if your sales message aired reaching the
audience of 25,000 and 30% of those listeners were within your target market
and ¼ of your target audience responded within the course of a one week
campaign that would represent a traffic surge of 1875 from that message.
How much would the same results cost with PPC advertising in your chosen
category?
Complements and Enhances
A recent study showed that “recall of advertising is dramatically enhanced (27
percent versus 6 percent) when a mix of Radio and Internet ads is used
compared to website ads alone.” 2
The main factor involved in this statistic is that mixing marketing media in an
integrated campaigns increase results over the use of one form of
advertising alone. This has been tested in variety of ways with different
combinations of radio, print and television. In all cases, when radio is part
of the combination the response rates are higher than when radio was
not included in the mix.
Trying to find the right mix of marketing is vital to the success of any small
business. Investing too much or in the wrong medium can reduce the
profitability of a business. Investing too little can end with missed
opportunities and limited growth. Seldom does anyone go wrong with the
addition of radio to the mix.
1 http://www.conversionchronicles.com/What_is_an_average_conversion_rate.html
2Source - Radio and the Internet: Powerful Complements for Advertisers, A Component of
“Radio and the Consumer’s Mind: How Radio Works.” Conducted by Harris Interactive Inc.
Published February 2007. http://RadioAdLab.org
Easy Results with Radio – Maximizing Your Marketing Budget with Audio

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It CAN stand alone
It's not often that an advertiser will take the risk on radio alone. At least, not
often enough, in my opinion. For whatever reason, radio is simply not thought
of as a stand alone option. However, when an advertiser does choose
radio alone for a campaign, the results can be impressive.
Crazy Plates is just one example. The concept for Crazy Plates Meal Kits came
from the success of the cookbook, LooneySpoons, released in Canada in 1996
by Janet and Greta Podleski in conjunction with David Chilton, author of The
Wealthy Barber.
It was a risky move to focus on radio, but at the end of the 52 week run
featuring three campaigns consisting of 12 commercials the results of the
campaign exceeded expectations as the following testimonial reveals:
"There's no doubt the single biggest reason the products did so
well right away was the Radio campaign. It captured listeners'
imaginations and, even more importantly, their trust. People who
have been in the ad business forever told us, without exception,
not to do it; that it wouldn't work,that you can't sell food on the
Radio. Fortunately for us, the Radio ads did work. They overcame
the high waste rate and our numbers are right where we hoped
they would be - in fact even better!"
"For brands that are very personal and products that are built
around relationships, Radio is the ideal medium. Its intimacy is
perfect for a conversational approach and that's really what Janet
and Greta do best - their passion and enthusiasm comes through
clearly and effectively."
David Chilton3
Trust and Loyalty are built in
The radio industry is big on studies. They spend time to not only prove that
radio advertising works, but to figure out why it works so well. A recent study
conducted by the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) looked into the
connection between consumers and the media. Measure against print,
television and the Internet, consumers accepted radio advertising the
most as they perceived the ads to be the most personally relevant.
This goes back to the very essence of radio. It is an engaging medium,
triggering the listener's imagination with sound and voice. It's felt to be a one-
to-one medium and feels much more personal to the consumer. It is easily
witnessed in the loyalty of listeners as they identify strongly with their favorite
station, going so far as to dub it “my station”. That loyalty rubs off on the
advertisers on the station.
3 RMB Radio Case Study Crazy Plates
Easy Results with Radio – Maximizing Your Marketing Budget with Audio

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Radio's local qualities and specific lifestyle formats encouraged
study respondents to
•
feel more connected to their community through radio
advertising
•
find more credibility in the ads they hear on radio
•
believe the ads are directed to them more personally
•
get last-minute information just before they shop
•
trust the messages they hear more than other media4
What it boils down to is that the radio station's major benefit to advertisers,
outside of being an excellent value, is the ability to provide a direct connection
to it's listeners. The responsiveness of radio listeners is heightened over
all other major advertising mediums.
Word of Mouth You Control
Ultimately, the advertiser who is dependent upon developing through personal
relationships is served well by radio. Those businesses which rely heavily on
word of mouth can significantly increase their effectiveness with the
addition of radio to their marketing mix. This includes restaurants, beauty
parlors, real estate agents, investment counselors, and pretty much the entire
range of business ventures who define themselves by quality and service
rather than price point. Radio provides an opportunity to tell your sales story
in a receptive environment and this increases the word of mouth translation of
your story amongst the listeners.
Letting perceptions work for you
As discussed at the outset, the perception of radio is largely that it is
expensive and out of reach for many small businesses. That, of course, is just
a nasty bit of myth that hasn't been fully expunged. However, you can use
this to your advantage, as many potential customers will see your business
to be more professional and to be thriving and in demand when your sales
message is heard on the airwaves. Unlike television, which truly does cost
major money to produce a commercial that does not appear to be low budget
and cheesy. Most local advertisers cannot afford to compete with the quality of
national television ads. Radio, on the other hand, affords you the ability to
sound slick and professional without a major investment.
Compounding and combining the effects
The effect of Word of mouth can be further enhanced on a local station by the
use of local voices. Listeners tend to identify with their favorite DeeJays (or
on-air personalities as they tend to be called today) and put more stock in
locally produced and voiced commercial. On-air endorsements that are
voiced live are especially effective. So you not only have a commercial that
reflects a status of success, you also have the added benefit of a more
personal and engaging communication with your customer.
4 RAEL Personal Relevance Two:Radio’s Receptive Ad Environment
Easy Results with Radio – Maximizing Your Marketing Budget with Audio

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Isn't it worth a look?
So here you have an advertising medium that reaches 92% of the adult
population in the course of any given week. One that provides a direct
connection to your target market and that provides an excellent return
on investment. I'd have to say that is pretty darn impressive, wouldn't you?
Sure but, isn't radio dead?
Of course, it's natural to be skeptical. The radio industry has been rumored to
be in it's death throes since television entered the picture. Contrary to all
expectations, radio has survived the rise of both television and the
Internet.
Now the fact is, no one advertising or marketing medium is going to fulfill the
needs of all business all the time. It's when you have a good mix that business
truly achieves it's maximum potential. While radio is wonderful on it's own, it
also makes a great complimentary marketing effort.
The shoe always fits
Radio is as flexible as you need it to be, allowing you to stick to a budget
you can afford and work towards achieving the results you want. Unlike
other advertising methods where you must commit to a predetermined format
like a quarter page ad in the newspaper or a full page ad in a magazine, radio
account executives work with you to design a schedule and format that
fits your specific needs and goals. You don't have to settle for off the rack
in radio, everything is custom designed for each individual client. You
have choices in how long you want your sales message to be, when it plays,
how often it's played and how long you want your ad to run for.
And there you have it!
You now have the background of why radio works so well as an advertising
medium for small and home based business. Keep tuned in to Easy Results
with Radio for more information on creating and implementing a plan to make
the most of radio for your small business.
Your feedback is appreciated!
Did you find this book useful? Let us know!
Did you find it dry and boring? Then definitely let us know that too.
In order to better service our readers and visitors and to produce products
that will meet your needs, we always appreciate feedback and comments that
can help us improve our work.
Contact Us today with your impressions, questions and comments.
Easy Results with Radio – Maximizing Your Marketing Budget with Audio

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