welcome to open for business the galton
valleys only local business and consumer
talk show featuring Tom Eaglehawk the
man entrepreneur magazine radio called
the leading authority in the United
States for doing business in small town
areas speaker author small business
consultant and mrs. Eaglehawk favorite
son top eaglehawk alright welcome
everyone open for business we are every
Saturday live from 11am to 2pm mountain
time on am 1450 km msn Boltzmann 1340 KP
arcade Livingston Montana you like to be
a part of the big broadcast go to K mms
am calm and click listen live the call
in number during the show 4065 to to
talk 406 522 8255 I'm here you're here
let's get the show on the road welcome
back everyone 25 minutes before the top
of the hour it is saturday october
twenty second when a welcome you to the
podcast portion of open for business
each week i share some tips and tricks
I've learned over the years about
advertising marketing promotion and
building strong successful businesses I
do these open for business podcast alive
every saturday between 11 30 and noon
mountain time from the studios of am
1450 KMS in Bozeman and 13 40k PRK in
Livingston Montana and of course we
stream worldwide on the net at K mms am
calm if you missed a my previous podcast
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catch up on any of my podcast that you
might have missed today's topic I want
to talk about how to buy radio
advertising time when it comes to small
town advertising one of the most
effective methods is local radio many
small towns don't have newspapers or TV
stations but many have radio stations
and local residents listen to those
hometown stations and react to the
advertising presented on them the good
news is that most small town stations
are bargain when it comes to the
to buying radio advertising versus
larger cities and like most things we
talked about here small town radio
advertising must be done differently
than in large cities in order for any
advertising medium to be successful it
must follow basic advertising and
marketing guidelines it must be the
right message presented to the right
people your target market at the right
time and of course the second rule your
advertising must be an investment it
cannot be an expense it must produce
more business income that costs
otherwise why do it major advantages of
radio advertising whether several major
advantage of radio is it's everywhere
it's in our cars bathrooms bedrooms
kitchen and the workplace try to find a
jogger without a radio at earbuds no
other medium reaches so many people in
so many different places here are some
advantages radio offers that you may be
able to adapt to your business first
it's efficient you can monitor the
efficiency of your ad dollars and see
the results of your efforts customers
will tell you they heard you on the
radio it's flexible you can change your
message and time schedule for ads with
relative ease and it has low production
costs unlike TV or print ads the costs
are producing a radio spot is much less
its listeners are loyal if you have the
right target market listening to your
station choice they're more likely to
stay with that station few people listen
to more than two or three radio stations
in small towns that may just be what it
could be everywhere you can sell you a
product in the shower one of the medium
could do that each day radio reaches
seventy-seven percent of America every
age bracket registers in the high 90s as
weekly listeners keep in mind that your
local stations numbers may vary
depending on the size of your town there
are some things to think about when
buying small town radio advertising time
if I were advising you on buying time in
LA or New York one of the first things I
might ask you to consider is something
called drive time most large cities have
people commuting to work by car or
public transportation and many carry
radios with them to pass the time while
stuck in traffic for advertising this is
truly a captive audience but small towns
really have traffic jams because there's
no traffic to speak up
unless you want to call four or five
cars lined up at a stop sign a traffic
jam chances are in a small town you have
a small retail area at a large rural
area farmers or ranchers guess what
farmers or ranchers don't commute to
work when they wake up there there let's
go back to drive time for a second drive
time is usually considered 7 a.m. to
nine a.m. in the morning many areas also
consider three pm to six pm as drive
time small-town people may not be in
their cars during those hours but it
doesn't mean they're not listening many
are reading the morning paper listening
to the radio at the same time before the
long 10 minute commute or walk to work
on the other hand the drive time for
farmers or ranchers maybe as early as
four am combining the two drives we
suddenly have a four-hour block of time
to reach both counties and farmers
that's a large block of time to place
commercials so how do you know how many
ad spots to purchase how many spots
should i buy most mistakes and radio
advertising or buying too few spots and
are playing them at the wrong time this
often happens because the media sales
person has failed to understand your
business and is placing your ads on the
