Great article!

M. Bruce Abbott
Creative Director/Partner
Radio Lounge
http://www.radioloungeusa.com

I’m all about results.

In my experience, the ” boring repetitive humorless copy” tends to be profitable.

The “creative award-winning copy” tends to be less so.

There are a few copywriters who can deliver both entertainment and sales.

The key word in that last sentence is “few”.

If you are one of those (no doubt you are), then you have my congratulations and my admiration.

But the fact is I have seen far too many small business owners taken to the cleaners by agencies and other “creatives” who are more intent on producing copy that wins them (the agency or “creative” person) awards than on producing sales for the client.

And while the award criteria you cite asks “how successfully…the entry” “motivates the targeted listener”, this seems to beg the questions: based on whose judgment? Based on what objective criteria?

If the criteria is actual sales results, then I’d say that’s the right criteria. If it’s just a matter of the opinion of the judge(s)… then (in my opinion) it misses the mark.

Bottom line for me: results don’t lie. Even if they are produced by “boring repetitive humorless copy”.

And awards don’t matter (to the business owner) if the copy doesn’t produce sales.

At least that’s the way I see it.

Wishing you all good things,

Ray Edwards

“Even if the radio station (or ad agency) has a full-time writer, chances are the writer will be more interested in writing “cute” or “award-winning” copy, which almost never equals “sales-making” copy.”
While it may be a lot to digest, my first priority is writing copy that PRODUCES results. To make such a generalized statement is terrible journalism. And why are these ads winning awards? To cite the crystal awards criteria for judging copy, award winning copy is based solely on two key questions:
1) How clearly does the entry demonstrate the results that the product or service promises the listener?
2) How successfully does the entry motivate the targeted listener to take up the Call To Action (purchase the product; or call the phone number; or visit the website, etc.)?

So while I may be writing award winning copy, I would be doing any client a disservice to start producing the boring repetitive humorless copy that this article loves so much. I am not trying to be mean, but I would ask that Ray give stations, and fellow writers, more credit in the future.

Jay… yep, the “kid thing” is a common trap advertisers fall into.

John… thanks for your comments as well. I do, of course, agree that testing and tracking are vital — thanks for making that observation!

Great article. I know you said there were plenty of things you didn’t include, but I think one of them worth mentioning (which is obvious to you and me, but may not be to everyone reading) is to track the results of your ad and test different ads to come up with a control.

If your call to action gives them a free CD or booklet that they have to call to order, obviously you can key the telephone number, or worst case, the department.

And depending on the business model, in most cases it makes sense to practice sound marketing funnel strategies, where the call to action puts them in your funnel.

I agree with Harlan that demographics, psychographics, etc. are obviously important, but your advice to NOT let the DJ or radio people write your copy alone will probably probably push them from unprofitable to profitable.

Cheers,

John

And the part about using kids? I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve heard some business owner throw his unintelligible 3 year old into his spot thinking, “THIS will result in sales!”

Ridicule maybe, but not sales. Yeesh.

Thanks bro–spot on!

JW

That’s truly a superb, valuable article; exceptionally well written; I’m printing that one out myself (a rarity) for study and use. Thanks for taking the time to write it; it’s certainly good enough to be in a trade magazine as a feature piece… superb work on it. Thanks very much. Solid tips.

-ken cal.houn

If you were an entrepreneur with an existing product or product line, you’d need to reverse the process and look for a station or show with the right audience.

If you start with no product or preconceptions, and simply look for a responsive audience and then source a product to sell them… so much the better.

I think the way to approach advertising on radio might be best this way…

Instead of saying, “I have this XYZ product to sell, so let’s go find a radio format that it will be targetd to”…

…It would be much better to just go after certain formats and then figure out what to sell them.

For instance, go to the Art Bell crowd and find what kind of crazy Area 51 or alien abduction, or Chupacabra type thing you could sell them.

Or, go to the Rush Limbaugh crowd and find out how you could leverage an issue like abortion where you know 80% of your audience is going to agree with you. (Not sure what you could sell with anti abortion, nor would I want to, but you get the picture of message to market match). The Limbaugh faithful would jump all over some offer that was trying to save lives of unborn babies. (Ok, I’m getting too deep and wicked here). Just trying to prove a point.

So instead of starting with a product in mind, it seems smart to start with the radio station and format in mind, and then figure out what to sell them.

Thank you for this article.

Like Ray, I have been in the radio industry for a long time. And, the truth is, most radio sales seem to be driven by the station’s “desire to pull in quick bucks now” than to have radio people that can sit down and get a real feel for the client’s business.

From 1996 to 2004, I successfully sold radio airtime on a station that was not rated in the Arbitron for my market. The station’s format was a faith-based Christian format that included segments of music and talk.

Sometimes, it was much more honest to tell a business owner that they would be better off advertising in a different venue - sometimes a different station, sometimes print - and that’s not always easy to do. But it was the honest thing to do. Sometimes that same business used a different campaign that DID work with our station.

Listeners to a lot of talk radio, country, and some Christian formats, such as Southern Gospel, are extremely loyal. Oldies stations in general are having a hard time getting sales because their audience is aging out of
the target age for advertisers.

