Radio Commercials .... What Not To Say

What NOT to say in your
Radio Commercial

DON’T say “Conveniently Located” in your Radio Commercials – Is this
opposed to your other “difficult location” that you pined over before choosing
this location. Skip saying things like this, it not only takes away from the
precious :30 or :60 seconds you have to convey a powerful message in your
radio commercial, it just sounds stupid. (Yes I know everyone has done this for
years… it still sounds dumb. Furthermore, to the average consumer - THIS is
the language of a tiered old cliché’ sales pitch)

DO – Give a reference point as to where you are at that people know. “Next to
the Library in City name”. Unless you are on a state line, keep the state out.

DON’T give your full street address in your Radio Commercials – This not only
eats up 5-10 seconds of the precious :30 or :60 seconds you have to convey a
powerful message in your radio commercial, it is also useless to about 99% of
those listening. No one is going to retain that you are “located at 1439 South
Elmroy Street just sought of the I-135 Exit in Bay City, Florida, call 134-231-
4519”. Your radio commercial needs to offer a compelling message to get the
consumer INTERESTED in your products or services. The consumer is not
helpless, they can use the phone book, Google, yahoo, gps, 411 information,
pda, MapQuest or thousands of other sources to figure out your exact location
on the gird. You need to focus on giving them a reason to do so in your radio
commercial. Don’t fill your seconds of paid air time with something no one will
retain.

DO – Give a reference point as mentioned above – or more importantly – Give
your website address. “yoursite.com, that’s yoursite.com”. On the site you can
provide a map of where people can find you.

DON’T give your phone number in the commercial UNLESS it is a vanity
number. If I randomly spoke aloud a random combination of 10 numbers right
now, how long would you remember them? Chances are not for long. Don’t
feel bad, less than 1% of the population can, it’s just how our brains are wired.
However If I said 800-Call-Now. Chances are you could recall it hours if not
days from now. Why is that? Because it’s a logical combination of words that
our brains recognize and can recall. No matter how many times you repeat the
random combination of 10 numbers, it just won’t stick.

DO – Invest in a vanity phone number, or an easy to remember website
address and have those repeated in your radio commercial. You would be
amazed at how dramatically calls increase when people can remember your
number or website on a whim.