What radio station should I use?
Last month my media buyer presented her recommendations to a dentist who was new to radio advertising. His market is relatively small, so the budget allowed us to use three different stations. Two of the stations made sense to him, but he hesitated to accept our recommendation for the third, saying, “Nobody listens to that station.”
What he was really saying was, “I don’t listen to that station and neither do the ladies in the office.” Since they don’t listen to it, they all assumed that nobody else did either. Now this kind of anecdotal evidence has some value, especially in smaller markets where accurate statistics aren’t as easy to come by. But personal preference, and the listening habits of friends and family, should not be the the main factors in your decision.
Here’s the right way to do it: Decide who you need to reach, and then find out what stations they listen to. If your target is soccer moms, you’ll find that they tend to listen to different stations than middle-aged businessmen.
Hundreds of markets are carefully tracked, some up to four times a year, to see who’s listening to each station. This tracking collects an enormous amount of information, but the most important to you are age, sex and wealth. Analyze this to find out where your target patients are. Make a list of the five best stations, and then compare rates to see which is the most efficient.
I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh myself, but I’m a big fan of his results for my clients. His program attracts high income 35-64 year-olds that I’m looking for in many of my campaigns. The point is this – it doesn’t matter what you like, it just matters where the right customers are.
By the way, that third station, that the dentist resisted, generated more than half of his phone calls last month.
