Frequently Asked Questions

Should I advertise?
Is Radio right for my business?
How do I get started?
How much will this cost me?
Who creates my commercial?
What should I say in my commercials?
How much does commercial production cost?
How can I guarantee success?
I’m a small business with a small budget. Can I still advertise effectively?
Does Regent Broadcasting have sales or specials on its advertising airtime?
What about cable TV advertising?
What about newspaper advertising?
What about billboard advertising?
What about using direct mail?
What about Yellow Pages advertising?
What about other Radio stations in this area?
Should I hire an advertising agency?
Will satellite radio diminish traditional Radio’s audience?
What is “horizontal” and “vertical” advertising? And which should I employ for my business?
What are Arbitron ratings?
I advertised once and it didn’t work, so why should it work this time?
What are co-op funds?
Can you tell me about ways you have helped other businesses in this area?
Is there any cost to have an advertising sales representative of your company conduct a no-obligation meeting with me?



Should I advertise?

Are you in an industry or business category that also offers other buying options for your potential customers? In other words, do you have business competitors? If you do, then advertising is a necessity. You must give your prospects reasons to buy from you instead of from your competitors. Or, on the other hand, you could toss your fate to the wind and just hope that potential customers show up at your door. If there are twenty businesses in your market that sell the same things you do you might expect to get 1/20th of the business in your category. But marketing and advertising are for those business people who aren’t satisfied with their “fair share” of the pie. They want an “unfair share.” 


Is Radio right for my business?

If people who listen to Radio do business with you then Radio is an option to explore… and about 94% of us listen to Radio every week. 

Radio has the ability to:

♫ Target your best prospects
♫ Offer you affordable message frequency
♫ Reach mobile consumers
♫ Establish a relationship with customers
♫ Connect emotionally with customers better than many other media
♫ Break through competitive clutter
♫ Maximize your advertising investment

We live in a society that is operating at warp speed. We are upwardly mobile professionals, harried soccer moms, guys rushing from work to the softball field and then to the bar afterwards….yes, we’ve got a lot on our plates! Radio goes with us everywhere we go; in the car, at work, and in the home. We don’t have as much time as we used to for reading the paper. But we can take Radio with us during our busy days. Radio is an affordable, mobile, and intrusive medium that provides advertisers with the ability to target a specific audience. When used correctly, Radio provides a cost-effective marketing platform for nearly any type of business.


How do I get started?

Continue to browse this website. Read a few “success stories” from our clients as they articulate the results they’ve received by working with us. Find out what you need to know and then call (320.257.7228) or email us when you want to learn more. We will arrange a conversation between you and one of our marketing representatives. They will request some of your time to help you identify your marketing objectives, how your business excels and other critical information. Then they will prepare a written proposal for you…but only if they “find a fit” between your marketing needs and the demographics of one or more of our stations. It’s that simple. No obligations on your part. We believe we should have to make an intelligent argument for using our services before we can reasonably expect you to seriously consider us as an option. 


How much will this cost me?

The cost to advertise on the Radio can vary greatly. Prices for airtime on various stations are based on how many listeners they have, the amount of demand they are experiencing for their airtime, the time of the week, month and year you wish to be on the air and whether or not you are willing to make a specific dollar level commitment for a period of time (volume discounting). We can quote you “ballpark” figures on our per-ad rates, but we can get much more specific for you if you can share timing and budget plans that you have for your contemplated advertising campaign. 


Who creates my commercial?

We can, if you need us to. Regent Broadcasting’s award-winning production department has created scores of distinctive ads and full marketing themes/campaigns for our clients. There are no additional costs to utilize our creative, copywriting and production services…they are included in the cost of the airtime you purchase. That said, occasionally our clients will already have a commercial that they, themselves, produced or that they had created somewhere else. You are more than welcome to run such an ad(s) on our stations when you purchase airtime with us. 


What should I say in my commercials?

