(By Rick Fink) Does a client saying, “We ask every person that calls or comes through our door how they heard about us,” fill you with dread? Back in the day, the Yellow Pages got a lot of the credit, but today it belongs to digital and social media.
Why? These mediums are usually the last point of contact just before the purchase. It’s the end of the buying cycle or the bottom of the Marketing Funnel. The customer really doesn’t know what really got them to this point… and they don’t know that they don’t know.
But, have your advertisers considered that it may have been a radio ad that persuaded their customers to even consider looking at their ad or visiting their website? “Intrusive Media” (this means Radio), if done correctly, should have created an emotional connection with prospective customers long before “Passive Media” (digital, social media, etc.), which is the point of research prior to purchase, comes into play.
The average person will only consider doing business with someone they are familiar with and feel good about.
We ask this question in every one of our Top of Mind Awareness Surveys: “If you use Google or some other search engine, would you be more likely to click on a business that you have never heard of at the top of the list, or the first business you recognized or were familiar with?”
The results are ALWAYS the same. 72-75% say they will click on a business they are familiar with. 2-3% say they will select the name at the top of the list and approximately 22-26% say both.
It’s clear that having TOMA has a LOT of value!
Feel free to use that question and its results the next time a client says that their customers heard about them via the “Passive Medias” of the world. It’s still the “Intrusive Media” that do all the heavy lifting and create the Top of Mind Awareness.
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Rick Fink from ENS Media can be reached at 605-310-2062 or at [email protected]. Read Rick’s Radio Ink archives here.
Having a catchy radio ad with a very memorable phrase is very helpful in these scenarios. For example, I have a radio ad for Neece Tire that features a deep-voiced “Neece Tire Man” who shows up to save the day in each ad. At the end of each ad, someone in the ad says, “We need to take it to Neece Tire!” And the Neece Tire Man interjects, “You gotta say it like this,” then he drops his voice very deep and bellows out, “Neece Tire!” Then the other person tries to drop their voice that low and mimic the Neece Tire Man when closing the ad with a usually funny fake-deep sounding “Neece Tire!” That sticks in their head, and when they go into the shop they often say it in a fake deep voice, letting them know they heard the radio ad!
Even something as simple as saying “Pump, pump, pump!” in an ad for septic tank pumping is catchy and customers end up repeating it to the client.
So catchy radio ads with catchy, simple phrases they can repeat to the client…a great way to win in the top-of-mind-awareness game in our clients’ minds!