November 28, 2024
The best way to write an effective radio commercial is to get out a piece of paper and a no. 2 pencil. Have an eraser, plenty of coffee, a suitable coffee mug of course. If you’re left-handed, put the pencil in your left hand and start writing. If you’re right-handed – well, I don’t know how you do it!
I’m a bit sarcastic when it comes to…well, just about everything so I couldn’t resist that opening paragraph after I asked the Google the simple question “How to write an effective radio commercial?” The answers that popped up were incredible…l-l-l-l-y stupid; recall the definition of the word “stupid” as having or showing a great lack of intelligence paired against the definition of intelligence being the ability of a person to apply or acquire knowledge and skills.
You’re in luck! Reading this will give you the ability you seek to apply or acquire knowledge and skills on how to write an effective radio commercial. I would suggest reading the other items out there on the Google about this as well so you’ll see the contrast between what you’ll read here and what those guys are saying. The other stuff IS the problem…most radio commercials I hear sound like the other stuff out there on the Google telling you how to write a radio commercial.
No wonder most radio commercials sound stupid! It’s because anyone researching how to write an effective radio commercial searches the Google and all they find are stupid recommendations. I know it sounds like I’ve repeated myself three times here already, but sheesh…there is an abundance of a lot of lack of intelligence writing about this topic (I think that last sarcastic sentence is actually grammatically correct).
The first thing I recommend that you do before you write a radio commercial is have a business purpose to open a business. Hobbies, wants, being a good cook, having good taste, a big ego, knowing how to dress nice, just knowing how to fix stuff, or lots of money you don’t know what to do with are terrible reasons to open a business, but I’ve heard them all as reasons why someone did it. Why did you do it? Start there and if you’ve never read the book “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek, I recommend it.
Here is the key phrase or answer for “how” to write an effective radio commercial. Ask this question: “what is something about your business you think everyone should know, but they don’t?” I wish that was my question, but it’s not. Credit for it goes out to Swagger Institute founder and President Derron Steenbergen.
I might have started this sentence with “you’ve probably heard of what leverage is”, but in today’s society the concept of leverage might be limited to engineers and construction people and the Google says that less than 3% of the US population work in those two professions – so…I don’t want to sound stupid, but maybe leverage is a term that is not understood very well when talking strictly business. When I write a commercial, I leverage what’s different about you against the pack…the pack is your competition.
Most every commercial is all about how great the company in the commercial is; talking only about how customers can solve the company’s problems. The next time you turn on the radio, listen to how many commercials scream “me, me, me” and they are only about the business and explain zero benefits to the listener/customer. A good commercial solves the customers problems. If not, that message is a stupid commercial. What makes you different? That’s the leverage. How does your product or service solve the customers problem? That’s the message.
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