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Radio is the second-most powerful medium in the US, reaching 59 percent of the country’s population each day and reaching 89% of the UK population every week. To drive leads and revenues, radio advertisements are an effective tool for your business – they are cost-effective, measurable and very targeted. Read on to find four powerful tips on creating the perfect radio advert.

1. Know your audience

Knowing your audience is essential, whether you are making a television, print or online ad, you need to know who will be consuming your ad. And this is no different when it comes to radio. Because different radio rations have different demographics, you should be picking a radio station that targets the right audience for you. You wouldn’t put an advertisement targeted to elderly people on a pop hits station, would you?

2. Get your listeners’ attention

It is absolutely necessary that you get your listeners attention in the first three seconds of your radio advert so that they don’t switch the station or mute your ad. You should start your radio ad with a strong opening line and not waste time on long-winded introductions. Get straight to the point without using too many words; most radio slots are very short!

A good way to capture your listeners’ attention would be to start with a funny short story or line to keep the audience listening. Or, maybe start off with an endearing jingle, but be careful – many jingles can be classed as annoying and will instantly turn the listener’s attention off.

3. Use an emotive voice-over

With radio being an audio medium, listeners rely on the tone of the voice to judge emotion. Your voice over speaker needs to perfectly capture the feel of the commercial, whether that is by sounding excited, nervous, or calm. Failing to capture the perfect sound for your ad will result in wasted sales.

4. Never stop testing

You should aim to test your radio ad campaign over and over again to see what works best. A simple way to test what works is by creating, and broadcasting, two different ads and having each ad lead to a separate URL or a different number to call. That way, you can see how many listeners are acting upon both ads.

You should continue testing your winning ad over the next couple of months, trying out different things each time before finding your conversion rates skyrocket!

In the radio world, it often pays to take risks. If you want your station’s marketing strategies to pay off, you must be bold. Risk-taking is a way for your station to stand out and define itself; becoming more visible to listeners. Furthermore, making a bold move will stop you relying on the same old marketing strategies. Although these strategies may be safe and give you a good return on investment, they will not allow your station to reach it’s full potential.

Birmingham’s heritage commercial radio brand, Free Radio Birmingham (formerly BRMB)’s, competition managed to perfectly rock the boat, causing just enough outrage to get their station talked about. The station’s 1999 ‘Two Strangers and a Wedding‘ competition was one of the most outrageous publicity stunt in UK commercial radio history. The competition involved getting two contestants, who have not met or made contact with each other, to get married in order to win prizes.

The competition caused moral outrage among those that believed marriage vows are sacred. Churches and MPs heavily criticised the competition. Three joint presidents of Birmingham Churches  the Bishop of Birmingham, the city’s Catholic archbishop and Free Churches representative wrote a public letter of protest to Free Radio Birmingham, urging the station to reconsider its decision to back the wedding. The letter stated that “Both marriage and the human beings involved are too important to be manipulated in this way.” Free Radio Birmingham spokesman Mr Owen defended the wedding by saying it was “more scientific than most arranged marriages”.

The two winners, who were matched by a group of relationship counsellors and astrologers, Carla Germaine and Greg Cordell, did not meet until the ceremony. They had to sign a prenuptial agreement preventing them from making any claims on the other’s property if the marriage were to fail. Their prizes included a free honeymoon in the Bahamas, the free use for a year of a Ford Puma sports car as well as a two bedroom apartment in Birmingham exclusive symphony court development.

Five years later, PR expert Mark Borkowski described the promotion as one of the best ever radio publicity stunts “it was something that everybody was talking about. It was a precursor to Big Brother and other reality shows”. He said that the promotion involved a lot of risk, “But they increased their audience reach from 27 percent to 40 percent. It had humour, risk and a bit of rock ‘n’ roll.”

There are too many radio stations who are tiptoeing through life, hoping their marketing strategy will keep their station safe until the end. Sticking to your station’s set marketing strategies might not let you down, but they also won’t let you up. Your radio station would certainly benefit from a bit more risk-taking and attitude. I encourage you to follow in the footstep of Free Radio Birmingham by being more imaginative, creative and bold.

Here’s a food for thought; your audience consists of mostly internet and mobile users; they carry their phone with them wherever they go and use the internet to find out everything they want to know. Are you embracing this change in trend and going where your audience is? Or, are you sticking to your more traditional outreach of events and outdoor activities in an attempt to reach new audiences?

Challenge yourself to achieve higher and the results may surprise you.

Radio is an excellent medium to join-in on, and to create, conversation. However, nowadays a good social media strategy is essential to engage with your listeners. Twitter is very different from other social platforms and is probably one of the most confounding of them all. It takes a bit of understanding before your followers can start engaging with you like there’s no tomorrow.

1. Twitter has a global audience

Regardless of whether you are a local station or international, your brand should have no boundaries. You should aim to not only reach local listeners but also potential listeners. Do this by joining in on conversation; following trending hashtags and giving your opinions on them. Don’t be afraid to create your own hashtags as well, and when you are on-air encouraging your listeners to join in with conversation on Twitter.

You should aim to make every tweet stand out from the stream, so make them as engaging as possible, asking questions when it makes sense. You should also aim to include pictures/videos in 90% of your tweets.

2. The average shelf-life of a Tweet is 10 minute

Each social media platform is unique, and Twitter is no different. On most social media platforms, you are told not to post too much and avoid being annoying. But Twitter is very different to this, competition is fierce on twitter. Twitter is a huge platform and more and more brands are constantly jumping on board. A Twitter feed fills up extremely fast so it is easy for your radio station’s tweets to get lost amongst the sea of tweets. To overcome this you must aim to be consistent and engaging when you tweet, posting often whilst still ensuring each tweet leads the way with quality engagement.