That depends entirely on your business and factors surrounding it. We subscribe to the practices of media trainer Paul Weyland, who advocates addressing FOUR CRITICAL ISSUES in every ad campaign:

1. Identifiable point of difference
2. Emotional headlining
3. Listing features and benefits of your business without using clichés 
4. Crystal clear call-to-action

Every business has (or should have) something distinctive about it. There should be a concrete reason why consumers would want to do business with you instead of all of the other companies that sell the same products and services you do. And that point of difference (or “unique selling proposition,” as some call it) should be addressed in every marketing message you make. 
Radio utilizes emotion better than most other media. Most people buy on emotion and later justify their purchases with logic. If you can use one of the many common human emotions (passion, greed, happiness, lust, fear, guilt, etc) in your message you stand a greater chance of being able to make the listener WAKE UP AND TAKE NOTICE…and you will have a much greater chance of earning their business. 
So many ads sound like just that…ADS! And in doing so they “blend” and are easily ignored by listeners. How many times have you heard or seen in ads statements such as, “best service in town”…”our loss is your gain”…or “for all of your (fill in the business category) needs?” When we hear hackneyed phrases like these we tend to “tune out” the message because our senses tell us we are being “sold.” At Regent Broadcasting, we attempt to write ads that don’t sound like ads. They are more like real people talking to real people. We also believe strongly in using the truth (imagine that!) in your advertising. If you tell us you’re not the best at something in your business category, we’re likely to suggest that you include that information in your ads. But then you should quickly say why that fact doesn’t really matter to the prospect…or how you’re much better at something else that is much more vital to that potential buyer. By admitting a weakness at the beginning of your ad you tend to lower the defenses of the listener and get them to open up to your message. 
Calling people to action can work in a couple of ways. If you’re having a sale or making some sort of excellent offer, give it a deadline…and state that in your ad (“You only have until this coming Sunday at 5 pm to take advantage of this offer!”) The other basic thing you can (and should) do in each ad is to ask the prospect to do business with you. Don’t just state your information…ASK FOR THE SALE!


How much is commercial production?

If you are using our services and airing commercials on our stations there is no additional cost to have us conceptualize, write and produce your commercials. 


How can I guarantee success?

First, take a very close look at all elements of your business. Do you have a good location? Do you have convenient parking? Do you have a good reputation in the business community? Are you brand new…or have you been doing business in this market for years? How long does it take for you to answer your phones? Does a live operator answer or do callers get automation? Is the term “customer service” a true passion and point of emphasis among you and your employees or is it just a cliché that is printed on that mission statement hanging on your wall? Do you see where we are going with this? If your business has one or more glaring weaknesses in these or other areas it probably won’t matter a great deal where, when or how much you advertise. All of the aforementioned elements and many other factors are like the foundation, studs, floors, walls and windows of a building. Your marketing is the building’s roof. A building that has a solid roof but shabby elements beneath it isn’t very sound…and it will eventually fail. “Getting your house in order” should be your first true priority. Then you can start to address your marketing objectives. And when you do that, try focusing on what we call the “three legged stool” principal. There are three facets of most successful marketing campaigns. demographic targeting, frequency and offers. You need to talk to the kinds of people who are likely to buy what you sell…you need to talk to them often to break through the advertising clutter that exists in all of our lives…and you need to make solid offers (see the answer to the question “What should I say in my commercial” above). If you can address these three things in your campaign then you have no reason to believe that you won’t get the results you are looking for from your advertising. 


I’m a small business with a small budget. Can I still advertise effectively?

There’s a good chance that you can, but it will probably take a considerable period of time to realize your objectives. Often if a client cannot afford to do the kind of weekly schedule frequency we normally recommend then we will suggest that they grab one element of our programming that they can “own.” For example, if the demographic was right you might consider being a sponsor of a particular newscast on WJON…or sponsoring some element of the Loon’s morning show…or being the “official lawyer” of the “Granite City Café” on 1390 The Fan. If you do something like this for a period of time you will not reach as many different people as you would had you scheduled ads over a broader daypart. But you will reach many of same people repeatedly because most of us are creatures of habit in our Radio listening. And that kind of gradual message frequency, along with solid offers and point-of-difference messaging should give you growth from your marketing. 


Does Regent Broadcasting have sales or specials on its advertising airtime?

As a demand rate company there are times when we offer rate specials based on having an excess of inventory remaining during a certain period of time. Feel free to inquire about any specials we might have available. But we would ask you this…do you live and die by sale events? Or do you want more consistency for your business? If you only want to advertise during the times when we have reduced rates to offer then you probably won’t have the consistency in your marketing to see the kind of true long-term growth you seek. Another way you can obtain lower rates is through volume discounts that we offer when you make commitments of 13 weeks or more. And for most business we recommend you consider that sort of consistency – even if you choose to do it with another company. 


What about cable TV advertising?

