# does Radio advertising still works?



## onlinestar (Jun 7, 2012)

Howdy guys,

does Radio advertising still works?


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## Fixico (Dec 3, 2011)

I know it still works for a lot of businesses, but I'm not sure how well it works for our biz. 
I've been wondering the same. How do we generate interest in our visual shirts through an audio spot? Maybe (with my humorous designs) I could try to record some of the comments I get wearing them around, like "Hah, my husband needs that shirt". Then play several of those followed by a web address. I guess it could work. 
If you try, let us know how it goes.


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## beanie357 (Mar 27, 2011)

Maybe. We did a saturation for 3 weeks and a bleed out for 4 on a local am.

'got virtually nothing. led with huge price deals.

Tried the largest freebie type paper, and got traffic. running for 6 months on that one.

Postacsrds did the best, as well as getting into the groups that use stuff regularly

Will try radio again, but different station and stay on the local sports programs.


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Does the market for your shirts listen to radio? 

Go where the market is. If your market listens to the radio, then yes, it may work for you. If not, it won't. 

Knowing where your market is and what they do is key.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

Sure didn't work for me


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## onlinestar (Jun 7, 2012)

charles95405 said:


> Sure didn't work for me


Why? What did u try to do?


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

Had several spots some offering discounts. Most popular local station......didn't geta single call


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## printingray (Apr 4, 2012)

Yeah, its still works, if you have good voice ad with the voice of a girl to attract many listens  ! This is my experience, make short ad and first play this to your relatives to get some reviews, if reviews are positive you can use it for Radio advertising.


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## lray (Feb 1, 2012)

i agree with fixico. i don't think radio advertising is the right avenue for selling t-shirts. i think web based advertising is going to be far more effective and have a much bigger ROI.


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## rtosh (Sep 9, 2009)

We have "supported" a Christian radio station for over 15 years. We started out doing it, not for advertising, but for no other reason than supporting the mission of the station. A large part of our business is selling shirts at onsite special events. After about 4-5 years, we started hearing people say "aren't you the people we heard about on the radio?" The branding, word of mouth that it has helped create has been amazing. It has paid for itself several times over. This is probably atypical, but it has actually been our most effective form of paid advertising for our 26 year old business.


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

i think you're probably right, ryan, that's atypical. i'd venture to say that your radio spots work in conjunction with your event sales. so, i guess the question is how much of your sales are derived directly from your radio spots? do you think your event sales would suffer at all if you didn't do the radio ads? do you think that by virtue of advertising on a christian radio station has a higher chance of adding to your business than if someone advertised on a pop rock or oldies station? by that i mean, do you think your demographic is more prone to 'hearing the message' than other demographics? 

i think that if you offered a screen printing service, then a radio ad might really work. but, to advertise a brand, particularly one that doesn't do on-site sales at events, i'm not seeing how it's going to be more effective than online advertising.


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## rtosh (Sep 9, 2009)

I can safely say that we have gained accounts worth a conservative estimate of $30k per year based upon our radio. These are accounts that I don't believe we would have without having run those spots. I do believe the "Christian" market is different in that many ( not all ) like the feeling of doing business with like-minded people. I don't think you get this as much with the secular market. We have done radio spots on sports radio and frankly, the results were mixed. Now that I've given it some thought, our situation is probably too atypical to be of much value, other than the fact that we found a niche within the radio market, stuck with it long-term, and have benefitted greatly from it. It can be done, but not sure there is a road map to success anywhere in our experience


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## ryan barker (Jul 21, 2011)

fair enough.  if you didn't know any better, would you put those dollars in online advertising if you started today?


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## rtosh (Sep 9, 2009)

Funny you should ask that. We met with our web developer a few days ago and are mulling over what we want to do in the way of SEO and how much we want to invest in it, pay-per-click stuff. I don't think we would invest dollar for dollar into online advertising as opposed to what we have invested in radio at this point, but online didn't exist when we started our radio support. We don't have much of an online presence currently, but we are looking to change that and the way we spend our marketing money will obviously have to change. This year, we are going to mix online / email and direct mailing with our existing radio and sponsorships that we do yearly and see how it goes.


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## GilnAtlanta (Oct 23, 2012)

Hey Ryan,
Thanks for your candor is sharing why you supported a Christian radio station. I am working with a local radio station here in North Georgia that is listener-supported and dependent upon sponsors and underwriters. We have many who underwrite our daily broadcasts and say, for the most part, they are blessed in their business as a result of honoring "the Lord's work." As long as you remain faithful to support the local Christian radio as you have done, God will not let you down. Keep pushing the plow!


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## Topdigitizing (Sep 12, 2012)

I believe it will be used for many of business field. And now we are using the media community to promot.


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