3. Radio needs Twitter personalities

We all know how important it is for radio personalities to create a bond with their listeners. This is especially done on air, but using Twitter is a new way of involving your listeners. Your station should not only have it’s own Twitter page but also a page for each of its on-air personalities. This would add value to your station and create a stronger relationship between personalities and listeners. Ensure each radio DJ tweets often, and does more than just promote your station. Your radio DJ’s should tweet to show their personality, sharing their thoughts, opinions and what they are up to, without forgetting to engage with listeners by responding to their tweets. Of course, ensure your radio DJ’s pages are associated to your station; have your station’s Twitter in their bio and header; and don’t forget to mention their usernames in your station’s tweets!

Snapchat now has 158 million daily active users. It is the platform of the moment to reach a large and active audience. If your radio station is on Snapchat, you’re already one step ahead. However, are you doing everything you can to engage and recruit listeners on Snapchat?

1. You’re not keeping it real

Snapchat’s informal style is designed to let people share their true selves. Your presenters need to be using Snapchat as a platform to get to know your listeners, and being too contrived and staged is not helping. Snapchat should allow you ro connect with listeners in the realest way. Ask your presenters to share snaps of them in the studio, or just chilling – your listeners love to know what goes on behind the scenes! Make sure your presenters have a sense of honour and stays genuine.

2. You’re not engaging listeners

One thing your station is failing to do on Snapchat is recognising that your listeners are the only reason your station is still standing. A great way to show your appreciation to your listeners is by sharing listener content through your Snapchat stories, answering listener questions and featuring your listeners in Snaps when possible (i.e. if you meet them at an event). You could also give your listeners shout-outs and thank them regularly for their loyalty (e.g. if you reach a follower milestone, share a story thanking them).

3. You’re not providing your listeners with exclusive content

A great quality that Snapchat has is that it creates a relationships with between users. Your radio station should be using this to your advantage by sharing behind-the-scenes content and exclusive sneak-peaks. One way to give your audience exclusive content could be giving them a behind-the-scenes tour of your studio.

4. You’re not setting yourself apart

Your radio station should be constantly highlighting what sets you apart and this also includes Snapchat. Snapchat is a way to define you as a radio station whilst always keeping your listeners in mind. Your radio station needs to determine what makes it different. How does your station make you stand out from all the others? Focus on these unique characteristics and make them apart of your Snapchat strategy. Remember to always keep your listeners in mind. Every time you share a Snap, ask yourself; who are you looking to reach? Who would they care? and how does this set you apart?

The latest figures by RAJAR have been released today (18th May 2017) and they show some good news for radio listenership! According to the figures, we are now listening to radio more than ever before; with listenership up year on year from 47.8 million to 48.2 million. We are now consuming over 1 billion hours of radio a week, with 400,000 more adults listening to radio since last year.

Is radio really outdated when 89% of the United Kingdom is tuning in to radio each week?

How are we listening?

The share of all radio listening via a digital platform now stands of 47.2%, up 9% year on year. This brings us even closer to reaching 50% – one of three criteria that must be met in order for the UK to follow in Norway‘s footsteps and switch completely from FM to DAB.

Most of the UK are tuning in either at home or on the way to work, usually during early-mid morning. 25% of the population are saying they tune in to radio via their phones or tablets (note to broadcasters/advertiser: commute is a good time to reach an audience, to efficiently target your consumer look here). Furthermore, we are continuing to interact with our favourite stations/presenters with 43% of 15-24 year old and 30% of adult social media users claiming to receive updates about their favourite station/presenter. If you want to reach a bigger audience on social media, this free eBook might help!

Commercial Radio

Something else to note is the exceptional figures coming from commercial radio. Commercial radio listening figures have now surpassed those of the BBC! Now, there are 352,000 more listeners tuning into commercial radio each week than BBC stations. Commercial radio now has 34.53 million weekly listeners, compared to 34.18 million who listened to BBC stations. Although the difference is very narrow, it shows the important role commercial radio play in the lives of the UK public.

This is a good time for brands to take advantage of radio to reach consumers through advertising, with commercial radio becoming more relevant than ever.

National Brands

The top four commercial radio networks are all owned by Global. The top 5 national brands are as follows:

1. Heart – 8.96m weekly listeners
2. Capital – 8.336m
3. Classic FM – 5.363m
4. Smooth – 5.35m
5. Kiss – 5.068m

When radio was first introduced in the 1920s and 1930s, they were a family focused point. Families would gather around their single radio set to tune into their favourite shows making it for great family bonding time.

The rise of digital media, however, means that radio has lost its presence in the home. People now see audio consumption as an individual experience and listening to music often happens through headphones.

Voice-activated home devices make audio consumption a communal experience.

The use of voice-activated home devices have quickly taken over homes in less than two years since launch and have given radio the opportunity to make a revival. Devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home mean that users can request any radio station they want and will hear it in pristine quality within seconds. The ability to listen to radio in one of these devices manufactured by two of the world’s most respected companies will make radio no longer seem like an ancient medium reserved only for the elderly and will be seen as a modern and instant form of entertainment that can be enjoyed in a communal environment.

Voice-activated devices are already playing a central role in the home, being used by all family members. Currently, 9% of UK households own at least one voice-activated device. Furthermore, 87% of those who said they intended to purchase an Echo are planning to do so in the next 12 months. Already, radio is dominating these gadgets, with radio listening accounting for 72% of all Echo time with audio entertainment (Radiocentre).

Voice-activated devices take the pain out of twiddling dials or peering at small screens searching through app after app to find your chosen radio station.

These devices are the future, with predictions showing that by early next year, 40% of households will own at least one device (Radiocentre).