Cable offers many of the same demographic targeting benefits that Radio does. If you want men, you might choose to run ads on ESPN. If you want women, TLC or HG TV might fit the bill. TV offers the visual element that many businesses want to have in their advertising. Cable often can be purchased at very low rates – if you are willing to buy rotating spots that will run at all hours of the day and night. But one of this medium’s biggest weaknesses is the amount of channels that exist. Even the most basic of cable packages offers dozens of channels, and it’s not uncommon for the viewer to have channel choices that run into the hundreds. How can you reach critical mass with that sort of fragmentation? Even the most frequently watched cable channels have a fraction of the audience size of most Radio stations. Plus, you have increasing numbers of consumers opting for satellite TV…and there’s that TiVo thing that allows viewers to record and watch their favorite shows at a later time while “skitzing” past the commercials. When you think of Radio, you think of the two or three STATIONS you most frequently have on. With TV, you don’t usually think of the CHANNELS you watch but rather the SHOWS you like. What that means is that consumers tend to jump around much more with TV than they do with Radio. So if you’re buying certain TV channels or networks you probably have a much more transient viewer who has a lower time-spent at that location than they would have with their favorite Radio station(s). Finally, have you noticed the quality of local cable ad production? Take a look sometime. Compare the quality of a locally produced ad with the national ads that run on both sides of that local spot. The relative lack of quality on the local ad can reflect poorly on the advertising business. 


What about newspaper advertising?

Newspapers are a staple of many peoples’ daily lives. Print advertising offers mass reach, it can give you visual elements to your message, you can include many details on your business, and you have the ability to coupon through this medium. But the newspaper industry has some major problems these days as consumers increasingly bypass them for quicker, more convenient ways of getting the information they seek (Internet, Radio, etc). A majority of teens and younger adults rarely if ever read the paper. Cost is an issue. For the $300 you might pay for a rather small ad in the paper you could run anywhere from 8 to 45 ads on one of our stations. Try running all of those ads on a station in ONE DAY. That would a fair comparison to running one ad on just one day in the paper. 

Don’t be fooled by lofty readership figures your newspaper rep may be quoting you. “Readership” is not the amount of papers sold. It is that number, multiplied by a 2.3 (according to the Newspaper Association of America). You see, the print industry believes that, on average, 2.3 people read every newspaper that is sold. And they may be right about that. However, when Radio listeners are surveyed by Arbitron, we don’t try to make the same sort of inflated estimates of our audiences. But we probably could, if we looked at it like the print industry does. For example, if a person reports to Arbitron that they listen to 98 Country every morning on their way to work – and if that person regularly carpools to work with three other people – shouldn’t we be figuring that station has four listeners from that survey (instead of one)? Anyway, let’s assume the newspaper industry’s 2.3 readers-per-copy argument is correct. That means the number of papers sold (circulation) X 2.3 = readership. So, let’s say a paper’s daily readership estimate is 70,000. Does that mean all of those people will see your ad? Not a chance. According to a study conducted by the Radio Advertising Bureau, the most frequently read section of a paper is the “A” or front section. And only 55% of all readers regularly go there. The sports section is the second most read part of the paper with 32% of all readers habitually going there. So those already questionable readership numbers get chopped down even further if you consider this sectional readership factor. Then there’s the data that the Starch research firm found about how people “note” or remember ads. Starch, in a landmark study funded by the newspaper industry itself, found that ad size has very little effect on how well people remember or “note” your ad. 

Finally, we suggest you examine what has happened in the world of your local newspaper in the last five to ten years. You likely will be shocked at how poor an advertising value your local paper is when you examine three things during that period – how households in your area have grown, how the paper’s circulation has actual gone down during that period despite the area’s growth, and how during that time the paper’s standard average unit rates have gone up by double digit percentages. Let’s see…lots more area residents…yet fewer readers…but rates that are MUCH higher than they were just a few years ago. What is wrong with this picture?!!


What about billboard advertising?

Billboard or “outdoor” advertising offers some definite benefits. Chief among them is the ability to offer directions and/or grab attention. When you see a board on an interstate highway that says, “Are you hungry? If so, exit here,” there’s a good chance that you could respond if, indeed, your stomach is growling. The large, visual nature of billboards can make quite an impression. Certain branding campaigns can be very effective. Usually, “less is more” in these kinds of situations. One effective outdoor campaign that comes to mind was for Killian’s Red Beer, which simply had a schooner glass of that distinctively colored ale with a one-word message -- “Preferred.” Pretty effective, in our minds! 

But billboard advertising makes it hard to convey any sort of even remotely complex message. With an average viewing time of less than three seconds you’re basically looking at a top-of-mind medium – and nothing else. Any more than three or four words are tough to read both from a time drive-by standpoint and based on the size of the lettering getting smaller as additional words are added to the message. Billboard companies talk about their vast reach, but that is often the case only on the busiest of roads. Many people drive almost entirely the same streets and highways on a daily basis as they go to and from their work or recreational activities. That means the number of different people who see these messages isn’t necessarily all that high. Billboard production costs take money from your overall marketing budget (money you could spend on making more impressions in Radio), and changing your board is usually a slow and expensive process if your message needs to be altered. 


