July 23, 2024
Somehow, this concept of buying 3 radio commercials a day, 7 days a week won’t go away! It’s a stupid idea. Stupid is having or showing a great lack of intelligence or common sense. I’ll prove I’m correct with some easy math in the next paragraph. Why do you advertise? To get a customer. I wish I would have kept track of how many times I heard business owners say, “I just want to get my name out there!” Guess what? That’s stupid; and expensive.
Here’s the easy math explaining why 3 radio commercials a day is stupid. The majority of our radio listening audience listens at various times during the day, primarily between 6am and 7pm. Study after study shows that we listen to the radio for 2 – 2.5 hours a day. Common sense and experience should tell you that you listen half an hour here, fifteen minutes there, etc.…for a total of 2 – 2.5 hours a day. We know people listen 2-2.5 hours a day, but we don’t know which 2 hours between 6a – 7p.
Here’s the math logic. We listen to radio in chunks of fifteen minutes so over the course of 13 hours there are fifty-two fifteen-minute chunks. Each time you air a commercial, you have a 2% chance of reaching any listener. So, if you air 3 commercials in a day, you’ve tripled those odds. I have a way to increase your chances of reaching any listener by 500% without spending more money. And you’ll reach each listener more often, which is how we learn.
You see, we learn by repetition. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, remember? How long does it take to teach a child how to tie his/her shoes? The great musicians and athletes and speakers learn to do things by repetition. Have you ever studied to learn a foreign language? It takes time and effort. Stop thinking of it as advertising and think of it as educating. You’re educating people to learn why they will benefit by doing business with you. With that mindset, you want to give people as many “reps” as you can.
How can you increase the chance of reaching any radio listener by 500% without spending more money? Take your 21 weekly commercials and air all 21 commercials on one day during the week: week after week. It costs the same amount of money, but you’ll reach more listeners more often. Then, track your store traffic on the day you air your commercials. My recommendation is to use your commercials to drive traffic to your website or social media and track the increase on the day you air commercials. I’ll spell that out. Say in your commercials: “for more information, go to our website” (list out your website address).
Congratulations! You’re no longer stupid about how many commercials you should be airing in a day.
If you like this article sign up for the free weekly newsletter by sending an email to: info@themessagemechanic.com
Philip