Top 10 Free Marketing Tips For Small Businesses
Radio advertising is a fantastic and cost-effective way to promote most brands, services and businesses on commercial radio stations.
Our experienced marketing teams work with major stations every day and are able to arrange advertising across the whole country. As well as large well-known stations we can also arrange adverts on smaller more local stations, which are well known and highly effective in their regions.
Popular stations reach millions of listeners on a daily basis. So if you're looking for radio advertising for your company look no further than us; we'll have your brand broadcasting on the airwaves in no time at all!
If you are interested in this popular form of marketing please contact us today. We look forward to hearing from you and putting together a radio advertising campaign to suit your needs.
Most radio campaigns have a recommended minimum spend of £2000 to have a successful impact.
Put simply, it is a way to promote your product or service on commercial radio stations through the medium of short audio adverts (typically 30 seconds long). These radio adverts typically run in between songs, chat and news bulletins and are used by a range of companies due to their ability to reach a huge cross-section of society.
Radio ads are used for a variety of messages; from commercial selling through to public service messaging.
Radio costs are reasonable when compared to other forms of marketing, meaning that it subsequently achieves a great return on investment; this is one of its main advantages and why it is used time after time, week after week.
If you would like free quotes contact us today.
The factors which broadly determine the cost are outlined below:
Reach/Number of Listeners/Listenership – the more people who tune in to a radio station on a daily basis (and therefore the more likely to hear your radio advert) the more expensive it will be. Heart advertising costs and Hits/Capital radio advertising costs are obviously more expensive (as large commercial stations) than smaller local stations - but you would expect this because they have more listeners (so potentially more customers for you). So the option when choosing a station to advertise on is; do you want to hit lots of people in a wide area or a smaller but more select audience more locally?
Number of Slots – the more slots (number of radio adverts) you choose to have, the more expensive it will be. You may choose to do a couple of ads each day or want to go more “heavyweight” and do between 10-15 slots so that you are covering the majority of the day. If you are uncertain of which approach to take our media planners will advise. Think about when in the day your target market and target audience will be listening and tailor your slots to their life and listening patterns.
Length of Campaign – most adverts are the same length – 30 seconds – and a typical campaign would be over one week. Sometimes however you may want to do a shorter period, a weekend promotion or a “winning weekend” are popular in raising awareness. If you have a larger budget, you may look to do a few weeks with your radio ad to really get your message and brand out there on the airwaves. For the best results, we tend to suggest a minimum of a week, however, a two-week campaign is ideal for a good amount of coverage.
Time of Slots - depending on what you are promoting, certain times of day may work better. Slots are broadly broken down into breakfast, day, evening (rush hour) and night. The most sought-after tend to be breakfast and evening as they have higher listeners. Again, have a think about when your target audience may be listening, or equally spread them throughout the day to hit a variety and cross-section of people. A spread tends to be the most typical approach by most advertisers but your product will guide you to the most suitable timings.
Radio Talk Ups and Radio Co-Promotions – as well as doing straight “air-time” you can also do what is called “talk-up” or “co-promotions”, this is where the DJs/presenters talk about a product. Often this can be a more creative approach. They are given a script and bullet points to mention so that they talk about the right things and are “on message”. Radio co-promos are often an informal way of getting your key information across. Sometimes stations can be picky about what services and products they do co-promotions with. Examples of co-promotions are when presenters talk about how “great” a film or theatre show is - when they may not have actually seen it!
Simply drop us a message today and we will send over more specific information about radio advertising costs.
The simple answer is yes!
When you think about it, most people listen to the radio on a daily basis; in their homes, at work and also when driving, therefore it is a great way to reach a mass amount of people quickly. This mass reach is one of the main benefits; it can hit millions of people all at once. Most forms of marketing media (apart from TV advertising) cannot claim to achieve this, whilst radio adverts manage to do this at a fraction of the price of TV advertising.
However, even though a radio ad hits a huge number of listeners this isn’t untargeted as stations have different demographics e.g. younger people tend to listen to Hits/Capital FM, older listeners tend to tune into Smooth. Our teams will help match your product and message to the most suitable stations.
This targeting is the main reason radio advertising achieves brilliant results time after time and why radio advertising effectiveness is high; radio has high reach but wastage is reduced as these people are targetted.
The value for money is another reason radio is popular with many advertisers and companies.
As radio listeners represent a great cross-section of society, advertising on radio works for most businesses and is a popular form of marketing employed by a range of companies from diverse industries. The most popular types of companies who advertise on radio through our teams include:
If you would like to book a radio campaign or for us to propose a radio advertising campaign for you, contact us today for more information.
When thinking about which station to go for, put yourself in the mind of your potential customer and think “what station would they listen to”? Selecting the right station is the key to all successful campaigns.
The most popular campaigns we run are with:
Capital/Hits FM advertising
Heart FM advertising
Smooth FM advertising
Classic FM advertising
Magic FM advertising
Absolute FM advertising
Local radio advertising
Contact us today for more information and advice about the above commercial radio stations and use radio to reach your target audience.
If you are looking to combine commercial radio with other options the below typically work well:
Online - as people will hear your radio advert they are then likely to go online to find out more information. A strong online presence is, therefore, a good idea to supplement your campaign.
Social media marketing - similar to the benefits of online support, social media is often a good idea to use to back up your radio ads.
Bus ads - bus ads or other forms of outdoor promotions are a great way to support radio, meaning that people get to see and hear what you have to offer.
TV - the cherry on top of any marketing campaign - the power of TV is superb and can be targeted to regions making it more affordable than people often realise.
With your radio advertising, you must remember that the audience can only listen to your product or service being described by words - they obviously can't see it - this means you need to create an innovative advert which will catch their attention. Also, you don't have much time - 30 seconds is not a lot of time to describe what you are offering - so you must get to the point and be clear and concise. Sometimes catchy phrases and slogans work and a good sound bed can attract attention further - but also just being clear and direct is important; don't try and cram too much in.
To summarise we would say; try not to be too clever, as most listeners are doing other things - so get to the point and don't be too confusing. You just need to grab their attention and encourage them to seek more information at a later time.
Yes!
Get in touch today and we can help you make your advert with our radio ad production team at a brilliant rate. When producing this for you we, of course, take into account best practices as outlined by the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB). We will also help with script-writing, bed creation and finding a suitable voice-over artist to match with your individual needs. Our top tip would be to get an “ear-catching” advert so that it stands out; something clear, catchy and to the point works best.
Here are the most popular questions we get asked:
As we explore in the guide, the cost depends on a few factors including which stations you choose, the length of the campaign and the time of year. Many advertisers use radio as it offers great value for money.
It's basically advertising on the radio using short pre-recorded adverts that are broadcast to a set pre-approved schedule. It's used by a wide range of businesses and brands due to it's proven success.
It depends on the station and the listenership, larger more commercial stations with more listeners cost more than smaller more local ones.
Very, its reasonable price tag and ability to reach a large number of people make it both highly effective and a firm favourite with a broad range of companies who are looking to increase profits or raise awareness. It's probably an under-used advertising medium considering its great results.
So, if you are looking for radio adverts in County Oak, look no further than us.
You can either let us know which commercial radio station you are interested or we will put together a proposal based on your budgets, aims and target audience. We can also supply you with more information on the advantages of radio advertising any other advice or information that you may need.
We look forward to hearing from you and working to get your product, brand or service on the airwaves!
Topics covered - radio advertising in RH10 9.
We cover County Oak (West Sussex)