What about using direct mail?

Direct mail allows you to market to specific geographic or demographic groups…if the mailing list of the company you work with is up to date (and that is frequently not the case). With the growth of this region there are people constantly relocating to the St. Cloud metro area and existing residents who are moving to new homes or apartments. It can be very difficult for DM companies to keep accurate records. Direct mail can be visually attractive, and couponing through DM allows you to track your response more easily. However, direct mail has one of the highest cost-per-thousand ratios of any form of media, and the response rate is typically very low (a 1% to 2% return is considered good for most DM campaigns). And did you realize that roughly 50% of all direct mail gets thrown away unopened? There’s a reason people call it “junk mail.” Many folks distain having to wade through so many pieces of direct mail on a weekly basis (can you count how many credit card offers you’ve had in the past month?!) DM can be a real irritant. But Radio is not something people listen to because it is forced upon them. They choose to listen to their favorite stations. 


What about Yellow Pages advertising?

“The book” is everywhere, right? Who doesn’t have a Yellow Pages in their drawer or on their desk? There is no doubt that when people have a need for a product or service that the Yellow Pages offers them many options. And these are people “in the market” for what a company sells, making they very attractive prospects indeed. Yellow Pages allow you to list lots of information about your business. But perhaps their biggest weakness is that they also list lots of information about your competitors’ businesses…and right next to your information! There are upwards of 40 pages of ads for attorneys in each year’s St. Cloud Dex Yellow Pages. If you need a lawyer how are you going to be able to decide from among that maze? Yellow Pages are perhaps the most passive medium you can use. They make no impressions or “points of difference” arguments for your business except for the few times each month that the average consumer picks up the book. And then they will only be exposed to your brand if they happen to be searching in your category. Radio (and other more intrusive media) allow your business to build top-of-mind awareness so that when a person has a “triggering event” in their life that causes a want or need for your product/service they are much more likely to think of you. And then they can get your number from the White Pages (where your competitors ARE NOT listed next to you). People are also using things like the Internet, 411 and cell phone redials more and more to get phone numbers instead of consulting the book. Yellow Pages are a lot like newspapers, in that it usually makes more sense to downsize your ad and put those existing marketing dollars you save into more aggressive forms of advertising. Think about it…if someone is really shopping for your product or service they will look at most, if not all of the ads they see on the page. The size of the ad will mean very little. It’s like the last time you were in the market to buy a house. You noticed EVERY “For Sale” sign you saw as you drove down the street in your car. But if you’re not looking to buy a new residence you pass by most of those signs virtually unnoticed. Lastly, there are more and more different Yellow Page companies showing up. That multiple book fragmentation is not a good thing for the advertiser who can’t afford to be in all of them. 


What about other Radio stations in this area?

You might expect us to bash our direct competition in this market. But we won’t. We are obviously advocates of this very portable, very affordable form of advertising. When it comes to advertising and marketing our own stations our first choice would probably be at least some of the other Radio stations in town … if they would ever take our ads!! The other stations in this market are just like ours. They have their strengths and weaknesses. We’d be happy to share any sort of ratings information or other facts (signal strength, demos, formats, etc) about our stations or any others in this region, if you wish us to. 


Should I hire an advertising agency?

Ad agencies offer distinct benefits to certain businesses. They can be your “traffic cop” and regulate how much contact you have with media salespeople, freeing you up to attend to other aspects of your business. They do marketing for a living, so often their advice is solid and based on extensive experience. Their service obviously comes at a cost. Typically, agencies receive 15% of a client’s total advertising budget (at least in this medium). That means your budget -- and your ability to reach your target prospects - is reduced by 15% if you use an agency. We have found that many agencies don’t seem to have a solid feel for how Radio works and how to use it properly to give their clients maximum benefit. They view this medium in a secondary fashion, even though people spend more time listening to the Radio than they do with any other medium save for TV. We try to work with agencies in these situations in an effort to give them a better understanding on how to use our stations (or other stations in the market) more effectively to benefit their clients. 


Will satellite radio diminish traditional Radio’s audience?

