This year, Fayetteville area consumers will spend $546 million in local restaurants and drinking establishments. There are hundreds of restaurants in Cumberland and Robeson counties hungry for a bite of that cash.

Unfortunately, many of the restaurants that are here today will be gone tomorrow. According to FSR, a trade magazine for the restaurant industry, 60% of restaurants fail within their first year. Eighty percent never make it to their fifth anniversary.

CBI Insights studies why small business owners, such as local restaurants, fail.  Reason number eight is poor marketing and advertising.  Good food and friendly service are not enough to make a cash register ring.

Here's a quiz for Fayetteville small business owners:

Which of these online sites reach more adults each month than traditional AM/FM radio: Google? Netflix? ESPN? YouTube? Twitter Facebook?

The answer may be a surprise. Radio reaches more adult consumers every month than all websites and apps.  This is critical information for Fayetteville business owners to know so as to be able to choose the best way to advertise their goods and services.

The number one media characteristic that contributes to the success of an advertising campaign is reach. This is a measure of how many different people are exposed to an advertiser's message.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The invention of the radio commercial came at 5pm August 28, 1922. The Queensboro Corporation, a small business in New York City, purchased time on radio station WEAF for $50 to advertise its apartment complex development in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Radio advertising came to Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1939 when Wall Christian Ewing and Harry Layman put WFNC on the air. Ever since then, Cumberland and Robeson County small business owners have depended on radio advertising to market their goods and service.

Is radio advertising effective in the 21st Century? Meet five North Carolina small business owners who say yes.

Good things happen when small business owners advertise on Fayetteville radio,

“I can testify,” says Carolyn Barbour, “our radio advertising has created lifetime customers for our company.” 

Ms. Barbour and her husband Tommy own Budget Rooter, a Fayetteville based plumbing company with a long list of commercial, residential, and industrial customers. “We’ve tried other forms of advertising,” continues Ms. Barbour, “but they have all failed us.” 

Mr. Barbour started Budget Rooter in 1998 as a part time job. He worked nights and weekends out of the back of his Geo Storm. By 2000, word of mouth helped expand the business to a point where he could make it his full-time pursuit. 

By 2002, Budget Rooter hired a second plumber to keep up with customer demand. This is also when Ms. Barbour quit her job as a nurse to take on the mounting administrative duties of the firm. This included advertising and marketing.