Growing your business on the radio

A Message from Flint Media General Manager, Dustin Dowdy

As a business owner or decision maker, your main goal everyday is to grow your business. There’s an old adage that says “If you’re not evolving or growing, you’re dying.” You’ve tried print advertising, billboards, social media, even television. You’ve seen mixed results but the ad placements are either too expensive (television), tough to change (billboards) or not frequent enough to make a difference (print). That’s not to mention the ever changing algorithm of social media – something you post today may be seen by some people (less than you think) and then nowhere to be found tomorrow. You may have your favorites, but the truth is, you just want your business to grow and you want every penny you spend to be productive.

Radio advertising is perfect for your needs. It’s affordable, the message is easy to change, and it hits thousands of unique listeners daily. Think about it – how many times have you listened to a sporting event or a morning show on the radio when you were in your car? For most people, radio was a huge part of their lives growing up and still remains a FREE source of daily entertainment. According to a 2015 Forbes article titled “Consumers Still Want AM/FM Radios In Their Cars,” AM and FM radio reaches more people on a daily basis than Facebook, with 60 percent of Americans tuning in each day (85 percent listen weekly). Your small business advertising depends on constant visibility that you can afford.

Local radio is even more critical to the daily lives of Americans than any other source because it provides current local news, weather, sports, etc. During natural disasters and states of emergency, the federal government doesn’t post a status update, they interrupt programming to reach the entire country. Drill it down even more on our family of stations and you’ll hear local birthdays, community events, local people that you see at church and restaurants. Local radio is your audience’s media of choice between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. during the week, and even more so during the weekends.

 

Consider this 2015 article about radio return on investment, that states that a nationwide advertising campaign survey showed a $14 to $1 return in radio advertising:

“Nielsen says the results show radio delivered $14 dollars in incremental sales for each dollar invested in radio advertising. Nielsen says it was able to come to that conclusion because the listeners who were exposed to the radio campaign spent $210 million more on the telco’s products and services over the three-month period than if they had not been exposed to the radio campaign…

“The telco advertiser spent approximately $15.3 million dollars in radio advertising in the PPM markets during the quarter. When the increase in sales is compared with the radio investment level, the study found the return was $14 to $1.” (RadioInk)

And the target audience is incredibly diverse and includes the largest demographic, millennials:

“In fact, millennials exposed to the campaign had double the increase in their monthly spending ($16 versus $8) for the Telco’s products and services.” (RadioInk)

Or consider this recent Forbes article (“Radio: The All-But-Forgotten Medium With The Biggest Reach”) that says, “recent Nielsen data shows radio actually has the most reach among American media consumers. 93% of adults listen to the radio each week as compared to 87% who watch TV, a substantive difference.” (Forbes)

So, why aren’t you advertising on the radio?

There is a myth that radio advertising is too expensive for the average small business advertising budget. That is incredibly untrue; radio advertising is uniquely affordable. Here’s an analogy: Let’s say you hire someone to talk about your business to 5,000 strangers per day and pay them $8 per hour, 40 hours per week, for a month. You’d spend $1,280 per month to employ that person! However, with a well-placed radio campaign, you could get the same reach, with a more effective message for less than a third of that! You can advertise your business for an entire month for less than $10 per day!

Flint Media has a radio station group that covers ten counties in Southwest Georgia. We are talking to, literally, THOUSANDS of people each day. It’s “word of mouth” on a gigantic scale! We have formats that cover nearly EVERY demographic: Classic rock, Classic Country, Hot AC and Contemporary Christian. On our LOCAL morning show, we take calls everyday from Thomasville, Cairo, Bainbridge, Camilla, Donalsonville, Colquitt, Blakely, even Dothan, Moultrie and Marianna. We have listeners in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. If you want the most bang for YOUR buck, advertising on our radio stations is your best bet!

On the About Our Radio Stations page, you will find our coverage maps and information about our stations. You can see that we have a LOT to offer. The best part is, we make it easy for you. Our salespeople are trained to transform your talking points into interesting, call-to-action messages. We don’t charge production fees and we can change your message as often as you like, even running different messages simultaneously! We will custom design a marketing plan for your needs (at no additional cost) to target YOUR customer – you can position your message during local news and weather, sports, live shows and more. You can GROW YOUR BUSINESS with an investment in radio and let us do the work for you!

Now is the Time

Try something you’ve never done before. Give us a chance to help you grow your business. We are the ONLY advertising medium in southwest Georgia that offers a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE – if it’s not effective, we’ll run you for FREE! You’ve already taken the chance of going into business (or your boss has taken a chance on you); advertising with us is a no-brainer and the safest bet you’ll make.

So, how do you get started? Give us a call or shoot us an email. We’ll take it from here. You just figure out how you’re going to handle all of the new business.

Call us today at (229) 416-6259 or email me at dustin@live1019.com and let’s talk about how radio can help you grow your business!