MUSCLE SHOALS – There are two fundamental ways that businesses use mass media to reach potential customers. Since way back when, newspapers and magazines have been charging their readers for the privilege of reading their publication. And part of that subscription included seeing advertisements that businesses paid the Publisher to include their message within. That advertising model continues to this day. Seems like a pretty good deal for the print media publishers, since they get paid on both sides, i.e. the Consumer and the Advertiser. So that’s one way for businesses to get their message out to their potential customers.
Broadcasting and most Internet-based media does not charge the listener / site visitor for the ability of receiving their content. It’s free. These modern-day companies earn their audience by providing them content free-of-charge, and then make available to businesses the audience they generate. Rather than price a print ad by its size on the page, Broadcasters price their ads on the number of listeners they generate through programming. The larger the audience, the more they charge for the ad. Most people agree that this method would be more fair. You pay for what you get… As simple as that.
And the public seems to agree. Fifteenth-Century print media is going the ‘way of the Do-Do’, and Twenty-First Century electronic media is going Single-Stage to Orbit!
OK. Enough with our editorializing. Let’s take a look at what Kevin Self of Singing River Media Group, LLC has to say about Broadcast Advertising.
Kevin Self with a photo of his Father, Mitch Self
“Well, we run into lots of people who, maybe are new to running their own business, who think that advertising is a really hard concept to grasp, but it’s really not,” Kevin told us. He continued, “Broadcast advertising plants an advertiser’s message into the mind of the Listener over time. I’ll give you and example… Someone has a leak in their kitchen and they have never had a need for a plumber before. Say, they live in a relatively new home and have never had a plumbing issue. Now, all of a sudden they have a leak under their kitchen sink and they don’t know what to do. Well, back in the day, they would go to the Yellow Pages or somewhere like that and try to look up a plumber. But when they did, how did they know that the plumber’s trustworthy?” So Kevin gave us this, “How do they know that they’re going to like the way that plumber does business? More recently, since there’s no Yellow Pages in the house any more, they would look on the Internet. They would just Google it. How are they going to know that the plumber that they’re calling is going to be someone they’re going to enjoy doing business with? This is especially where radio advertising can come into play, because through the power of the spoken word, a plumber can communicate to people that have that potential need for a plumber that’s a good one. That they’re professional and reliable. That you’re fair in their pricing. These are all the things that a good and reliable plumber would want to tell someone, and they can tell them that in radio advertising.”
Radio is personal. A good Radio ad conveys the feeling that the Listener has just gotten a great recommendation for this particular plumber, because the Radio Station, by simply the virtue of the fact that the Listener is there every day listening, is similar to a friend giving a recommendation. It’s a subconscious thing, but it works. And the great thing about this, is that feeling satys with the Listener long after the advertisement has run. Kevin detailed this concept, “And when you run that ad on the radio talking about all the virtues of your business, most of the people you’re talking to will not care much until they have a need for a plumber. And then who are they going to call? They’re going to call that guy that they heard about that is trustworthy, has fair pricing and does the job right! He summed up, ” So that is the power of radio. Radio is still one of the top mediums in the advertising world. It outperforms online listening by a long shot. And we have all the statistics to prove that. But again, that connection that you make through the spoken word you can keep your business in front of people. So when they do need you, then they will remember you. And that’s what we do best. ”
We asked Kevin how much help will the Radio Station give a new business owner in formulating their ad. “Our folks are experts at helping a new Client form their message. They find out what’s unique about the business owner’s company… Something that they provide that stands head and shoulders above everyone else who’s competing with them. That’s the critical part of the sales process here. We work with our clients in a close business relationship. We’re fair. We are not pushy. We truly want that business to succeed! We want all small businesses to succeed, but unfortunately, some don’t because they can’t formulate the correct messaging. And a lot of times the there the small business thinks that they can advertise their way into success but they spend their advertising money in the wrong way. We really try hard to help them create a successful advertising mix which will increase their chances of success.”
Here’s something you just can’t do on traditional print media… CLICK HERE to listen to WLAY!
