No Static at All - Using Radio to Your Advantage
By Peter Montoya
Have you ever thought about advertising on the radio? Have you ever wondered if you can get on the radio without buying ad time?
Most financial advisors don’t use radio as a marketing channel, but it can be hugely effective for building a brand and generating prospects. Will it bring you instant, runaway success? Probably not. But over time, it can familiarize a huge audience with your services – more people than you could ever hope to reach on your own.
Frequency is everything:
Yes, radio advertising is expensive … compared to say, the cost of mailing a sales letter. But it remains a bargain when compared to most other forms of advertising. If you are buying time in one of the major U.S. radio markets, one 60-second spot on a commercial station with middling ratings will likely cost you $300-500.
Realistically, a radio advertising campaign will cost you $10-25,000. Here’s why. In radio, the key is to advertise consistently and frequently. You want your ad to air at least 18 times a week, preferably 24 or more. (If your ad airs 6-8 times a week, you are wasting your money. One mention of your business once a day isn’t going to buy any mindshare with listeners.)
If you are serious about advertising on a local commercial radio station, ask what the station’s primary demographic is (i.e., women 25-54), and ask for a media sales kit. After the conversation, you might be faxed or e-mailed a “flight schedule” of spots – an outline for a weeklong, monthlong or multi-month advertising campaign.
Some of your spots might air during morning drivetime or afternoon drivetime, when listenership is normally at its highest. Others may air at less attractive times of the day (late evenings or weekends). Again, this is typical – stations usually scatter spots all around the clock, and if you want more spots in drivetime, you’ll pay for them. You can almost always negotiate.
A matter of volume:
You want your spot to air for more than one week. Think a month. Think six months. Even a year. In radio, you need a frequent presence to attract prospects. Let up, and the prospects dry up.
If you’re building your brand, you want your spot to air frequently over a long stretch of time. If you are maintaining your brand, you can get away with fewer spots, but you still want a long-run campaign. Your salesperson will often help you write and time your ad copy.
Commercial considerations:
If you are advertising on a commercial radio station, you might be wondering: which one should I pick? Certainly, AM stations featuring news, talk and current affairs are good choices, given their mature and educated demographic. Sometimes, you can negotiate with a salesperson at one of these stations to have some or all of your spots air during one or two specialty programs, instead of all over the programming schedule.
Other types of formats are worth considering. There are more than 2,000 country radio stations in America, and nearly 2,000 stations airing religious programming. These stations tend to reach out to (and market to) a family-oriented demographic. (Incidentally, research has shown that listeners of country and talk stations tend to stay with the same station for longer periods of time than other listeners.)
PSAs and sponsorships for good PR:
One of our clients, Jeff White, has leveraged the power of public radio in Honolulu to build name recognition. For years, he has helped to locally underwrite Hawaii Public Radio’s broadcasts of All Things Considered.
In exchange for his support for a non-profit public radio station, he gets a consistently airing PSA: “Support for All Things Considered comes from Jeff White, Certified Financial Planner. Celebrating 25 years of crafting compelling retirement plans for individuals." While his phone number isn’t broadcast, the on-air mentions reinforce his brand so that anyone who runs across Jeff’s postcards, brochures, cinema ads and Yellow Pages ad makes the connection.
Typically, the cost for these public radio mentions runs $600-800 for a spot, and you can buy a schedule of spots on a specific show or within a specific block of time, typically a two-week period.
Commercial radio stations often sell sponsorships for traffic reports, weather forecasts, and news segments. You can also potentially sponsor station events in the community.
Hosting your own show:
Lastly, there’s the story of Marty Schneider. A CFP® practitioner with The Advisors Group in San Diego, he turned a chance meeting at a health club into a thriving radio show that boosted his business.
While working out one day, Marty met the manager of KPRZ 1210 AM, a local radio station, and they started talking. When the manager discovered Marty’s profession, he asked him about doing market reports during news broadcasts.
Short reports on the major indexes and the economy grew into a weekend live call-in program – a striking achievement for a man with no prior radio experience.
Today, Marty is still on the air – his half-hour program, The Word on Wealth, airs Monday through Friday at 11:30am. He broadcasts from his office. He purchased his own mobile broadcast system for about $4,000, but the other programming costs have been handled by KPRZ.
Marty is also able to promote his seminars during the show. “I try to convert callers to come to my seminars by being a little vague about my answers,” he says, “and suggesting that to get the whole picture, they should attend my seminar, which is true, by the way. I have a 90% consultation request rate from my seminars, 80% of those people actually come in, and 75% of those become clients. So I’m converting about 50% of all my seminar attendees, partially due to the radio program.”
Amplifying your presence:
Sometimes it may seem like an old-fashioned medium, but radio is still powerful and relevant, and a terrific way to reach a target audience. If you are thinking outside the box, using radio might help you to generate business that is out of this world.
Peter Montoya is President of Peter Montoya Inc. - the only advertising agency in the country that specializes in financial advisors. Check out MarketingLibrary.net for unlimited access to hundreds of marketing articles, letters and invitations for only $10 per month. Learn more at www.MarketingLibrary.net or by calling (888) 730-5300.