Radio Results Blog

"Retail is not dead," said Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Fassler in a note to clients. "Eighty-five percent of retail sales", he continued, "are still made in physical stores today, though everyone is talking about the growing threat of e-commerce."

Many Maine small business owners can testify to robust, in-store sales.

For the first half of this year here in Maine, according to US Census data, retail sales grew 5.5% versus the same period last year. Sales of jewelry, books, toys, pet products and other specialty items are up 16.5 percent compared to last year, lodging sales are up almost 29 percent, and general merchandise sales are up 7 percent, according to a Maine Revenue Services report.

To successfully compete for an unfair share of the current retail boom, Maine small business owners need to create sustainable, store traffic. Creating a better mouse trap as Ralph Waldo Emerson believed, is not really the best way to get the world to beat a path to your door. Advertising is critical, says the Small Business Administration.

"Think you have a great product?" asks the SBA. "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 product sales, and you know what that means: more revenue and more success for your business."

For Maine small business owners, advertising on Portland radio appears to be the key to building, sustainable in-store traffic.

There is no one more passionate or knowledgeable about a Maine small business than its owner.  So, it always surprises me when, in ads on Portland radio, a business owner defers to a disinterested announcer to engage prospective customers.

I have heard all the excuses why the owner does not want to appear in their commercial. It usually comes down to a dislike of their own voice or a simple case of nerves. An ad on Portland radio has the potential to be heard by hundreds-of thousands of Mainers.  Why not extend a personal invitation for each one of them to do business with you?

Think of it this way: if you met a potential customer for your business at a party, would you give her a business card with a Portland radio announcer's name on it?  I hope not.

This is something Stacy and Win Dodge learned. The sister and brother are co-owners of Bill Dodge Auto Group. Together they operate 8 Maine car dealerships in Saco, Westbrook, and Brunswick that sell BMWs, Infinitis, Kias, Hyundais, Nissans, Cadillacs, GMCs, and Buicks.

Portland, Maine was named the Restaurant City of 2018 by Bon Appetit Magazine. No surprise because the state is home to 11 chefs who were semi-finalist for the 2018 James Beard awards.

Creating palette pleasing plates is an art. But, every eatery is just one of 3,112 Maine small businesses competing for a slice of the state's $2.3 billion in restaurant revenue. It's not as easy as you might think.

Portland alone, it turns out, has more restaurants per capita than most other major cities in America. This includes New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.

So, for a southern Maine restaurant to successfully compete in a category cramped with choices, advertising is required. And, no other advertising medium can better reach locals who dine-out than Portland radio.

Millennials make-up 25% of the population. This segment of consumers now exceeds the number of baby boomers. In the five counties of southern Maine, says Nielsen, there are 196,0677 people who qualify as millennials.

Of particular importance to Maine small business owners, millennials living in Cumberland, York, Sagadahoc, Androscoggin, and Oxford counties, will spend $1.5 billion dollars. Cha -ching!

To garner an unfair share of this giant pool of millennial moolah, Maine business owners need to advertise. And, no matter how one measures it, advertising on Portland radio is, irrefutably, the most potent way to convert millennials to customers.

Quick. What is the number-one job of every commercial that is purchased by a Maine small business owner on Portland radio? (Cue final Jeopardy music).

If you answered that the most important job of a radio commercial is to sell a product or service, then you would be wrong. Oh, so wrong.

The number one job of a radio commercial is to be heard. Only if a commercial is heard can it be remembered. And only when it is remembered, can an ad on Portland radio create a sale.

To buy a campaign on a Portland station, all anyone needs is a calculator and a budget. But injecting that ad into the medial temporal lobe of the brain (the place memories are made) is a little more challenging.

For Maine small business owners, advertising on Portland radio seems to be a day job. Although most radio stations broadcast 24 hours, some advertisers believe no one tunes-in at night. Not only is this wrong, these misguided companies are missing a valuable marketing opportunity.

Last week, 699,315 adult consumers living in southern Maine listened to a Portland radio station. This is substantially more than watched a local TV station; read a local newspaper; or thumbed through a local magazine.

But, just because the sun sets, radio listeners don't roll up their ears. According to Nielsen, 46% of consumers who listen to Portland radio between 6am and 7pm also listen at night.

Since 1925, Maine small business owners have depended on Portland radio for advertising their products and services. Many of these local companies credit their radio ads with doubling or tripling their sales.

Sometimes, though, radio advertising fails. This could happen because commercials are placed on the wrong radio station. Or, the commercials were not engaging or compelling. Other times the advertiser did not invest enough to ensure success.

The number one reason advertising on Portland radio could fail, though, is the lack of a marketing objective. According to the Small Business Guide to Effective Radio Advertising, a well-articulated objective is critical for the success of any campaign.

Some Maine business owners might mistakenly identify their marketing objective as "getting my name out there", "creating a buzz", or "increasing foot-traffic". But, achieving any of those goals will not ensure success.

Sometimes the business owner could simply think they need "exposure". Exposure did not end well for the Donner party or Pee Wee Herman. And, if "exposure" is your marketing objective, then your campaign will probably end just as badly.

A variety of successful Maine small business owners invest in advertising on Portland radio to market their products and services. A slew of research clearly proves radio reaches mores consumers in southern Maine that any other ad medium.

These studies also show, that radio advertising provides business owners with the highest return-on-investment as well.

Studies are one thing. But, cash register receipts provide the definitive proof of radio advertising's potency.

If you were 1 of the 700,000 listeners who tuned-in to a Portland radio station last week, there was a good chance you heard commercials for Royal River Heat Pumps, a Freeport based HVAC dealer; Saco River Dentistry, a Buxton based dental practice; and The Time Pilots, a Portland based wedding band. Each of these small businesses report jaw-dropping results from their radio advertising investments

There are 25,782,816 teeth in southern Maine. Over the next 12 months, according to Nielsen, 62% of them will end up in the offices of 600 or so practicing dentists.

The majority of dentists in southern Maine are self-employed, making them, by definition, small business owners. These owners are fighting, dare I say, tooth-and-nail for their share of $280 million in patient billing.

Advertising on Portland radio has proven to be an effective way for some dental professionals to recruit patients...and not just because radio is an "oral" medium. Buxton, Maine based Saco River Dentistry, for example, credits its radio advertising with contributing to a 426% increase in new patients this year versus last year.

For any Maine small business that advertises, including dentists, it turns out that the reach of an advertising campaign ranks very high in factors that ultimately convert a target audience into paying customers. Earlier this year, Nielsen released a study that found just that.

Eighteen years ago, when the millennium was fresh, Maine small business owners had relatively few media options available for advertising their goods and services. There was local Portland radio. Local TV. Local Newspaper. Local Magazines.

It's hard to believe in the year 2000 there were no iPads, iPods, iPhones, Facebook, YouTube, Pandora, Spotify, and Sirius/XM, Hulu, Roku, Netflix, Fire Sticks, Kindles, Nooks, Fitbits, Apple Watches, or countless other devices and distractions.

The inundation of new media since then has taken a toll on most legacy media. Radio, however, has been the exception. Awesome news for Maine businesses who depend on Portland radio advertising to deliver customers.