Audio marketing is making strides everyday that passes by us. With billboards, TV, newspapers, and magazines seemingly stretched to their limit. So much so that they are beginning to become white noise to our eyes. Visual marketing has had its time and with every new DVR purchase it becomes less and less effective. Thus the age of online music channels and radio advertising has become anew. So if you are playing just music in your business and relying on people being able to remember or even read your ads at 70 miles per hour then you are leaving yourself vulnerable. Here are a few things that you may not know about audio marketing.
1. The Most Cost Effective
T.V., billboard, and print ads can really cost you these days. With the want to be seen everywhere and known across the land traditional advertising has been able to crank up the prices to be able to use their medium for your business. T.V. ads alone can cost a small fortune and there is no guarantee that they will even be seen. This is because people have become burnt out on commercials and have begun to pay extra to be able to fast forward right through them. So with visual aids being costly and less effective the dawn of audio marketing has begun. A good music/messaging service for your store will run about a couple hundred a month. This should (if they are worth their weight) give you a chance to run your own messages along with the music. This will capture the folks already in the store and direct them to want you want them to buy. This way you don’t have to worry about whether to T.V. ad you played last night at 4 a.m. is going to do the trick.
2. Unintended Purchases
Unintended purchases may not be what you think. I am not talking about when the cell phone company tacks on a few extra dollars because you used your phone on a Wednesday when your contract says its okay to use Thursday-Tuesday. I am also not saying that it is the same as paying for the bus-load of kids behind you in the fast food line when all you ordered was a coffee. What I am saying though is the positive influence of relevant targeted messages can cause increase spend that your guest’s were not intending on making when they first walked through the door. It’s a not scam it is simply informing them of sales and savings that they otherwise would not have known about. About 40% of people who hear in-store messages make an unintended purchase that day. Can you afford to miss out on that 40%? Mmmmm I thought not.
3. Your IPod Doesn’t Count
Many people have a tendency to cut corners when it comes to audio marketing. I get it. Times are tough and it is probably low on your priority list to get a professional sounding radio network running in your store. But having your 18 year son make you a mix tape and then throwing it up on your load speaker does not count as audio marketing. In order to do it correctly you will need to (well unless you are a sound engineer and computer scientist rolled into a business owner) hire someone else to do it. Shouldn’t cost you too many pennies and if done right can make you a lot more. Basically all you need to do is find a company that does in-store music and messaging. But make sure that they can blend different genres and are able to do scripts for you as well. Once you find a company tell them a little bit about your area and demographic. Then let them in on what you want to be said over the sound system and from there it should be just about handled. Have your radio guy or even do the messages yourself and the company will drop them right in for you at a touch of a button.
4. Monetize your Air Space!
It is easy to think that all of the messages that play in your store just your messages. I mean….it is your store, why would you play other peoples messages? Well this is a good way to add an additonal profit center to your store and more than pay for the service. The messages though should not (and this might go without saying) be from a competitor. But if you own, for instance, a car dealership and you have an exclusive deal with a tire vendor or a lube company. You will more than likely be able to get a discount on your purchases or they may even pay you a small amount for the ad space. So lets say you are paying $200 a month for a service. You find four other businesses that could use for advertising in your store and sell them on only $200 bucks a month for it. That is $800 right there! You have covered your cost and are making $600 a month off of just by having you own radio network.
5. Timeless
Now never is a long time. But “never going to be phased out unless our society collapses or baring any extreme legal regulations or the world ends and no ones around to hear it” is way to long of a title, so just roll with it. The ability to have your own private radio network right inside your store will not be phased out or unavailable in any foreseeable future. The customer cannot turn it off. They cannot change the channel. In fact statistics prove they prefer it as a means to reach them! – This can be everything you want it to be and more. The options are astounding and opportunity endless.
