How to Amplify Your Word-Of-Mouth, Guaranteed

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(Special Guest Column by Rod Schwartz) You prize good word-of-mouth, don’t you? We all do. While favorable word-of-mouth doesn’t exactly create business, it increases the likelihood of establishing a preference for your business or brand in the mind of the hearer. Good radio advertising does the very same thing, only multiplied and amplified. Radio is word-of-mouth on steroids.

Individual word-of-mouth travels rather slowly and unpredictably. And it’s not something you control. But a good radio advertising campaign will help your business grow faster and more predictably. Radio advertising accelerates the inevitable outcome of word-of-mouth*.

Moreover, radio advertising today is the biggest bargain in all of advertising, often far underpriced for the value received.

Consider:
– Radio reaches more people every day, every week, than any other single medium. In fact, radio has kept its reach while TV is eroding. See for yourself; read the charts.
– Radio is the only pure-speech medium. Why is this important? Speech is our primary form of communication, and it’s why radio advertising is so powerful! (Skeptical? Here’s a logical demonstration. Try conducting your business without speaking. Seriously. Use only text, graphics, symbols, printed materials, etc. in communicating, but don’t speak. See how far that gets you.)
– Radio is everywhere and goes anywhere. We listen when we walk, when we drive, when we’re doing chores, etc. Radio is as ubiquitous as the air we breathe.
– Radio offers you affordable repetition of your message. Repetition is the mother of learning – and of persuasion! No wonder radio’s R.O.I. is better, dollar-for-dollar, time-for-time, than any other medium’s.
– Radio is accountable to its advertisers. Chances are you’ve been hearing about widespread online ad-fraud lately; it’s been all over the news. But they’re not talking about radio.
– Brands and businesses are built by mass-reach, spoken-word media. And that includes businesses and brands right here at home. Local success stories abound, and I’d be delighted to share them with you.
– One further bit of advice: Beware of entrusting your reputation to social media, review sites, and other shiny online “opportunities” not under your control, where negative comments, unfavorable reviews, sabotage by disgruntled ex-employees, or impossible-to-please shoppers, etc. can tarnish your brand and business, and adversely affect your word-of-mouth.

Remember, with your radio advertising, you control the content of your message, all of it, in an environment that favors your success.

Listen, business owners whom you know and respect are continually growing their market share by means of their radio advertising. You can too. We’re as close as your phone, and we’ll be glad to talk with you.

After all, it’s what we do for a living.

*This works in the opposite direction, as well. An effective advertising campaign will cause a bad business to fail sooner. Bad word-of-mouth travels even faster than good, as your own experience will confirm. A business (or event) that fails to live up to the expectations of those who respond to its advertising will find it more difficult to win them back next time.

Rod Schwartz backed into a lifelong career in radio advertising in 1973 in Springfield, Illinois. He became sales manager for the Pullman Radio Group in 1979 and served in that position until 2006. He continues to serve clients in the region as the stations’ senior account executive. Since 1991, Rod and his family have operated Grace Broadcast Sales, providing short-form syndicated radio features to radio and TV stations across the U.S. and Canada. An avid photographer, Rod shares some of his favorite images of the Palouse at PalousePics.com.
He can be reached at [email protected].
Check out his website HERE

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