I cold call business owners every day, and the ones that already advertise on broadcast radio tell me the same thing every time: “I’m doing radio with (insert radio station) and they are giving me a heck of a deal. I get 20 commercials per week on FIVE different radio stations!”
Let me tell you, they are really excited about that and totally believe this is working.
But it’s not.
20 commercials sounds like a lot. Kind of. BUT, when you break that down between five radio stations, it’s like a half of a commercial every day per station. Horrible schedule. Waste-of-money schedule. This-will-not-work schedule.
So, what does work?
The absolute best way to advertise on radio is to buy a commercial in every spot break on every radio station every single day. Unfortunately, there’s probably not a small business, or even a large one, that can afford that.
Then, what’s the second best option?
The next best option is this: Run 10-15 commercials per day and purchase as many days as you can afford. It’s as simple as that. For example, choose two days to run per week, every week, and let the magic of radio go to work for you. If you can afford a third or fourth day, do it! It will work even faster.
Why does this schedule work?
When listeners tell me they are running a half of a commercial a day, (basically one commercial every other day) I cringe inside and wonder why anyone would even sell this. Radio – and advertising in general – is about repetition.
A listener needs to hear the radio ad 5-10 times before they get into the buying mood. Airing the commercial one time per day is not only not enough for the listener to hear, but you are missing out on hundreds of other listener who are not tuned in for that ONE time.
That is why you run 10-15 commercials per day: not only are you hitting hundreds more listeners, but most of those listeners are hearing your commercials several times a day, creating a memory, therefore branding your business in their head!
So, the next time a radio rep suggests you run 20 commercials in a week, you respond, “That’s great! Let’s run them all in two days on ONE radio station.” The look on their face will say it all.
