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Radio Still Has Power in the Age of the
Internet |
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Savvy Talks with Radio Expert Bryan
Fikes |
Radio was one of the original targeted
media. By keying in to a station’s music, ideology and cast of
characters, you could reach your target audience with
laser-like precision. And you could do this before there was
search marketing or Google.
Still, radio gets a bad rep with some small business owners,
who have tried it, without understanding its true magic. More
than any other media, it demands frequency for success. Your
jingle or commercial has the ability to germinate in your
listener’s mind while they are trapped in their cars for that
dreaded daily commute, better known in the radio as “drive
time.”
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Spotlight on Bryan
Fikes
 Radio and Bryan
Fikes were made for each
other. He was given a
radio at age 8 which he
carried around for
years.
I also inherited a radio that I
believed my grandfather used in
World War II, Fikes says. It
had multiple weather channels
and sub bands. I think from
that day I figured out that I
was meant to be in radio.
Fikes has done everything in
radio from DJ to Account
Executive. Today he runs a
company that is blending his
love for radio marketing with
the Internet. His biggest
challenge is improving his web
page rank, something he also
does for his clients.
He offers solutions for Radio,
TV, print, direct mail,
billboards, advertising,
marketing, PR, Public
Relations, Sales Model
Improvement and other areas
like business planning and
business structure. You can
visit Bryan Fikes’ websites at
Bay Area Radio
Advertising and
Baby Peek
Media.
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With radio advertising, you can reach a targeted group of
consumers with a simple, but powerful message about your
product or service. The key feature of a radio station is its
format - the type of programming it features and the style of
the announcers in between, he explains.
In his profile on the Jump Up forum on Intuit.com - the tax and
financial software people - Fikes explains that you are buying
access to an audience. Radio stations sell time and access to
their well-honed audience of listeners.
Fikes says that you could write and produce your own ad, but
you will probably get the best results by working with a
professional. To get started with radio, he says you should
choose only one radio station, after interviewing every station
in your marketplace.
Here are the questions, Fikes says you should
ask:
- What demographic does your station target?
- What is the audience size or “cume” of your
station?
- What has your “Account Executive” experience been with
the small businesses using your station?
- What is the reach of your signal?
- What is the smallest budget you work with?
- Keep in mind, what you are doing by interviewing all
the stations in the market, is getting the average rate per
commercial that the radio stations are charging, Fikes
explains.
There are a lot of variables when negotiating with rate, but
in general, the account executive you work with should give you
a good rate depending on the size of your schedule. Schedule is
the term used for the amount of ads and where they are
placed.
Here are some factors Fikes says you should keep in
mind when buying ads:
- Determine how far someone will travel to use your
product or service.
- Find out how much is one new customer worth.
- Does the customer buy once, or is there the possibility
of keeping them longer?
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Must
Do's in
Radio
- Be
patient.
- Invest
long
term
- Have a
unique
fresh
commercial
that
describes
what you
are trying
to sell
clearly.
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Must
Not's
- Buy the
wrong
station
(Happens
when owners
try to buy
a station
they
“like,” vs.
what their
customers
tune
into)
- Buy too
few
commercials.
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“This is the key,” Fikes says. “If you can not afford
to have frequency in your schedule, meaning that you reach the
listeners several times, you should NOT invest in radio.”
Marcia Ming
?
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