wrong station or format at the wrong
time to some business people it comes
down to a matter of cost how can I get
the most spots for the least amount of
money well that's flawed thinking costs
shouldn't even be a consideration why
because we expect our advertising to pay
for itself remember it's an investment
not an expense one AD rarely sparks a
buying decision usually customers must
be exposed to several ads over a period
of time unless your customer has an
immediate need and they just happen to
hear the commercial at the right time
advertising builds customers over
periods of time radio should not be
purchased in spots instead by blocks of
time your commercial played several
times over a short period of time is
better than your commercial played fewer
times over a long period of time now the
Small Business Administration has radio
advertising guidelines and I agree with
those up to a point the SBA suggests the
following buy a block of 42 commercials
these would be played on Tuesday
Wednesday and Thursday three spots
between 7am 2 9am and four spots but
win through p.m. and 6 p.m. for two
weeks at seven spots per day x six days
42 spots this is excellent advice for
the larger city and I fully agree the
only area that I would advise you to
make adjustments is if your target
market is the rural community our
farmers or ranchers if you're a feed
store and implement company farmers are
in different places at different times
of the year during planting season
they're on the tractor from dusk to dawn
and many times even longer and the radio
is their only companion same with
harvesting season you may want to marry
your ad times to accommodate this group
if they're your target market consider
using some of your response to sponsor
daily agriculture updates if your
station has one concentrated advertising
gives you one other advantage it makes
your business appear larger than it
really is you know there's a perception
among customers that companies that do a
lot of advertising are successful or
they couldn't afford to advertise and I
can hear what you're saying next
companies that do a lot of advertisers
are also over price to pay for that
advertising I won't deny that some of
that thinking is true but I think if you
ask people is Walmart overpriced most
would say no high price talk comes more
from word of mouth than a perception of
the cost of advertising I also feel that
in rural areas people listed the radio
more in the morning and during the day
than they do at night most of us are TV
people in the evening and radio people
in the morning chances are you wake up
to a clock radio rather than a TV on a
timer now what if my budget is too small
I can't afford 42 spots well many small
businesses don't have a large
advertising budget for many it takes
every cent just to purchase inventory
and meet the payroll the real purpose of
advertising is not just to spend money
but to grow your business if this is the
case that you could use that to some
advantage the key is be consistent most
of us listen to the radio at the same
times each day if you can only afford
one spot per day play it at the same
time on the same day of the week at
least you be reaching the same customers
who listen during that time as your
business grows try to add more spots
some stations will work with new
customers by offering more spots than
you pay for as for new advertiser
special
might be available also see if you could
be placed at the end of public service
announcements also known as PSAs for
example this message brought to you as a
public service by Joe shoes open daily
in downtown Smithville the production
caused the PSAs are donated to the PSA
by the station there should be no
production costs for adding a tagline to
your business this will give you a one
more inexpensive exposure during the
broadcast day and may actually show up
during high rating hours and it shows
potential customers your community
involvement some final thoughts to keep
in mind when buying radio time one make
sure you've identified your target
market and your advertising to the right
people if you're advertising to the
wrong people you're wasting your money
just because you like a particular radio
station doesn't mean your target market
does you may love rock and roll and
they're listening to classical as for
deals or guarantees most stations aren't
going to guarantee that your advertising
may work but they may offer you
additional free spots if you get a small
response from your additional aid
package it's certainly worth asking for
radio could be a great medium can do
wonders for your business if you've been
considering it but we're afraid to
commit the money to do it now's the time
to go for it in most cases I think
you'll fight it will pay off for you and
your business and that's the podcast if
you missed a my previous podcast you'll
fight them all on my youtube channel
please subscribe to my youtube channel
or on my website at small town marketing
com that's small town marketing com go
about halfway down the homepage on the
left side and you'll find a link to the
podcast page so you can catch up on any
my podcast that you might have missed so
to Daddy each Saturday and let's build
successful businesses together