What Does it Cost to Advertise on the Radio?

It's a question that people want to know.

And I have an answer.

The cost is not important.

It's just the final number in a mathematical equation.

And it is the mathematical equation that matters more the what it equals.

Lets look at it the way a lot of folks look at it, first. They say, I want to spend $2000.

(In reality, they would like to spend $5, but that won't work.)

What are the different equations that they could use to = $2000?

1 x 2000
2 x 1000
4 x 500
8 x 250
16 x 125
20 x 100
40 x 50
50 x 40
100 x 20

Just to name a few of the options that a business could use to advertise in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

What do those numbers mean?

1 print ad in the newspaper (1/2 page black and white) will cost 2 grand.

I have some radio ads I will sell you for $100 each (Morning Drive, live, testimonal by a 20 year well known talk show host), 1 per day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month = 2 grand.

I also have some radio ads I will sell you for $20 each, 6am-7pm, Monday through Sunday, 25 per week, 4 weeks a month, again = $2000.

Not all of these options are interchangeable. Each will produce different results, and it takes someone with the knowledge of who you are, who your customers are, and a few other important factors to help you decide which option will work for you.

I have one client that used to spend $450 a week advertising with me, then they stopped.

No, they didn't stop spending money with me, they stopped spending only $450 a week.

Right now they are spending between $1500 and $2025 a week advertising on one of my radio stations.

And they are meticulous about tracking the response. That's why they increased.

Make sure you ask all the right questions when it comes to spending money on advertising.

And if you are in Fort Wayne, Indiana; contact me and I'll show you more. Scott at ScLoHo.net

The Wrong Way

to do email marketing.

It's called spray & pray.

It's why the "Direct Mail" piece that arrives in my mailbox delivered by the U.S.P.S. is commonly called "Junk Mail" by consumers.

Last month I received the following email in my inbox:

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Holly DeSouza, and I am the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Behave Media, Inc.

We are a digital media company specializing in behavioral advertising, search marketing and consumer panel research. We help develop, plan and execute profitable campaigns for Fortune 500 companies by utilizing real-time consumer data with our innovative targeting capabilities. Our clients have seen an increase of 7%-35% in their ROI by utilizing our knowledge and expertise online.

If you would like to discuss how our services can benefit your organization, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Best Regards,

Holly DeSouza
VP, Sales & Marketing
Behave Media, Inc
73 Lexington St.
Boston, MA 02464
P: 800.270.0442



Usually, I would simply delete this. But I thought I would use this as a lesson instead.

The first question that popped in to my mind is, "why didn't my spam filter catch this?" I get an average of 11 spam emails an hour 24/7 that are caught automatically. (Thanks Gmail!)

Then I remembered that Holly got my email from their mailing list since I actually registered at one time to receive emails from her company.

In case you're still wondering what is wrong with this email, think for a moment. She also has access to my name, and it's not Sir/Madam. It's Scott Howard.

Any decent email marketing program can insert a persons name automatically.

She losses credibility and diminishes her company reputation from this one glaring mistake.

Then the rest is just a bunch of crap. Sorry if this is the way you were told to sell yourself, but you've already proved that you are just fishing for a bite or two, or Spraying the in-boxes with your half-hearted attempt and Praying someone will respond to what you wrote.

Better to send out 10 personalized and targeted emails each day or each week, then to send out a few hundred like this one and lose your chance to ever work with the people who received this poorly written email.

But the problem is not entirely Holly's.

I decided to call the number.

I got an automated attendant that told me, among other things, that if I knew the extension of the person I was calling I could enter it and get connected.

Holly didn't include an extension in her email, so I had to wait a full 40 seconds to be told to press zero for the operator.

I pressed zero. Sappy on hold music came on the line followed by the automated attendant telling me that they were too busy to take my call, please leave my name and number and someone will get back to me.

Total time wasted on the phone: 90 seconds.

This company needs help. If you can reach them. If you see yourself or your company making any of these same mistakes, stop it or go out of business.

As always, your comments are welcome.

Fix the Mistakes

If the front door to your business had a broken window so anyone could walk in an help themselves 24/7, how long would you ignore the problem?

If you had an employee who is supposed to open your store at 10am every morning, but they don't show up until 10:20 on a regular basis, how long would you ignore the problem?

If you set up an email marketing campaign and it sends an email two or three times a day to the same people, over and over again, how long would you ignore the problem?

If you give a phone number in an advertisement and the number is wrong or disconnected, how long would you ignore the problem?

All of these have occurred in the past 20 days to businesses and organizations that I've contacted.

Every encounter is an impression either good or bad.

The email problem was one where the organization put someone in charge of scheduling emails and he thought the more the merrier.

Wrong. Complaints started coming in. Usually people just start labeling it as junk or spam.

I work with the organization and have access to their email service provider and was able to stop the craziness. I also changed the sending email address in case the old was now labeled as spam.

Put out the Fires, Fix the Mistakes, Stop the Bleeding, etc.

Ignorance isn't bliss. It can be deadly.

The Simple Side of Selling

This week, I'll share a couple of excerpts from two conversations I had last month.

The first was an impromptu meeting with a gentleman I met last year when I did a presentation on Social Media & Marketing called Join the Conversation.

Besides a few blogs that I update, I am most active on Twitter, followed by LinkedIn and Facebook.

I also use FourSquare, at times, which allows you to check in at various locations and see where your friends have checked in too.

Anyway, I checked in on FourSquare and sent it out on Twitter that I was going to be at one of my local coffee shops for the next couple of hours. After awhile, I hear a voice and it's someone that I haven't seen in nearly a year and he left his office to find me and ask for advice.

He wanted to convince his bosses and co-workers that they need to be on social media sites in order to be ahead of their competitors. He works in the B-2-B world.

To summarize, I showed him what I had done and shared some of his frustrations with trying to get some of my radio station colleagues to jump on the social media train with lack luster results.

The problem with trying to convince someone who doesn't want to do something, to do something is it's just too hard.

And that's okay.

Which brings me to the other conversation I had a few days later on Twitter where someone had been having the same struggle of trying to convince co-workers on the value of social media.

And it hit me, don't worry about it. here's what I wrote:

@allen_ts Some people will get it now, others later, some never. Focus on helping those that want help & show the others your successes.

This really applies to all sales situations.
You can't get everyone to agree with you.
You can't get everyone to buy from you.

Focus on those that want you & that you can help.

It's that simple.