The station I worked for had a number of biz op ads, but they were pretty much all national network spots, specifically, airing over the USA Radio Network out of Dallas, Texas.

Radio advertising is an animal all its own…

Talk radio is by far the most responsive audience in general; next on my list would be country listeners.

That being said, the real magic happens when you marry your offer to your audience. A hot offer that appeals to hip-hop listeners will get much better response on the hip-hop station than it will on the Oldies station.

As is true on the web, the advertorial approach can work better as long as you have a compelling way to draw listeners into your marketing funnel.

Another point on which the Doc is correct: radio stations and networks do a very poor job of “category separation”. That means your ad may end up running right after a competitor’s ad. Most stations will promise you they won’t let that happen, but in truth it happens all the time. Monitor your campaigns carefully. It’s less of a problem in categories other than weight loss, sexual potency products, and auto dealers (auto dealers are the #1 category of radio advertisers — does that surprise anyone?).

The audio I linked to earlier contains a killer, little-known strategy for using the advertorial approach on AM talk stations. There’s nothing for sale at the link, nothing for sale in the audio, and this is not part of some product launch or other promotion. Just good information that could be useful to some marketers… listen to it, and you’ll see what I mean.

Talk radio is hyper responsive but now there is commercial saturation.

You can hear weight loss ads back to back to back.

Even though they say they won’t do it.

So just like advertorial works in newspapers.

Make your commercial “sound” editorial.

Talk radio listeners are conditioned to sit back and listen to someone talk all day, while the music folks just want to hear the latest Green Day song.

Ray,

Is talk radio a lot better then say the top 40 stations for response (not price)?

I would reckon it would be a whole lot more responsive, and cheaper too!

For instance, I bet I could sell a truck load to them Art Bell or Coast to Coast AM listeners, but I think I’d have a harder time trying to pull in sales off the oldies station.

True — for most products, you don’t shop radio by price. But price is a consideration for almost all buyers. So including tips on getting better prices seemed like it might be helpful. And effective use of budget is a smart consideration for any buyer.

As for the demographic questions: yes, of course, you raise good points. Demographics are important. Your radio rep and show you how the audience breaks down using software that analyzes the ratings data. You definitely should take that information into consideration.

This article was intended to help two groups of people:

1. People who use radio, but use it ineffectively (most of those using radio).

2. People who don’t use radio because they think it’s too expensive.

Before anyone invests their money in any form of advertising or marketing, it’s a good idea to become well-informed about that medium and the possible advantages and disadvantages.

It’s probably easy to read my article and point out things I didn’t include — and there are plenty of things I didn’t include. That’s because, at least in part, the article is already longer than most of the articles on this site.

Anyone who has more interest in the subject should do further research.

One place to start is with the free audio interview I did with another radio expert. No optin required — just download or listen online.

rayedwards.com/writing/turn-your-business-around-with-radio/

I definitely do recommend Dan’s products. While I don’t agree with everything Dan says, I do think he is, for my money, the best source for material on this subject. And yes, I know him. You’re right — he could probably tear my ad apart. And it would be better for it.

That doesn’t change the fact that my sample ad is better than the dreck that passes for radio advertising most of the time.

Thanks again for your insightful comments, Harlan. It’s good to know you’re always looking out for the best interest of others. I’m sure it’s that spirit of helpfulness that has gotten you where you are today.

Would you mail an offer for breast implant surgery to
quadriplegics?

The basic rule of copy is the list is more important
than the copy itself.

And it radio, its the station.

Who are the listeners?

What are the demographics?

Do they have enough money for your product?

For most products, you don’t shop radio by price.

You shop by demographics.

Ray, if you know Dan O’Day, send him your
“good” commercial and ask for his opinion.

It’s very difficult for me to see you using any
of the techniques Dan mentions in his
excellent “How To Create Maximum Impact
Radio Commercials.”

I’ll be curious to hear Dan’s response.

After spending 25 years in the radio business, writing many ads for clients, and seeing the results, I’ll stand by the ad I called good. Is it the best radio ad ever written? Probably not. Is it better and more effective than 95% of the ads that are currently on the radio? Yes.

It is true that some radio stations are better than others — some have more listeners than others, and that’s a definite advantage. However, the station with the most listeners is often prohibitively expensive to buy. Buying a station with lower ratings but getting more frequency (in other words, being able to buy more ads) is a good strategy for many advertisers.

And while the subhead in the articles does say “any station”, the paragraphs below it clarify that: “there’s no reason you can’t advertise on any of the stations in the Top 10″.

There are other considerations when buying ads that went beyond the scope of this article. Some of them are common sense. I wouldn’t recommend advertising an assisted living facility on a station with a primary audience of 18 year-olds, for instance.

And while I do claim to have expertise in this area, for those who are specifically interested in writing for radio, and who want more details about how to do it, I recommend looking at the materials offered by Dan O’Day at http://danoday.com .

Again, Harlan, thanks for your comments. I know you’re a busy guy, and I appreciate your taking time to offer a different view.

If I submitted the ad you called good to an expert on radio
they would choke on their coffee.

Some seriously poor advise in this article.

It is absolutely not true that any radio station can work.

Ray - Michel there’s some seriously inaccurate information
and just plain bad advice in this post.