According to Nielsen, 328,122 adults in the Fayetteville area have access to the internet. Eighty-six percent of these consumers conduct online research before making a retail purchase, says a report from GE Capital Bank. 

To reach Fayetteville area adults in the market to buy their goods and services, businesses spent $260 million in 2021 on digital adverting, according to projections based on the 2021 IAB Internal Advertising Report.  This is 35% more than was spent during the prior year.

This mammoth pool of online advertising dollars targeted at Fayetteville consumers is being spent on a variety of digital resources including search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), display ads, video ads, audio ads, email, and social media. Each of these tools can precisely target consumers who are currently in the market to buy whatever it is a business is selling.

Most forms of online advertising are designed to compel Fayetteville consumers to click on a digital ad that will transport them to the website of a company that sells whatever it is consumers are in the market to buy.  Is investing only in digital advertising enough to drive sales for a local business? 

Many marketing experts believe that online advertising needs to be part of a broader marketing strategy to be successful.

Last year, $260 million in marketing was spent online to reach Fayetteville, North Carolina area consumers, according to projections based on the 2021 IAB Internal Advertising Report.  This is 35% more than was spent during the prior year.

There is a correlation between the massive amount of money being spent to reach Fayetteville consumers online and the extraordinary amount of time that these consumers are connecting to the internet via websites and apps.

According to Nielsen, 37.3% of Fayetteville adults are spending 10-plus hours during an average week online. Furthermore, The Pew Research Center, a public opinion research company, reports that one-in-three consumers say they are online constantly. A 50% increase from 2015.  In all, 85% of consumers say they connect at least once daily.

To successfully market and advertise a Fayetteville business on the internet requires a full-scale understanding of precisely what online marketing is.  Spoiler alert, having a website or having a social media site is not enough.

According to Nielsen research, 241,00 people in the Fayetteville, North Carolina area will likely participate in the upcoming election on November 8th. To sway these voters, candidates and political action committees are expected to spend a record amount on advertising.

AdImpact, a company that measures advertising expenditures by political campaigns, says more than $3.6 billion have been spent to reach voters so far in 2022. This puts spending on a course to obliterate the record level of campaign dollars set during the 2020 presidential elections.

Despite crumbling ratings, through August 1st, 58% of all political spending has been dished out to local TV stations, according to AdImpact.

Nielsen reports that since 2017, the reach of broadcast TV stations WRAL, WECT, WTVD, and WUNC has decayed by 10%.

Fayetteville, North Carolina area business owners are expected to spend $82 million advertising online in 2022. This, according to Borrell Associates, a company that tracks advertising expenditures across the country.

Borrell's forecast indicates that almost 50% of Fayetteville's online expenditures will be in the form of paid search. The most recognizable type of this advertising is the paid ads that appear adjacent to the results of almost every search query on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Borrell's forecast also indicates that approximately 27% of online expenditures will be in the form of display advertising. This consists of traditional banner ads that appear across millions of websites and apps, including social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. According to SmallBizGenius.net, the average Fayetteville area consumer is served more than 1700 of these ads per month.

Video advertising in Fayetteville is forecast to account for 23% of all online ad dollars in 2022. Like search and display, millions of websites can support this type of advertising. This includes sites, apps, and platforms like YouTube, Roku Channel, Hulu, Paramount+, and most social media sites.

The remainder of online advertising dollars is expected to be spent on audio advertising, including streaming sites like Pandora and Spotify; or email marketing campaigns.

Based on projections from the National Retail Federation (NRF), Fayetteville, North Carolina consumers are on track to spend $6.2-billion with retailers by the end of this year. This would be 13.5% higher than was spent in 2020.

To earn a significant share of these retail dollars, Fayetteville area business owners are expected to spend $108-million to advertise by year's end, according to Borrell Associates. This company tracks advertising expenditures in local markets across the U.S.

To ensure they are spending their advertising and marketing dollars wisely, many Fayetteville business owners research how to best target prospective customers by using local media. An exceptional resource for local business owners to investigate the media habits of localconsumers is on the advice section of AdvertiseInFayetteville.com.  

Here are the top five most-read articles on the site in 2021:

Every week, according to Nielsen, 334,000 adult consumers in Fayetteville, North Carolina watch something on television. But, of course, the definition of what it means to watch TV has changed since the time when the number of available viewing options could be counted on the fingers of a single hand.

Today, Fayetteville consumers have a gargantuan number of viewing choices. This includes programs from stations like WRAL, WECT, WTVD, and, WUNC (now PBS NC). Or maybe cable and satellite systems like Spectrum, DISH, and DirecTV.. There's also content delivered over the internet from Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime.

No longer are Fayetteville consumers tied to the 21-inch Zenith in their living rooms. Instead, TV can be watched on giant LCDs, smartphones, and tablets from any room in the house, in the backseat of their cars, or practically anywhere else.

