A wrong advertising decision this holiday season could make or break your business.  There is just no room for error.   You’ve made the smart choice to use Radio.  What can you do to boost your confidence that each dollar you spend in our medium will be spent effectively?

It all starts with finding the right match.  That’s the match between your potential customers and the people that listen to the Radio stations you are considering as advertising partners.  Get it right and your odds of success just went up dramatically.  Miss the match and even the best message in the world may not bring enough customers through your door.  Plenty of listeners will hear your message.  Just not enough who have the greatest potential of being your customers.

While every Radio station isn’t right for every advertiser, every station is right for some advertiser.  Are the stations you are considering right for you?  How do you know?  Sure, the size of a station’s audience is important, but who are those listeners?  Do they look like your customers?  Will your commercial message reach the consumers who are most likely to need what you do or you sell?  Are you reinforcing your brand to your existing customers, or are you reaching out to new customers?

Most stations can do a very effective job of painting a picture of their audience.  Just ask them!  They can actually show you pictures of their listeners from station events.  They can use the latest Arbitron data to tell you how many people listen, as well as audience characteristics such as:

o   Age

o   Gender

o   Race

o   Socio-Economic Status (income, education, employment)

o   Geography

In today’s PPM world, it is more common to find several stations with identical ratings!  But while their audience size may be the same, it is critical to look at the composition of the different audiences.

Let’s use a simple example of two stations with the same AQH Rating.  As you can see below, one delivers the advertiser’s audience much closer than the other.

While both stations effectively reach an ethnic audience, Station A mirrors the advertiser’s customers much closer by gender, age and geography.  Further breakouts could be done on socio-economic factors such as income, education and employment status.

Do you have internal research profiling your customers?  Even if you do, ask your Radio representatives to share with you the local market information available in Scarborough or Media Audit about YOUR business.  Stations may be able to use one of these tools to tell you if their listeners visit your store or use your services.  Scarborough or Media Audit may profile your business specifically, or profile your business category to help you and your radio representatives gain an even stronger understanding of your customers, and the potential match with the station’s listeners.

Arbitron’s Radio Today series is another great source of information to help distinguish between Radio stations’ audiences on a format basis.  

While every business has a unique customer base, every station has a unique audience.   And even with a changing media landscape, a Radio station’s unique audience remains passionate about that station.   With the right message, and the right match, that passion for the station will extend to the station’s advertisers as well.  That’s the sweet spot you are looking for, but it all starts with the match.  Without the match, your ability to tap into the many other tremendous benefits that Radio gives its advertisers is limited.

Call your Radio station representatives today and let them help you find the match!   Let them show you the latest Arbitron data, and the newest Scarborough and Media Audit data.  Then decide for yourself where your money is best spent.  Ad dollars this holiday season are tight.  Get the match right, and you’ll be confident that the dollars you spend will give you a positive return on your investment in radio.  Get the most bang for your buck.  Radio is the right way.