You've done the research. You now know that by every measure, radio advertising is the most effective way for your Fayetteville small business to market its goods and services.

You have learned, for instance, 288,946 consumers regularly tune-in to their favorite Fayetteville radio stations.  That's more than 90% of all adults.

You've also learned that, on average, adults spend almost two hours per day listening to Fayetteville radio.

If you dug deep enough, then you know radio advertising delivers, on average, a $10 lift in sales for every $1 invested. This is a remarkable ROI for any Fayetteville small business owner.

What you may not have figured out, however, is what is the best time of day to advertise on Fayetteville radio?

Did you really just do that? Did you just call the 288,946 people who tuned-in to a Fayetteville radio station last week nobodies?

Don't worry, though. You are not the first Fayetteville advertiser who has made that mistake  Media expert Doug Schoen used to share the same opinion. He came clean in a Forbes article.

"You wouldn't know it from all the media coverage focused on streaming video and streaming music," says Mr. Schoen, "but recent Nielsen data shows radio actually has the most reach among American media consumers. 93% of adults listen to the radio each week as compared to 87% who watch TV, a substantive difference."

This is true in Fayetteville, as well, where radio listeners far out-number the people who watch local TV; read local newspapers; or logon to a streaming audio site like Pandora and Spotify.

Over the next 12 months, 21,000 people in Fayetteville will seek the help of a local attorney.  These clients will generate more than $77,000,000 in legal fees for services including real estate transactions, bankruptcies, criminal defense, traffic offenses, personal injury, divorce, estate planning, and civil matters.

There are 24,000 lawyers to choose from in North Carolina. So, what can a local attorney do to compete for a share of this mammoth pool of billable hours? He or she can do what hundreds of other successful small business owners do: advertise on Fayetteville radio.

Advertising is critical for Fayetteville small business owners looking to cash in on the $7.1-billion local consumers will spend at retail this year.

To successfully stay top of mind, many business owners advertise on Fayetteville radio. These local companies depend on radio's reliable reach, recall, and return-on-investment to convert listeners to customers.

For those local business owners who do not advertise on Fayetteville radio, here are five facts they need to know right now about the power of advertising on radio.  Here's why Fayetteville radio rocks.

Let's set the record straight. You can't see the Great Wall of China from the moon. Your fingernails don't keep growing when you're dead. Shaving does not make hair grow back quicker or thicker. Chicken soup will not cure a cold. And a penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building cannot kill a pedestrian below.

Don't believe me? Just ask Google.

Like the so-called facts above, there are also things that many Fayetteville small business owners think they know about advertising on the radio that just aren't true.

Here are five most common misconceptions followed by the truth.

 

For most of my lifetime, television advertising was considered the "gold standard" of marketing. For a Fayetteville small business owner craving massive reach, TV used to be the only medium that could deliver. Over the past few years, however, advertising on Fayetteville radio has become the dominant medium for achieving reach as television audiences dramatically erode.

Take last week for example. Almost 290,000 adult consumers tuned-in to their favorite Fayetteville radio stations. This is significantly more than the 181,951 consumers reached by area TV stations.

For the past 40 years, Fayetteville radio has reached more than 90% of all consumers. But, look what has happened to TV's audience.

If I only had a nickel for every local small business owner who has told me that Pandora has been siphoning listeners away from Fayetteville radio.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Local radio, it turns out, reaches significantly more adult consumers than any other medium. More than TV. More than newspaper. And more than Pandora and Spotify combined.

What may come as a big shock to Fayetteville business owners is Pandora's popularity, actually, is cratering among consumers.

It's a fact. Unless a consumer remembers your business when it comes time to buy, then it is likely they will purchase from someone else. Staying top of mind, therefore, is critical for every Fayetteville small business owner who wants to grab a share of the area's $7.1-billion retail market.

Advertising on Fayetteville radio provides local business owners with the most affordable way to move to the top of customers minds. But, before discussing how to get remembered, we must understand why consumers forget.

If you don't have time to read this entire article, then I will tell you right now. The best way for any local small business owner to advertise is on Fayetteville radio.

A key function of advertising is to build mental availability, which nudges a consumer toward the purchase of a product or service. It also serves to provide public notice that a product or service exists and is available for purchase.

Consumers in the Fayetteville metro area (Cumberland and Robeson counties) are expected to spend at least $7.1 billion at retail this year. To claim a greater share of this giant pool of cash requires local business owners of every size to advertise their goods and services. As Professor Jef Richards at Michigan State University points out, “Advertising is totally unnecessary…unless you want to make money."

The bottom line: It is difficult for anyone in the Sandhills to purchase a product or service from a local business owner if they aren’t aware of it.

There are many ways for North Carolina small business owners to advertise. Options include local newspapers, local magazines, local television, and online. But to achieve the “3-Rs” of advertising success, Reach, Recall, and Return, no other medium delivers results as effectively and efficiently as advertising on Fayetteville radio.

Yikes. MediaPost reports a 14% decline in live television viewing among 18-49 years this January vs. last January. This applies to both prime time viewing and total day Nielsen C3 ratings. In case you don't know, C3 ratings are a comprehensive measure of the average minute commercial ratings plus three days of time-shifted viewing.

This pattern of double-digit declines began in the middle of last year. July fell 13%, August fell 12%, September fell 14%, October fell 11%, November fell 12%, and December fell 14%.

For those Fayetteville business owners who have been utilizing TV advertising to market their goods and  services, there is a powerful alternative.

Radio listening in Fayetteville, by far, has the most extensive reach among Fayetteville consumers of any advertising medium, according to Nielsen.

Advertising on Fayetteville radio is the best way for business owners to reach consumers.  Last week, 92% of all consumers in the Sandhills tuned-in to their favorite station.  This reach is significantly higher than local TV,  local newspapers, or streaming audio services like Pandora or Spotify.

Yes.  You are seeing a lot more help wanted signs than ever around Fayetteville.  Small business owners need to find qualified employees to maintain and expand their companies. 

But, as the old saying goes, "good help is hard to find."  Unless, of course, you know where to look (spoiler alert: advertising on Fayetteville radio will be the hero of this story).

When it comes to driving sales for Fayetteville business owners, what is the most potent element of an advertising campaign?

According to the eBook, Seven Steps For Success: Advertising on Fayetteville Radio,  the creative content of an ad is responsible for 47% of its ultimate success.

When it comes to the creative content of a commercial, Fayetteville small business owners have 2 choices.

Despite, some local business owners' perceptions to the contrary, streaming audio services like Spotify and Pandora have not made a dent in the dominance of Fayetteville radio among local consumers.

Last week, among all the advertising media available to Fayetteville small business owners, 288,946 adult adults tuned-in to a local radio station. This is substantially more than watched local TV or read a local newspaper.

Furthermore, more than twice as many adult consumers, tuned-in to Fayetteville radio stations than used a streaming audio site like Spotify or Pandora.

It's time to set some misguided Fayetteville small business owners straight.  When we say everybody listens to Fayetteville radio, we mean EVERYBODY.  Generations X, Y, and Z. Boomers, And, yes, millennials.