As Valentine's Day sales begin to dwindle, that's when Tampa Bay small business owners start thinking about Mom.

Mother's Day, which happens on the second Sunday of May, is second only to Christmas in terms of holiday spending. Last year, Tampa Bay consumers spent more than $253-million celebrating the women in their lives. That number is expected to grow again in 2020.

To claim a significant share of this Mother's Day cash, local retailers and restaurants will need to advertise.  By almost every key metric, advertising on Tampa radio is the best choice.

If you were one of the 2,193,604 consumers who tuned-in to a Tampa radio station last week, then chances are you heard at least one commercial from GEICO, Progressive, or Liberty Mutual. That's because insurance is big business in Tampa.

Each year, Tampa Bay consumers spend $4.4 billion to insure their homes and cars. That's almost $1500 for every area adult.

There is good news and bad news for the 5600 local insurance agents who are competing to earn a substantial share of the home and auto premiums consumers are paying.

According to Nielsen, 258,000 policyholders in Tampa Bay are planning to switch insurance providers during the next 12 months.

Small business owners have been advertising on Tampa radio since the first station, WDAE, went on the air in 1922.  By almost every metric, the medium remains the best way to successfully market goods and services to local consumers.

Before  Tampa Bay businesses finalize their marketing plans for this year, here are five facts they should know about radio advertising.

Tampa Bay consumers cannot get enough pizza.

In 2012, there were just about 1000 local pizza restaurants. Today, however, that number has grown to 1,139. In 2019, these establishments racked up $534,000,000 in total sales.

Fifty-nine percent of pizza sales in Tampa Bay are rung-up by one of the top-50 chains like Domino's or Pizza Hut. The remaining 41% of revenue is controlled by independent, small business owners.

To compete for a larger share of the pizza pie in the Tampa area requires local restaurant owners to bring in new customers. A proven way to accomplish this is with advertising.

The US Small Business Administration recommends that every Tampa Bay small business advertise consistently.  

Consumers in Tampa Bay spent a record $3.9 billion on home improvements in 2019. This level of spending is projected to drop modestly next year, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

“Declining home sales and home-building activity coupled with slower gains in permitting for improvement projects will put the brakes on remodeling growth,” says Chris Herbert, the center’s managing director.

“However, if falling mortgage interest rates continue to incentivize home sales, refinancing, and ultimately remodeling activity, the slowdown may soften some.”

If  Tampa Bay small businesses that sell home improvement products and services would like to continue to grow despite the softening market, then advertising will be required.

Tampa Bay small business owners need employees...desperately.

According to a report from the National Federation of Independent Business, 26% of small business owners say finding qualified workers is their number one problem. 

The report goes on to say that 88% of small business owners looking to hire new employees are finding there are no qualified candidates.

The historically low unemployment figures in Tampa Bay appears to be the root cause of local hiring woes. The metro area's jobless rate stands at 3.4%. There are just not enough qualified workers to go around.

Most small business owners have exhausted the traditional methods of recruitment. These include online job board posts, newspaper ads, referral bonuses, and help wanted signs. All to no avail.

To successfully attract the qualified applicants they yearn for, local small business owners need to command the attention of 'passive' job seekers. The number one source for these candidates is Tampa radio.

Small business owners in the Tampa Bay area must advertise to claim a fair share of the $59.3 billion retail economy.

“Think you have a great product?” asks the U.S. Small Business Administration. “Unfortunately, no one’s going to know about it unless you advertise.”  The SBA goes on to say, “Advertising, if done correctly, can do wonders for your sales, and you know what that means: more revenue and more success for your business."

During 2019, many Tampa Bay small business owners sought advertising guidance on the advice pages of www.AdvertiseInTampaBay.com. Below are the top ten most-read articles from the past 12 months.

This year marks 97 years since WDAE became the first radio station in Tampa Bay.  From that time, local, small business owners have depended on radio advertising to market their goods and services.

So, it is a fair question for a 21st-century business owner to ask: Is Tampa radio still relevant in the life of Tampa Bay consumers?

"You wouldn’t know it from all the media coverage focused on streaming video and streaming music," said media expert Doug Schoen in Forbes Magazine, "but recent Nielsen data shows radio actually has the most reach among American media consumers." 

Last week, for instance, significantly more local consumers tuned-in to a Tampa radio station than watched local TV, read a local newspaper, or logged-on to a streaming audio site like Pandora and Spotify.

Here's a quiz for Tampa Bay small business owners:

Which of these online sites reach more adults each month than Tampa Bay radio stations: Google? Netflix? ESPN? YouTube? Twitter Facebook?

The answer may be a surprise. Radio reaches more adult consumers every month than all websites and apps.  This is critical information for Tampa Bay business owners to knows to be able to choose the best way to advertise their goods and services.

The number one media characteristic that contributes to the success of an advertising campaign is reach. This is a measure of how many different people are exposed to an advertiser's message.