How to Buy Radio & TV Advertising

Last week, I told you about avoiding the ratings jargon when buying advertising on Radio & TV.

Let's dig a little deeper and see what you should do, starting with Radio.

You need to select a radio station that has listeners that are likely to become buyers of what you have to sell. For example, if you are a plumber, you want to reach home owners, not renters.

Think for a moment about who a homeowner is. Age: most likely over 25, by then they are done with college and settling down and starting families. Families are more likely to have plumbing problems than singles, because there are more people using the shower, bathtub, toilet, sinks, etc and the more they are used, the more likely a problem will develop.

So, in my town there are 20 radio stations, of which 15 reach adults 25 and older. The price of commercials vary depending on when the ads are scheduled and some stations will want to charge you more because the ratings services say they have more listeners than the other stations.

We are habitual people. We get up at the same time nearly every day, travel the same route to work, listen to the same one or two radio stations as we are going to work, listen to another station while at work, and when we leave to head home, we listen to the radio again. Nobody listens to all 20 radio stations each day, or each week. I listen to maybe 4 besides the ones I work for, depending on the time of day and my mood.

So, take advantage of these habits and buy an advertising schedule that reaches a small group of people everyday. Pick what we call in the radio business, a daypart. A daypart is a 4 or 5 hour time of the day.

Make sure your ads are in one or two dayparts, like mornings and mid days for example.

Use radio to create top of mind awareness for your business so that when the toilet overflows, the family that is trying to get the kids off to school and out the door to their jobs will already have you in mind.

On the TV side, buy by the show. Everyone has favorite shows that they watch week after week. Make a commitment to be advertising week after week on those shows that match the viewers to your customer profile.

Be Very, Very Careful and Cautious about buying Deal, Packages and Promotions that do not fit these criteria.

Your questions and comments are always welcome.