Got Inflation Business Blues? Let Radio Advertising Sing For You
Our cells can eat themselves. And it’s usually good for them to.
It’s called autophagy, which is Greek for “self-eating” and often induced by exercise and/or fasting. At its core, it’s a signal that the body needs to increase efficiency by recycling the old, damaged cells incapable of doing their jobs.
A signal to increase efficiency. If Merriam-Webster had a dictionary dedicated to business, those words should be the definition of “Inflation”.
We’re not here to tell you inflation isn’t lame. But we are here to tell you it can be an opportunity to lean out your advertising to make it more efficient. And nothing stretches a dollar like radio advertising. Best of all, inflation means your competitors will likely be acting out of fear, instead of aggression.
How Inflation Affects Business
It’s much more than just inflation - a decreased power of the dollar - that can hurt small businesses. For starters, customers feel the pain almost everywhere else, so their likelihood of buying from you decreases. Secondly, labor issues can arise, be it employees wanting more hours or raises to keep up with rising costs of living, or your SMB having to cut labor to account for lowered sales. And all this is still separate from:
The slightly more conditional supply and inventory issues, and
The agony of getting a loan in a high interest rate environment, both of which are hallmarks of inflation.
It’s one gigantic, connected mess. And unfortunately, many businesses feel the first way to ease the pain is to reduce advertising spend, or even drop it entirely.
Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Here’s how you can be proactive to not just survive inflation, but flourish in it.
Radio Advertising Costs Less But Gets More
It’s the ultimate bang for your buck because it’s just as effective as other mediums, while being shockingly simple in its creativity and delivery.
Social media advertising? Not the priciest, but good luck tracking any accurate campaign data or enjoying any (ethical) audience targeting. With the fall of data tracking in Apple and Google, you’re sure to be misled to the right audience you aim to target.
Broadcast television advertising? Hefty price tag, an unnecessarily large production crew, and a ton of standing around. Not to mention the most frightening brand known to cable advertising: TiVo. You can’t market to someone if they never see your advertisement.
A load of factors dictate the final cost of a radio advertising campaign, but even your most frequent one, on the most popular station, is a savvy investment to make your money work harder for you when you most need it to.
Radio is King of Targeted Advertising
Know what’s efficient? Putting your advertising where its strongest opportunities are, instead of pinning the tail on the donkey.
When you advertise on the radio, you - through the radio station with which you work - know the exact demographic of who will be listening to you. Sell a product that’s largely meant for middle aged-women? There’s a station they often tune in on. Do you provide a service that typically attracts older men? They prefer a specific station and you could be on it.
When money is flowing and people are spending on a whim, there’s little need to be meticulous about ad dollars. When money’s tight, you have no choice but to be. So being able to trim the ad fat by communicating only to those with the best chance of buying your product or service, is a massive advantage - especially when your competitors are likely to pull the advertising plug completely.
Radio Ads Drive Store Traffic
Prospective customers hearing about you is great - but someone at your business or on your website is even better, particularly when inflation makes one sale feel like three.
The Radio Advertising Bureau partnered with TagStation’s Dial Report team to find answers to some common radio advertising questions:
When a consumer hears a radio commercial, are they more inclined to visit the advertiser they heard?
Does exposure to a radio commercial on certain days of the week have a greater influence on when they visit?
Can radio advertising be attributed to a lift in store/location traffic?
The results are extremely favorable to the influence of the airwaves, and demographic targeting (alongside local appeal) are key reasons.
In Short, Think Long
Challenges are opportunities. Fasting isn’t always comfortable, but its long-term benefits are enormous. Exercise can feel like a chore, but end up giving you a lot more than just muscle.
For small businesses, inflationary times can involve a lot of going without, and a lot of sweating, and it ain’t fun. But by taking its signal to up your operation’s efficiency, you can zig when your competitors zag. They’ll be fearful, wanting to avoid spending a single dollar on advertising. And you can plant your flag on the advertising goldmine that is local radio advertising.
That success is what Iliad Media Group lives for. So whether it’s you, a family member, or a friend with a small business that wants to climb when others are sinking, we’d love nothing more than to hear your story, so we can get the masses to hear about it too. Let’s get down to work.