The best way to think about TV watching in Fayetteville is in terms of three buckets:

1. Over-the-air...including all broadcast channels
2. Cable...including all premium and non-premium programming
3. Internet...including all streaming services. This is also known as OTT or CTV

Here's how many Fayetteville adult viewers fall into each bucket. Remember, viewers are not limited to a single bucket.

Before Fayetteville radio station WFNC signed on in 1939, local listeners were dependent on broadcasts from distant cities such as Charlotte. These early stations required tall antennas and miles of buried copper cable to transmit their signals.  Most radio receivers at the time were mostly handmade and involved a piece of crystalline mineral and a wire coil.

Over many decades in North Carolina, both the broadcasting and receiving equipment improved. In the mid-1920s this meant store-bought radios. In the 1930s this meant car radios. In the 1960s this meant transistor radios. In the 1970s this meant boom boxes. And, in the 1980s this meant Walkmen. But, despite these improvements, the fundamental technology of big towers sending a signal through the air to a radio receiver remained the same.

In 1994, there was a new way for Fayetteville consumers to listen to the radio. That was the year local stations across the country began streaming their signals over the internet and listeners could use their computers (later their smartphones and smart speakers) as receiving devices. No big antennas, no wires, and no actual radio needed.

In 2021, according to Nielsen, Fayetteville radio reaches more local consumers than any other advertising media option.

Neilsen finds, too, that 28.2% of all consumers who listen to a Fayetteville radio station over-the-air will, at some point during the month, also connect to a local station via the internet. 

According to Nielsen, 329,000 adults in the Fayetteville, North Carolina area have access to the internet, equivalent to 94.1% of the population. On average, local consumers are spending 8.62 hours per week online.

Fayetteville millennials, the first generation that grew up in a digital world, spend considerably more time online. Nielsen reports that, on average, Fayetteville's 25-39-year-old consumers are clocking 10.71 hours connected to the internet.

So, how are Fayetteville consumers spending their time online?

According to Nielsen, streaming audio and video content, social networking, checking the weather, and banking are the top online activities for Fayetteville consumers each month.

Fayetteville, North Carolina area business owners are expected to invest $65-million during 2021 to advertise to consumers connected to the internet. This forecast was produced by Borrell Associates, a company that tracks business advertising expenditures across the country.

These online marketing dollars will be spent on banner advertising, search engine marketing, email, as well as audio and video advertising. This is all to capture the attention of shoppers and buyers as they go about their connected days.

According to Nielsen, 94% of adult consumers in the Fayetteville area have access to the internet. They connect, primarily, with desktop and laptop computers; smartphones; or tablets.

Ninety-four percent of Fayetteville adults spend at least one hour per week online, with most spending at least 10 hours connected.

Fayetteville consumers cannot get enough pizza.

In 2012, there were just 135 local pizza restaurants. Today, however, that number has grown to 146. In 2019, these establishments racked up $68,640,726 in total sales.

Fifty-nine percent of pizza sales in the Fayetteville area are rung-up by one of the top-50 chains like Domino's or Pizza Hut. The remaining 41% of revenue is controlled by independent, small business owners.

To compete for a larger share of the pizza pie in Fayetteville requires local restaurant owners to bring in new customers. A proven way to accomplish this is with advertising.

The US Small Business Administration recommends that every Fayetteville area small business advertise consistently.  

Technology is changing the way people in Fayetteville consume media. This includes streaming audio platforms like Pandora and Spotify or the ability to watch Netflix on a smartphone.

But one thing has not changed.  That thing with the buttons and knobs that's been part of a car's dashboard since 1930. The contraption called radio.

Some small business owners believe the medium is outdated, and nobody listens to it anymore. But, contrary to that view, radio still reaches 92% of all consumers in America.

Locally, for example, last week significantly more consumers tuned-in to their favorite Fayetteville radio stations than watched local TV; read a newspaper; logged-on to Facebook, or signed-in to Pandora or Spotify.

The first radio station in Fayetteville went on-the-air in 1939.  Sixty-five years later, Facebook inaugurated the social media era.  Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, and hundreds of other sites quickly followed.

As social media matured from a novelty to part of consumers' daily rituals, some Fayetteville business owners began to experiment with advertising.

By every key advertising metric, though, Fayetteville radio remains the best choice for a small business to market their goods and services. Here's why.

The National Retail Federation has predicted that this year's back-to-school shopping season will set a new record. Households with school-age children are expected to spend, on average $696.70 preparing their kids for the first day of classes. This tops the previous record set in 2012.

For Fayetteville small business owners, this means there is $84,583,536 of back-to-school bucks in play between now and the first bell of the school year.

According to the NRF, here's how the $696.70 per household will be spent.

• Clothing & Accessories: $239.82
• Computers & Electronics: $203.44
• Shoes: $135.96
• School Supplies: $117.49

To grab the largest share of back-to-school spending will require small business owners to advertise.  By any metric, advertising on Fayetteville radio stations will be the most effective.  Here's why.

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.