Sales & Marketing Authority, Bestselling Author & Business Motivational Speaker

Two of the best ways to advertise a product or service are cell phone SMS or local TV advertising.  TV advertising may not be the newest method, but tried and true it still works.  Text messaging is a really new marketing method that has only taken off in the last few years.  Implementing both of these strategies can vastly improve your market penetration and give you the opportunity to reach thousands of local customers.  There are also new opportunities in television marketing with private providers starting their own stations.

Benefits of Television Advertising

Running ads on national networks can cost an extraordinary amount of money, and premium spots are well out of the budget range of most local businesses.  However, local stations have much more reasonable price points and can offer extra exposure to the company.  The only downside is that you may get multiple calls in response to the advertisement that don’t actually generate sales.  The added exposure may cause many people to call in that have limited understanding of your product or service.  Those that call in with real intent to purchase will be obvious. Immediately cut loose those that are not really interested so that you can focus on those that are.

To maximise the number of potential responses start with a solid headline and include a clear description and a call to action.  A local celebrity endorsement is another great way to increase potential responses.  National stars are usually well out of reach, but a local sports figure or news anchor is a great prospect.  A name they can trust is the important part of choosing a figure for endorsement.  Customers that trust the celebrity will be more inclined to purchase the product.

Text Messaging Gets Customers in the Door

Text messaging doesn’t give the same broad range of exposure since it can only access those that are already customers, but it has a great read rate.  Text messages have an over 33% read rate and a well executed text marketing plan can generate a solid return on investment.  The cost of sending out bulk text messaging is very reasonable and adds an extra element to any marketing plan.  Sending out coupons to former or current clients is a great way to bring them back in the door.  Coupons that are only available through texts show customers that you are loyal to them and convince them to be loyal to you.

Implementing these two strategies can have an incredible impact on your business success.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

The truth? Radio advertising, especially today, can be expensive. On the other hand, radio advertisements have the ability to reach thousands upon thousands of people in one shot. The trick is to maximize the value of your radio advertising campaigns by making them as profitable as possible. Here are three things to keep in mind.

Know Your Audience

Before you purchase any type of advertising package you need to know two things. First, you need to know who your own target audience is. Second, you need to know what type of audience the radio station in question targets. Write down the age, gender, and important factors about the audience you’d like to target. Compare your information to the information the sales rep gives you when you inquire about advertising. If you don’t have similar goals, move on to another radio station.

Be Entertaining

The reality of the situation is that you are not the only advertisement someone sitting in his or her car is hearing. They hear one after the other and some people flip stations to find better entertainment during commercial breaks. This means your commercials themselves need to be entertaining in order to keep the attention of your audience. You may need to incorporate humor or an ongoing theme. If you’re not captivating, you’ll never earn the attention of the station’s listeners.

Take Advantage of Opportunity

A lot of radio stations like to run special promotions. Sometimes they cost a bit more but the cost is nothing compared to the added benefit. If you sponsor the weather report, for example, they’ll mention your name before the report and then your advertisement might be first after the report – meaning more people will hear it because they haven’t flipped stations yet. You might even find yourself mentioned at off-air events as well.

Radio advertising is costly but profitable – if you make it profitable. You can’t run out and buy an ad from the first station that gives you a deal. Make sure you remain focused and your ads will eventually begin to pay off!

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

There’s a key difference between radio advertising and print advertising that you need to know about.

Get a pad and pen. Write this down.

When designing a radio advertisement you should only have ONE call to action.

In your print advertising you will find that you usually encourage more than one. You may ask a prospect to call you, visit your website, email for details, etc.

The problem is that those listening to the radio don’t necessarily have the luxury of writing down your requests, saving your email, or doing anything that will “remind” them later of what you asked them to do.

If they only have to remember ONE thing they’ll be more likely to make that call or visit that website. Asking them to do both will overload their response mechanisms and, more likely than not, will cause them to forget BOTH pieces of information.

Remember, many people listening to the radio are multi-tasking. Very few people sit and listen to the radio for the sake of listening to the radio. You’re lucky if you’ve grabbed their attention to start with, so asking for too much will only cause you to lose it again.

Keep your instructions simplistic and direct. If you ask your listener to make a choice he’ll probably choose not to take any sort of action at all!

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

Perhaps your marketing campaign isn’t producing the results you expected. Maybe it simply needs a few fresh new ideas. Truth be told, the internet, postcards, and print advertisements aren’t the only effective marketing methods being used by successful businesses today. Radio advertisement, despite popular belief, is still very popular and effective.

Radio advertising, like most methods of marketing, has both its advantages and drawbacks. Let’s start with some of the advantages of radio advertising:

• Radio advertising costs less than television advertising and may reach a broader audience.
• Most radio advertisements are informal and tell a story that engages and captivates the listener. Most do this by taking advantage of popular radio personalities or by including a catchy and creative jingle.
• Radio advertisements are effective because they’re run several times over the course of a day, week, etc. This means your market is likely to hear the ad multiple times as opposed to a print ad which they may only see one time.

Radio advertising is incredibly effective, but it simply isn’t right for everyone. Some of the drawbacks include:

• Because radio ads are so short, someone who is listening to your ad while driving may not catch all of the pertinent contact information and may not necessarily hear the ad again.
• The cost of radio advertising may be inexpensive compared to other advertising methods, but if you want prime-time slots early and late in the day the costs can be very high.
• Radio advertising is only effective if you know large parts of your target audience regularly listen to the radio.

Radio advertisements are incredibly effective, but only if planned and used properly. If you’re not already advertising on the radio, it may be worth contacting your local broadcast stations to find out what types of packages are available. You might want to incorporate radio advertising into your marketing budget for the rest of the year!

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker