It's a good idea at the beginning of any new radio advertising campaign to ask yourself this question. "What will success look like to me after my radio advertising campaign is over?" Be specific in your asking and have a reasonable goal in mind as your answer.
However one caution. We need to remember that success today looks different than just a few short years ago. If you're not getting the call volume that you once did, it doesn't necessarily mean that your radio advertising has lost its' power! Truly, success has a "different look" today than it once did. Here are three reasons why I believe that this is the case:
- Radio advertising marketers want better answers today. That means that direct response radio advertising is becoming more popular and a necessity for many. No longer is it acceptable for a marketer to just "get the name out there in front of the public". Advertising is expensive. It should be treated as an investment that will generate some sort of measurable gain so it needs to produce real, tangible results for a serious marketer.
- The internet has changed the face of success because the volume of online fulfillment is increasing each year at a rapid rate. It was recently suggested in a meeting of Christian radio executives that a phone room or call center to handle sales fulfillment may soon become obsolete. Whether this is so or not, it is true that fulfillment costs less on the internet, and as the internet becomes more and more secure, it remains the most viable option for almost every conceivable business. If you are noticing a drop in your call volume at your call center, it's probably not be because the radio advertising is not working. Most likely, it's because of a shift in the way the buyer is buying.
- Buyers are more informed. This is truly why the internet is so popular from an e-commerce point of view. Think about it. There is truly no end to the amount of information that a buyer can obtain if he truly is willing to hunt for it online. Buyers who "want to think about it" may be in fact doing just that as there is more to think about than ever before!
What this all means is that radio advertising success doesn't look the same anymore. It's still there for the asking but it should be measured in clicks and page views, not just in calls and store traffic.
