Professional advice is always welcome. Especially when you are a Tampa Bay business owner investing your own money trying to capture a larger share of the $54.1 billion local consumers will spend this year.

Thousands of business owners depend on Tampa radio stations to market their goods and services.  What they say in their commercials and how they say it are the most critical factors for turning listeners into customers.  This is referred to by the professionals as the "creative."

A study by Nielsen indicates that the creative elements of a commercial are responsible for 47% of an advertiser's sales result. 

Creative, it turns out, has a more significant effect on sales for Tampa Bay small business owners than does reach, targeting, or branding elements. 

Producing and judging effective creative, though, can be a challenge for a Tampa Bay business owner. So, here is some advice from an award-winning, advertising professional.

There are two reasons why advertising on Tampa radio stations is more effective than advertising on TV.

The first reason is reach.  In a study conducted by Nielsen, the number of consumers who are exposed to a commercial contributes profoundly to the number of sales it will create.  This is discussed in depth in the free eBook, "Seven Steps For Advertising Successfully In Tampa Bay."

Among all media available to Tampa Bay business owners, radio offers the biggest reach.

The second reason why radio advertising is so powerful has been revealed in a new study Mindshare, an advertising agency that buys media for some of the most successful companies in the world including General Mills, Nestlé, Domino's, IBM, Rolex, and John Deere. The Mindshare study indicates that when a brand tells a story using audio media, it elicits a 21% higher emotional intensity than the same story told using visual media.

The Greek philosopher Plato was born 2170 years before there were radio stations in Tampa Bay.  There's no doubt, though, he could have written some great commercials.

Plato once said, "Those who tell stories rule society." This quote sounds very familiar to rule #7 for creating a memorable commercial for Tampa radio:

Rule #7: Tell a story… listeners are hardwired to emotionally respond to features and benefits when presented in story-form rather than as a list. The advertiser should be the hero of the story.

Lee Habib wrote in the National Review a few years ago, "Stories are packed not with hard data but with something far more powerful: emotional data. That’s why we remember them and why they’re so easily transported, even through generations. Stories stir our souls."

When a Tampa Bay small business owner buys a 60-second commercial on a Tampa radio station, she is limited to about 160 words to persuade listeners to become customers.  To be successful, then, each word needs to be carefully selected to fulfill the desired marketing objective. 

A telephone number comprises seven words. Ten if the area code is included.  If the number is repeated three times during the commercial, then it will consume 21-30 words or up to 18% of the total.

So, should a Tampa Bay business owner sacrifice a significant portion of a radio commercial to insert a phone number? Except for certain circumstances, described below, the answer is no. 

Here are the facts.

Radio advertising is processed by the brain profoundly faster than visual advertising.  This is valuable news for Tampa Bay business owners who depend on advertising to market their goods and services.

Local consumers can recognize the first few notes of Jingle Bells five times faster than they can identify a picture of Santa Claus.  That's because it takes the human brain 5/100th of a second to process sound.  On the other hand, it takes a full quarter of a second to process visual stimuli.

This difference in processing time may seem inconsequential. But, for a business owner who is fighting to inject her advertising message into the mind of a potential customer, that .20-second gap can be the difference between success and failure.

Tampa Bay consumers will spend $54.1 billion on goods and services over the next year. To claim a significant portion of those expenditures, small business owners need to be at the top of customers' minds when it comes time to buy.

Since 1922, when WDAE became the first radio station in Tampa, thousands of business owners knew, intuitively, that advertising on the medium was a potent way to be remembered when a purchase was imminent. 

Now there is proof that radio advertising creates the brand awareness necessary to drive sales.

Everybody in Tampa Bay used to watch TV. Commercials and all. But, as media options proliferate, viewers are fleeing. This is not good news for television advertisers.

Last week, for instance, according to Nielsen, only 79% of Tampa Bay consumers watched broadcast television. To put this in perspective, 90% tuned-in to their favorite Tampa radio stations.

Compared to two years ago, according to Nielsen, the C3 rating for CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox have plummeted by 27%, especially among 18-49 viewers.

There are many ways for Tampa Bay small business owners to advertise. Options include local newspapers, local magazines, local  television, and online. But to achieve the “3-Rs” of advertising success, Reach, Recall, and Return, no other medium delivers results as effectively and efficiently as advertising on Tampa radio.

"I didn't think radio advertising would work. I was not a believer," says David Perritt, Regional Operations Manager of Lakewood National Golf Club in Lakewood Ranch, Florida.

Mr. Perritt's opinion changed after he experimented with advertising on Tampa radio stations when the club first opened in January 2017.

"I have been extremely pleased with the results," he says. "The data shows just how successful radio has been working for us. Choosing the right Tampa radio stations was crucial."

Just about every adult in Tampa Bay spent, on average, 15 hours last week listening to the radio.  As a matter of fact, more people tuned-in to their favorite Tampa radio station than watched TV; read a newspaper, or logged-on to Pandora and Spotify.

"Sure," a St. Petersburg small business owner says. "People are still tuning-in to local radio stations, but do they switch stations when my commercial comes on?"

Not to worry. Unlike TV, which makes avoiding commercials a breeze, there is no ad-skipping technology for radio.  As a result, a study by Nielsen reveals that 93% of radio listeners stick around for the ads.

This raises the question: Consumers are not button-pushing during radio commercials, but are they paying attention to the content of the advertising? Research says YES.

The number one job of a radio commercial is  not  to sell products for the sponsoring Tampa Bay small business owner. 

The number one job is not to build store traffic or to create top of mind of awareness.

The number one job of a radio commercial is not to build brand or deliver ROI.

The number one job of every commercial on Tampa radio is to be heard. Period. When a commercial is heard, then all the rest will follow. But being heard is not easy.

At the exact second a radio commercial begins, 11,000,000 other pieces of information are all wrestling for the listener's attention.  Sadly, a consumer's brain is only capable of dealing with about 50 bits of that information at a time.

If you are a local business owner who would like to secure a larger share of the $54.1 billion Tampa Bay radio listeners will spend this year, then what you say first in your commercial is crucial to winning the battle for a consumer's ear.