Is Radio Advertising Worth It for Contractors???

• Do peo­ple still lis­ten to the radio?*
• I’m too small to adver­tise on the radio! I can’t afford it. 
• I don’t even like the radio, and ignore the com­mer­cials anyway. 
• Nah, I don’t like that station!

These are just some of the com­ments and ques­tions I’ve heard from my home improve­ment clients over the years. Decid­ing whether or not to pull the trig­ger on radio adver­tis­ing isn’t easy, and the price tag often is a tough pill to swallow.

So, is it real­ly worth it?

If your com­pa­ny has a busi­ness plan that involves annu­al growth and expand­ing your mar­ket share, I would strong­ly rec­om­mend that you leave room for radio adver­tis­ing. There are still thou­sands of con­sumers that tune into their favorite pod­cast and/​or radio sta­tion sev­er­al times a week. If you stay con­sis­tent with this form of adver­tis­ing, you’ll see fruit from your mar­ket­ing invest­ment. I’ve watched it hap­pen firsthand.

What should you con­sid­er before adver­tis­ing on the radio?

I wish leads just start­ed pour­ing in as soon as you go ​“on air,” but it’s not that easy or sim­ple. Here’s what you need to keep in mind.

Stay con­sis­tent.

Radio is a long game. If you try it for 3 months and don’t get any leads, that’s hon­est­ly pret­ty com­mon. Peo­ple have to hear your com­mer­cials for quite awhile to remem­ber who you are and what you do. Some home improve­ment con­trac­tors might expe­ri­ence faster results if they have a ser­vice like HVAC or plumb­ing, where the need can be sud­den and imme­di­ate. But if you’re a painter or remod­el­er with a longer sales cycle, expect at least a 6‑month ger­mi­na­tion peri­od before you see fruit. Don’t stop! Be patient.

Pick a sta­tion with a loy­al fan base. 

The news-talk and/​or sports sta­tions tend to be the best options for home improve­ment con­trac­tors, boast­ing faith­ful audi­ences who are most like­ly to hear your ad again and again. They cost more, since the val­ue is there, but it’s a bet­ter invest­ment than adver­tis­ing on cheap­er music sta­tions that have lis­ten­ers flip­ping through ran­dom­ly. You want to adver­tise to an audi­ence that trusts the source: news, traf­fic, weath­er, sports talk, home improve­ment shows, etc. 

Part­ner with a show host.

This can cost a lit­tle more, but if you part­ner with a pop­u­lar show and/​or its host, their loy­al lis­ten­ers will be more like­ly to hire you when they need your ser­vices. The host has a built-in rap­port that you can tap into.

In a per­fect world, go a step fur­ther by see­ing if you can do some work for the host so there’s a per­son­al con­nec­tion when they run your ad spots. 

Bi-week­ly spots.

Com­mit­ting is good for your ROI, but it’s also good for your rate. Sta­tions tend to offer added (bonus) spots if you com­mit to a longer con­tract. I also rec­om­mend dou­bling up on fre­quen­cy for a busier radio week, then back­ing off anoth­er week, just to mix things up. 

As a side note, unlike mag­a­zines (for exam­ple), radio sta­tions are pret­ty for­giv­ing of con­tracts if you go through a tough peri­od and need to back off for a while. 

Get a catchy jingle.

Old-school adver­tis­ing still works! Hire a jin­gle expert to come up with some­thing to help you be remem­bered, whether short or long. They may charge any­where from $1 – 2,000 for the cre­ative, but it’s mon­ey well spent. 

Make it personal.

I know some busi­ness­es that rely heav­i­ly on the own­er to do all the radio spots. That’s a strat­e­gy that can def­i­nite­ly work. If the own­er has a good radio voice or real­ly wants to be the voice of the com­pa­ny, go for it! I also know of busi­ness­es that get their kids involved in the com­mer­cials! What­ev­er you can do to make it mem­o­rable. Just stay con­sis­tent. Too much exper­i­men­ta­tion or play­ing around cre­ates weak brand­ing and makes your spot forgettable.

Don’t stress out about track­ing radio.

Full dis­clo­sure? It’s very hard to track whether radio is real­ly work­ing. Not many clients walk in your door and say, ​“Hey! I heard your radio ad!” Many will hear your ad, then check you out online and read reviews before con­tact­ing you. At that point, your lead source will prob­a­bly be ​“Web” or ​“Phone Call” on paper, but it real­ly start­ed with radio.

If you do what I out­lined above, stay con­sis­tent, and start to see sol­id lead growth and con­ver­sion with­in the fol­low­ing year, it’s not a coincidence. 

I hope this overview is help­ful! I’m just scratch­ing the sur­face, and encour­age you to think it through, get inspired, and con­sid­er imple­ment­ing a radio strat­e­gy in your upcom­ing mar­ket­ing plans. As always, reach out with any questions!

*Note: In today’s mar­ket, you can also add stream­ing radio on the inter­net as well as pod­casts as sim­i­lar to radio