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any other digital platform you direct them to) whilst the enthusiasm is there; we live in an age of instant gratification. I believe we could be missing a trick if we don’t tap into the need for instant gratification and potential patients could go with a competitor who can satisfy this need.
Considerations
Utilising Radio Marketing Clinic manager Kerri Lewis explores how radio marketing can be beneficial for your business Radio may not be the first platform that springs to mind when you think of advertising your business, especially in an age where social media seems to reign supreme allowing you to showcase your company with little or no cost. In this fastpaced world, radio can seem old-school and, potentially, expensive as a promotional tool. However, there are several very valid reasons why you shouldn’t write off marketing through radio. This article will explore the marketing concepts and key considerations when deliberating the opportunities that radio marketing can offer.
Advert avoidance
The rule of seven
The digital world
Let’s first look at ‘the rule of seven’. This is a marketing principle that tells us that prospects must come across your offering a minimum of seven times before they even notice your brand and maybe take action.1 This is a concept which has been around for decades and is based on the human brain’s reticular activating system (RAS).1 It sounds complicated but simply put, your RAS acts like a filter to keep what is relevant in your conscious and the not so helpful in your subconscious. Everyday your potential patients are being overwhelmed with marketing messages and there’s a huge amount of competition out there. Getting your message through the data smog at least seven times to your desired audience is a herculean task. But the important takeaway is that you do need to do this, and you need to review and experiment with the marketing channels that you use.
Audio has always been a strong call-toaction medium and even more so in a world where listeners can access brands online.4 In fact, a study conducted by industry body Radiocentre found that exposure to radio advertising boosts brand browsing power by an average of 52%.5 As well as this, more than half of browsing that was identified as having been stimulated by radio takes place within 24 hours of exposure to advertising.5 Other research suggests that 66% of the UK’s population tune in to digital radio each week, which means that listeners literally have your brand at their fingertips.4 You can take advantage of this by directing listeners to your website and/or visually with display ads that they can click on through listening to the radio via an app. This means that prospects can access your website (or
Radio (along with TV), has the lowest level of advertising avoidance according to market research company Sifo Research.2 This is because it’s rare that people switch between stations and so are more likely to hear your advert. Advertising company On Advertising states, ‘Listeners use radio for emotional reasons – to keep their spirits up, to stop themselves from feeling bored in a car or isolated while doing daily chores. This leads to them seeing radio as a kind of friend, and this is a valuable context for an advertiser to appear in’.3
Radio marketing isn’t something that you should jump into without serious consideration as, in my experience, it’s likely that you will be asked to sign a contract with the station for a minimum of six months or up to a year. Shorter term contracts may increase the price of your adverts.5 Like any marketing platform, if you don’t do it well, you could waste your money and, unlike social media, you can’t be reactive and change your advert overnight. 1. Research Consider, what will your target audience be listening to? Who better to ask than your existing customer base as, presumably, you’d like more people who are similar to them through your doors. It’s worth the effort of sending out a simple survey asking what, if any, radio stations they currently tune into. The radio station should be able to offer you their listener figures which will allow you to make an informed choice, alongside your own surveys/research on the station you choose. 2. Multi-channel marketing Multi-channel marketing (multiple touch points) means that you can reach prospects no matter where they are or what their marketing preferences are. For example, if you restrict yourself to Instagram (a mobile channel) you’ll be missing the opportunity for your message to reach those using Facebook (both a mobile and computer channel), or potential patients who listen to the radio (radio/mobile/computer channels). We also mustn’t forget the retail shopfront, which is a physical touch point. When we first opened our clinic, The Skin to Love Clinic, we were approached by a sales representative for a nationwide radio network with a county-based station. I made the mistake of taking up that advertising opportunity because we wanted to get our name out there and we were lured by the station’s large audience numbers. In hindsight, I don’t believe at that stage we had enough supporting touch points to expose our message to our prospects.
Reproduced from Aesthetics | Volume 7/Issue 3 - February 2020
