Posted by Anne-ND on July 18, 2001 at 07:20:51:
John,
I was going to offer to allow them to interview me once a month on a show that could be about buying houses, for a mere $10K a year!
thanks for your post,
Anne
anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by Anne-ND
Posted by Anne-ND on July 17, 2001 at 12:22:32:
Hi All,
I was approached by a seller of radio advertising, asking if we’d be interested in a package of radio ads. The prices are high (the one he was pushing was 21 60-sec ads/week for a year at $18K) relative to other advertising, but one good deal would pay for that (although usually we hold rather than sell). Some of the selling points in my mind were that the ad production costs are included, and we can change the ad every 6 weeks at no cost. Since we do several different kinds of things: rent to a niche market, buy houses, sell to buyers who cannot qualify for bank financing, etc, we could focus on one aspect for each of the six weeks.
Does anyone else out there use radio advertising? If so, how’s it working for you?
Our classified ad is working really well (THANKS MATT B!). We just bought two yellow pages ads too- they’ll be out in August.
Thanks for your comments,
Anne
Re: anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by Carey_PA
Posted by Carey_PA on July 18, 2001 at 13:02:23:
Anne,
I’ve never used radio advertising, but if you choose the radio route I’d do as Tim suggested and go with the talk stations, because those listeners actually LISTEN during commercials.
As far as cable tv, I think it’s a GREAT idea. (also a Tim suggestion) But, make sure if you do the cable tv thing that you actually advertise on a channel that your target audience watches, for insance Tim said he’s going to advertise on BET because he targets black folks.
The reason I’m posting about cable tv is because there is another part of cable tv that the cable folks may try to get you to advertise in. This is the photo-classified section of the cable channels. Basically, it’s a still photo with music and voice overs. I do NOT suggest doing that. I use to work in the cable television business and the photo ads did NOT work in my opinion. But, the targeted advertising with BET, ESPN, VH-1, MSNBC, etc. that works!
Good luck…by the way the cable ad that SueC was reffering about that Matt B is doing is a photo-advertising channel. Hopefully, he’ll have better luck than most at that!
CAREY
Re: anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by Dee-Texas
Posted by Dee-Texas on July 18, 2001 at 13:01:54:
I use cable TV, here we have a spot that shows, ads, weather, garage sales and what events are taking place. Places like Doctor offices, Dentist offices, hair salons, car dealerships and some resturants have the TV turned to that channel. I’ve bought one house. I also get tons of calls from people wanting rent-to-own.
I like it MUCH better than radio and the cost is much better. Radio has spots this runs 24 hours a day.
Dee-Texas
Re: anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by Tim Jensen
Posted by Tim Jensen on July 18, 2001 at 11:54:51:
Anne,
If you do use radio, I would try a talk station. The reason is that many people will listen to music stations just to have background noise, while talk radio requires the listener to be more involved.
Also, I would be more inclined to do cable TV. That will be able to allow you to target your ads. I plan on running a cable TV ad next year. Since I buy most of my properties from black people and working class people. I will target my ads on Black Enetertainment Telivsion (BET) and an ad on Raw is War, a Pro-wrestling program. That is what I like about cable, you can target a dempgraphic. Also, you may discover that you can get ads run cheaper during the 1-9 months of the year.
Tim Jensen
Re: anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by SueC
Posted by SueC on July 18, 2001 at 11:29:54:
Speaking of Matt B, he was visiting here last week and mentioned he just signed up for cable television ads. Maybe a route to consider vs. radio?
Re: anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by Robert (ID)
Posted by Robert (ID) on July 18, 2001 at 10:44:11:
I used a radio ad last fall. I ran it for 2 weeks. the cost was $5.00 a spot. I ran 10 spots a day.
I picked up 1 house on a L/O. I figured the cost was to much, as I was only doing L/O and wouldn’t get the big payday for at least a year. If you can afford to pay the $18,000 up front, then it could be a good deal, if and only if they will come down on the cost per spot.
You should be able to get 10 BTA (best time available) spots a day for that price.
As for production costs, it was free! I changed the ad after the first week, again no charge!
If you would like a copy of the ad I used, e-mail me and I will send it to you.
I advertised in the Boise, ID area, which is around 250,000+ people.
Hope this helps,
Robert
Re: anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by Tom – IN
Posted by Tom – IN on July 18, 2001 at 24:24:19:
Two problems with radio advertising. One is the cost. The second is that it tends to get you 150 calls one minute after the ad runs. You’ve got to have a phone system and enough operators to handle the number of calls.
Re: anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by John P. (CO)
Posted by John P. (CO) on July 17, 2001 at 23:55:58:
Have never done that but I suspect, if you choose to use radio, you’d have more success in the format of a 15 minute or 1/2 hour show (maybe call-in format) where you talk about creative options people can use to avoid foreclosure, get a higher price by allowing an investor to assume a mtg, etc. Maybe the radio station would pay you instead of charging you for the exposure!
Re: anybody use radio advertising? - Posted by Anne-ND
Posted by Anne-ND on July 18, 2001 at 11:03:38:
Robert,
Thanks for the info. No way would we pay the $18K up front, it’s charged by the month, like the yellow pages. Personally, I’m more intrigued by the idea of using those slides that appear before the movies.
One thing about radio ads- I expect it would raise product awareness for our company, rather than result in calls right away. People who need to sell right away seem to rely more on print sources of advertising (signs, yellow pages, biz cards, flyers) something they can hold in their hand and keep for a few weeks. This week I got a call from the print press operator at the local place where we get our stationary and cards. She had kept one of our cards when we ordered them a few months ago because she knew she was headed for divorce and would have a house to sell. I guess that means we only got 999 cards- but what great advertising!
thanks for your reply,
Anne