Advantages of Radio Advertising and how to make an effective one?

Radio is often neglected as an advertising medium by a majority of businesses. Even though, television has completely overshadowed its predecessor as a broadcasting channel, still the numbers of radio listeners is continuously growing with the passage of time. What’s more, when we look on the advantages as compared to the reach and cost associated with radio advertising, it comes out as an extremely useful medium. Radio advertisement costs hardly 5 – 10% of what a TV advertisement can cost (both in terms of the fees for “spot” and the cost of creating an advertisement). On the other hand, impact is not as bad as compared to the differences in cost. As a matter of fact, some radio programs can have a much bigger audience than the television shows. For example “The Rush Limbaugh Show” has an audience that exceeds 20 millions or “The Savage Nation”, which is estimated to have approximately 10 million listeners.

Adding more to the point, majority of radio listeners fall between the ages of 18 – 40, therefore if your products or services are intended for this age group, you must consider radio advertisement. These days radio tuners are available in vehicles or cell phone, resulting in an increasing number of radio listeners. Research suggests that radio is the second best medium, having the kind of reach which is surpassed by television only. Some may believe that the majority of radio listeners are coming from lower income bracket, which is absolutely wrong. The fact of the matter is that radio reaches more than 90% of age 15 or older in United States; hence the question of income level is off the point.

Creating an effective Radio Advertisement:
Radio commercials (or Spots) are sold on the basis of durations (generally of 10, 20, 30, 60 and 120 seconds). Therefore, you must be aware of your budget and the on-air time you’re going to get before creating an ad. The fate of your ad will be decided by the opening; that’s why you should be looking to hook the listener in first 5 seconds, as tough as it may be, but that’s your only chance. It doesn’t matter if you are making use of appealing jingles, straight read or sound effects, there’s no single successful structure that may suit all types of products or services. One advice that holds true for any other advertisement as well is that you’re ought to focus on the customers and their needs (when creating an advertisement) and not on your product.

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Retail marketing – Boost up your retail business

Retailing is an important component in the supply chain. In most cases the products are sold to their final customers from a retail outlet, it is the retailer who gets to know the customer feedback more than anybody else. Retail business is a form of small business but most business owners do not even consider marketing or advertising their retail business, which is absolutely wrong. Remember, no matter how small or how big your business is, if you are not doing appropriate marketing, you are going amiss. The marketing techniques may differ, the amount you spend on marketing your retail store may be relatively small (or maybe you won't even need to spend anything at all), but overlooking the marketing altogether is definitely a bad business decision.

Retail marketing – is it really necessary:
Do not retail businesses have competition? Do not retail businesses have to target customers? Do not retail businesses need sales? If all of these business traits are as applicable to retail businesses as any other business, then why is not marketing? Only difference is that as a retail business you probably have to target a very small set of customers, therefore the efforts you'll put into marketing will be relatively lesser than a large business.

So, what is the best way to market a retail business?
The best way to market a retail business, is to don’t overlook any single medium that falls within your resource limits. It can be anything, a business card, pamphlet, press release, small ads in your local newspaper classified section or yellow pages, attractive display of products, banners in the locality, special discounts and sale or maybe making a special effort to please your customers. As you can see, by spending a very minimal amount every now and then, you can rise above your competition with more or less the same products and prices.

Making it more profitable:
The notion is that starting or running a small business needs little or no planning, which is clearly incorrect. Small things can prompt big changes, for example more efficient pricing, product sourcing, smart money management, etc. If you have not been paying attention to any of these, it is time to start keeping tabs on all aspects of your business and see if you can improve on some aspect. It can be anything, such as less electricity consumption, dumping your supplier who charges too much and getting into business with a new one, putting extra effort to connect with your customers on individual level, etc.

Source:
Wholesale Suppliers