Radio advertising has distinct advantages over TV and Print advertising and is still a proven and effective mode of advertising. You can target specific audiences and elicit direct response. When compared to TV or Print advertising, Radio commercials are much cheaper, easier to produce, and faster to get on the air.
There have been instances, when a client signs a contract or gives you a radio advertising broadcast order for an ad to run immediately, within an hour or less and depending on the how complicated the ad is, you can then quickly run the spots.
Radio advertising has a weak side though, and that is bad copy writing. Radio commercial copy that sucks makes your campaign ineffective.
There are some spots which run for a day and are targetted at specific times, and if you don’t have a good radio commercial copy your campaign is a failure and your radio advertising budget a waste.
To help improve your radio advertising campaign, here are some tips:
1. Number one rule? Write for Radio! Writing copy for radio is very much different from writing for TV or print. Remember that Tv has an advantage, it is an audio-visual medium, people see and hear. Print has advantages because people can read all those details and read them over and over again. When your radio spot plays, your listener has only one chance at catching your radio commercial message, and your ad should create a direct response. Radio ads are fleeting, once its done, its done. Your audience can’t click a button to replay. Your chance of getting to them again is if the spot gets played again later on, and if your lucky to still have the same people tuned in to catch that spot played again.
When I write, I try to identify at most 3 main messages that I want the radio commercial to deliver, if there are too many messages this will lead to information overload. Either the listener won’t know which message to digest and react to first, or they have a hard time remembering which or what it was you were trying to tell them.
Grab the listener’s attention, deliver the sales offer or message, and get an inquiry.
2. If you are not a good writer, then hire a good radio copywriter. The best radio copywriters are those who understand radio and how it works, especially those who do make a living on radio.
For business owners, if you hire a professional radio commercial copywriter, let them do the job. If you want to write it yourself, or want to suggest lines or text to be used and you are pretty insistent about these lines, then you might as well write the copy yourself, save your money and don’t get a radio commercial copywriter. But do make suggestions, professional radio commercial copywriters will listen to your input, what you have to say; and take it into consideration.. but, will do and write what they believe to be the best way to sell your products or services. Let the radio commercial copywriter do the job YOU hired them for.
For copywriters, if you do know what you are doing then I am certain you know that it would be great to listen to the client’s suggestions as one way of understanding the product. You have to do your homework as well. But bottomline is, you got to do what you feel is right; what you know is right. That is what you are getting paid for. Do not be intimidated with an insistent client.
If you are cowed by the client into writing an ad in the fashion or manner the client wants it; and if after the campaign runs the ad is not effective, you just might get blamed for its failure.
I’ll be honest, I’ve had my share of clients who were indeed insistent; it is just a matter of dealing with them I guess and getting them to understand that you do know what you are doing.
