Advertising is critical to the success of every Tampa Bay small business owner.  One of the most powerful elements of any advertising campaign is how many people it reaches.

Nielsen, the world's largest consumer insights company, found that advertising reach has a more significant effect on sales than branding, recency, and context.

There are many ways a local business owner can advertise. This includes traditional media like Tampa radio, local TV, and newspaper. It also includes online advertising options such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pandora.

They type of customer an individual business needs to reach depends on the goods and services the company sells. For instance, a daycare operator might want to reach households with young children. On the other hand, a real estate agent could be looking for consumers in the market to purchase a new home.

The charts below reveal how the different advertising options available to Tampa Bay business compare in terms of the ability to reach customers with specific characteristics. This includes age, income, education, employment status, political affiliation, number of children, ethnicity, and purchase intent.

When a Tampa Bay small business owner advertises on a local radio station, the first words determine if consumers will pay attention. The article "Be Heard: The #1 Job of Commercials on Tampa Radio" discusses this topic in-depth.

When it comes time to buy, however, getting in the final word can be equally important.  Advertising on Tampa radio is often the last voice a customer hears before making a purchase in-store or online.

Being the last voice serves as a potent reminder to consumers that a business or product exists.  Especially since our brains make things very easy to forget. Science says it's so.

Every vote counts.  Many times the difference between winning an election and losing is a handful of ballots. This is true in races for almost every elected office, referendum, and issue on the national, statewide, and local level.

To win a modern election requires advertising. Successful advertising requires reach. In Tampa Bay, the most potent way to reach voters is on local radio.

Last week, for instance, 89% of all registered voters in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Hernando counties tuned-in to a Tampa radio station.  This is significantly more than were reached by local TV, local newspaper, or the major social media site like Facebook and Instagram.

Next year, according to Nielsen, 138,765 people in Tampa Bay will be getting married.  Assuming that those folks are hitching-up with each other, that means there will be 69,382 weddings. 

CostOfWedding.com reports that the average cost for these pending nuptials will be $34,268 including (but not limited to) rings, dresses, tuxedos, flowers, venues, photographers, invitations, limos, and rice (or birdseed for the ecologically inclined).

This means small business owners in Tampa Bay who cater to the bridal market will be competing for a share of $2.3 billion.

Mark Twain has some script writing advice for Tampa Bay small business owners who depend on radio advertising to market their goods and services.

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning," advises Mr. Twain.

In other words, fill your commercials with lightning, not bugs!

Currently, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are 171,476 words in the English language. A handful of these words, Tampa Bay small business owners can't use in their radio commercials. The Supreme Court of the United States says so.

Of all the words that can be used in broadcast advertising, however, there is one word that should be shunned: 'get' and all of its nasty derivative forms including 'got' and 'gotten'.  Here's why.

The typical 60-second commercial on Tampa radio consists of 160 words.  Depending on the station, each word in that ad could cost around $3.00.  It is important, then, that each word is carefully selected to engage listeners and then compel them to action.  This is especially crucial when using verbs. 

"One of the best ways of grabbing and keeping an audience is to use strong, descriptive verbs," says the Writing Center at the University of Houston.  'Get' is not that kind of verb.

This year, Tampa Bay consumers will spend $4.3 billion in local restaurants and drinking establishments. There are thousands of local restaurants from Bradenton to Spring Hill  hungry for a bite of that cash.

Unfortunately, many of the restaurants that are here today will be gone tomorrow. According to FSR, an industry trade magazine, 60% of restaurants fail within their first year. Eighty percent never make it to their fifth anniversary.

CBI Insights studies why small business owners, such as local restaurants, fail.  Reason number eight is poor marketing and advertising.  Good food and friendly service are not enough to make a cash register ring.

Two things are remarkable about voting day in 1920.  It was the first time, ever, women could participate in the selection of the U.S. President. It was also the first time live election results were broadcast on the radio. Not to mention, it was also the first radio broadcast, ever.

The voters' choice that night was between Warren G. Harding  and James M. Cox.  Both men had derived their political power as successful newspaper publishers.  It is quite ironic, then, that one of these men would reach the highest office in the land on the same night that the nascent radio broadcasting business began its takedown of the newspaper industry.

Nowhere is this takedown more apparent than locally, where radio has become, by far, the advertising medium with the largest reach among Tampa Bay consumers.

The first radio station in Tampa went on-the-air in 1922.  Eighty-two years later, Facebook inaugurated the social media era.  Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, and hundreds of other sites quickly followed.

As social media matured from a novelty to part of consumers' daily rituals, some Tampa Bay business owners began to experiment with advertising.

By every key advertising metric, though, Tampa radio remains the best choice for a small business to market their goods and services. Here's why.

In 1930, the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation put the first car radio on the market. They called it the Motorola. This in-car entertainment would setback a Tampa Bay consumer about $120 which would be equivalent to $1200 today.

But, if you had that kind of cash, you would be able to cruise around in your Ford Model-A, DeSoto, Packard, or Studebaker and hear the music of the day from radio stations in Tampa, Miami, and Atlanta. 

Today, there's a radio in almost every vehicle on the streets of Tampa Bay. Despite the competition on the dashboard from other sources of entertainment, AM/FM radio remains the dominant choice for in-car entertainment.  This is great news for local business owners who depend on Tampa radio to market their goods and services.