Recipe: Broadcast and Webcast Advertising

Can you afford to advertise in the broadcast or webcast media? Maybe. Is it the best place to spend your advertising dollars? Maybe not.

Broadcast radio and television advertising can bring you name recognition with a wide audience. The Web also offers both live and recorded audio and video programming, often called Internet radio or Web TV. Some of these broadcast or webcast programs are narrowly targeted to a niche audience.

But is there a cheaper way you might produce the same result? Go back and review the “Making Advertising Work” section above, and see if this medium is really worth pursuing. Watch or listen to the stations and shows you might consider as advertising venues. Are there any other businesses like yours advertised? If not, there might be a reason.

With broadcast and webcast media, repeat advertising is the name of the game. Your prospective clients can’t tear out your ad and save it, and typically don’t want to interrupt their listening or viewing to click through to another site. Unless your ad runs repeatedly, they need to be interested enough in the moment they first hear it to note your phone number or website, or remember your name. That’s a pretty long shot.

One of the few valid reasons for a professional services business to use broadcast advertising is if your average sale is so low that you need many, many prospects contacting you. In this situation, you might find it necessary to spend more on advertising than is usual, just to get enough people in the pipeline. But be sure to do your math first. No business is profitable unless it earns more per client than it costs to get each one in the door.

To produce an effective radio or TV ad, professional help with your ad script and production is highly recommended. There’s no point in spending big bucks to air a second-rate ad. If the station or show you plan to advertise with offers to produce your ad for you, survey the quality of other ads it has produced and make sure they meet your standards. As with all other media, track the results of your ads carefully. If you’re not getting the results you want, pull the plug.