Advertising on Fayetteville radio stations is the best way for North Carolina small business owners to reach the lucrative, local mother market.  Here's why.

Fayetteville consumers will spend $7.1 billion over the next 12 months. Forbes magazine reports that it is moms who control 85% of all household purchases. In Cumberland and Robeson Counties there are more than 87,000 women with children under the age of 17 at home.

Fayetteville small business owners need to pay special attention to these mothers and their wallets.

Thousands of Fayetteville small business owners depend on radio advertising to claim their share of the $7.1 billion local consumers will spend this year. Cha-ching.

These advertisers have, typically, 30 or 60 seconds to convince the 288,946 listeners who tune-in to Fayetteville radio stations each week to become customers. So, it is essential to know how to use that time effectively.

Gathering a sample of 6003 respondents, Westwood One in partnership with audio testing experts Veritonic studied how different elements of award-winning radio commercials affect a listener's intent to buy the products or services advertised. 

Here are the results of the study that Fayetteville business owners could find useful.

What small business owners say in their commercials on Fayetteville radio stations and how they say it are the most important factors for turning listeners into customers.  

A study by Nielsen indicates that the creative elements of a commercial are responsible for 47% of an advertiser's sales result. 

Creative, it turns out, has a more significant effect on sales for Fayetteville small business owners than does reach, targeting, or branding elements. 

Producing and judging effective creative, though, can be a challenge for a North Carolina business owner. So, here is some advice from an award winning, advertising professional.

There are two reasons why advertising on Fayetteville radio station is more effective than advertising on TV.

The first reason is reach.  In a study conducted by Nielsen, the number of consumers who are exposed to a commercial contributes profoundly to the number of sales it will create.  This is discussed in depth in the free eBook, "Seven Steps For Advertising Successfully In Fayetteville."

In Fayetteville, among all media, radio offers local advertisers the biggest reach.

The second reason why radio advertising is so powerful has been revealed in a new study Mindshare, an advertising agency that buys media for some of the most successful companies in the world including General Mills, Nestlé, Domino's, IBM, Rolex, and John Deere.

When a small business owner buys a 60-second commercial on a Fayetteville radio station, she is limited to about 160 words to persuade listeners to become customers.  To be successful, then, each word needs to be carefully selected to fulfill the desired marketing objective. 

A telephone number comprises seven words. Ten if the area code is included.  If the number is repeated three times during the commercial, then it will consume 21-30 words or up to 18% of the total.

So, should a Fayetteville business owner sacrifice a significant portion of a radio commercial to insert a phone number? Except for certain circumstances, described below, the answer is no. 

Here are the facts.

Marketers call them Generation Z.  Fayetteville small business owners call them teenagers.  Whatever 12-17 years old are called, they live in homes cluttered with video games, smartphones, and tablets. They have easy access to Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and hundreds of other apps their parents have never heard of.

What may come as a surprise to many local business owners, despite the abundance of options for teens, Fayetteville radio stations dominate their media consumption.

Last week, according to Nielsen, 29,200 teens tuned-in to Fayetteville radio. On average, each of these listeners spent 90 minutes a day.

Fayetteville consumers will spend $7.1 billion on goods and services over the next year. To claim a significant portion of those expenditures, small business owners need to be at the top of customers' minds when it comes time to buy.

Since 1939, when WFNC became the first radio station in Fayetteville, thousands of business owners knew, intuitively, that advertising on the medium was a potent way to be remembered when a purchase was imminent. 

Now there is proof that radio advertising creates the brand awareness necessary to drive sales.

Everybody in Fayetteville used to watch TV, commercials and all. But, as media options proliferate, viewers are fleeing. This is not good news at all for television advertisers.

Last week for instance, according to Nielsen, only 74% of Fayetteville consumers watched broadcast television. To put this in perspective, 93% tuned-in to their favorite radio local radio stations.

Compared to two years ago, according to Nielsen, the C3 rating for CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox have plummeted by 27%, especially among 18-49 viewers.

Radio advertising is processed by the brain five-times faster than visual advertising.  This is awesome news for Fayetteville business owners who depend on radio to market their goods and services.

Fayetteville consumers will recognize the first few notes of Jingle Bells five times faster than they can identify a picture of Santa Claus.  That's because it takes the human brain 5/100th of a second to process sound.  On the other hand, it takes a full quarter of a second to process visual stimuli.

This difference in processing time may seem inconsequential. But, for a Fayetteville small business owner who is fighting to inject their advertising message into the mind of consumers, that .20-second gap can be the difference between success and failure.

No! Satellite radio has had no effect on the number of people who tune-in to Fayetteville radio stations each.  For that matter, Pandora and Spotify have not affected local radio listening either.

The fact is, AM/FM radio reaches more consumers each week in Fayetteville than all other advertising media. Satellite, it turns out, has barely been a blip on listeners' radar.

Last week, for example, 93% of Fayetteville adult-consumers tuned-in to a local station vs. the 16% that connected to Sirius/XM, the only remaining provider of satellite radio service.

There is historical significance to the 93% reach number mentioned above.

Is advertising on Fayetteville radio just a day job for local small business owners?  

Thousands of North Carolina companies depend on radio advertising to market their goods and services. But most of these business owners choose to buy commercials only between 6:00 am and 7:00 pm.  Is this a good idea? Maybe not.  Here are the facts.

During the course of last week, for instance, 288,946 adult consumers tuned-in to their favorite Fayetteville radio stations. This is significantly higher than the number that tuned-in to a local TV station, read a local newspaper, or logged on to Spotify and Pandora.

But radio listeners do not roll-up their ears just because the sunsets. According to Nielsen, 50% of people who listen to the radio during daylight hours, also tune in at night.

To put this in perspective, more people listen to Fayetteville radio at night than listen to satellite radio, Pandora, and Spotify combined.

Some of the bravest people in Fayetteville are small business owners.  These hearty entrepreneurs invest their passion, their hope, their time, and, of course, their money despite the odds.

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), the good news is that 80% of small businesses make it through the first year. After that, though, only about half will make it to their fifth anniversary. Even fewer, 33% will keep their doors open for ten years.

CBInsights performed an analysis to determine the top ten reasons small business owners fail.  I have included the entire list. But, of particular importance, is reason #8, "poor marketing". This subject will be discussed in more detail because this is where advertising on Fayetteville radio stations can help business owners not to fail.