It will have some effect, for sure. Sirius and XM Radio have made a lot of noise in the past few years as they have “gotten off the ground” (excuse the pun!) They have cut deals with major auto manufacturers to get satellite radio in some new vehicles. They have made splashy additions to their on-air line-ups including Howard Stern, Bob Dylan and others. But in advertising so much is about reaching critical mass. The latest estimates by Targetbase, a division of Omnicom Group’s Diversified Agency Services, estimates that 20 million American households will be satellite (Sirius and XM combined) subscribers by the year 2010. That sounds like a big number, but think of this…America recently passed the 300,000,000 mark in population and of all those people about 94% (or about 282,000,000) listen to traditional, or “terrestrial” Radio every week! And marketers aren’t even sure if current subscriber reports from the two satellite companies are correct. Many times new car buyers will receive satellite free for six months to a year, but a large number of those listeners don’t renew when the free trial period expires. Yet, especially in the case of Sirius, it has been found that they have continued to count such lost listeners as “subscribers” for up to 18 months afterward! Perhaps that’s an effort to make Wall Street more amenable to the hundreds of millions of dollars that both companies have been losing quarter after quarter. 

Jordis Rosenquest, senior vice president of communications strategy for Targetbase, warns that satellite is approaching a crucial juncture. He stated, "The numbers suggest satellite is close to maxing out on the early adopters." Rosenquest added that the popular perception of subscription satellite as "ad-free" isn't correct: "It's already ad-supported, although consumers might not recognize them as ads. They're not your traditional 30-second spots, but it's there." Rosenquest points to program sponsorships and branded “info-tainment” as places where advertising has already infiltrated. 

Finally, the one thing satellite doesn’t do – and probably never will be able to – is to SERVE COMMUNITIES WITH LOCAL INFORMATION. Satellite DOES offer usually excellent sound quality and diversified programming, but it can’t offer listeners in a community news, weather, sports and traffic information that is relevant to their daily lives. And those issues are some of the biggest reasons that people turn to Radio in the first place. WJON has won three “Crystal Awards” in the past 18 years from the National Association of Broadcasters. This award is annually given to just ten Radio stations nationwide, and it is a recognition of stations’ efforts to “super-serve” their communities with information, fundraising efforts and more. That is the kind of community involvement and dedication that an entity like satellite radio will never be able to replicate. 


What is “horizontal” and “vertical” advertising? And which should I employ for my business?

Ideally a business would use some of both. Horizontal advertising involves a strategy whereby you employ low message frequency over a consistent, long-term period of time. This is what most advertising people call “branding.” In this scenario, creating a memorable message with distinctive point-of-difference features is critical so that the listener will remember you when they come into the need for what you sell. With horizontal marketing, you should not expect instant gratification. Rather, you should view your marketing as if it were an exercise plan. You’ll “get in shape,” but it will take consistency and a fair amount of time. 
Vertical advertising is usually used for “events” or sales. Vertical campaigns involve high frequency over a relatively short period of time. In these situations, making solid offers with announced or implied deadlines is very important. We have methods of helping you determine how many ads you should run in a vertical campaign to achieve a recommended level of frequency before your target audience. Vertical campaigns often provide outstanding results, but they can be like a drug. Many businesses are constantly having sales (think Penny’s, Kohl’s, etc). As a consumer, do you take their offers seriously? These “sales,” which seemingly happen every week, appear to be virtually identical. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent! Basically these businesses train their customers to wait for their merchandise to be discounted before they should buy. That’s hardly a way to build profit margin. 

Again, we recommend a mix between these two forms of advertising. Every business should have some consistent method of branding through horizontal marketing. But most companies also benefit from occasional events or promotions spotlighted through vertical exposure that can spike their sales.


What are Arbitron ratings?

Arbitron is an independent, accredited company that surveys Radio listenership in roughly the largest 280 markets in the country. In St. Cloud, Arbitron conducts surveys in the spring (March-June) and in the fall (September-December) each year. They conduct both quantitative (how many people listen) and qualitative (listeners’ income and education levels, buying preferences, etc) research. When complete, each survey is sold to Radio stations and advertising agencies for use in ad sales presentations and negotiations. 

Is Arbitron valid? Well, their methodology is accredited by the Media Ratings Council. That basically means that a bunch of PHDs in statistics stand behind this company’s procedures. Still, it is not an exact science. For example, Arbitron typically will receive roughly 1500 valid and usable diary responses from among the 160,000-plus residents of the St. Cloud metro survey area. That means they have to weight those responses to make estimates on what the ENTIRE area’s listening habits are. But that is no different than a Gallup poll that surveys 4000 of America’s 300,000,000 residents to determine how the ENTIRE COUNTRY feels about major issues. Those surveys are considered statistically valid (with a small plus-or-minus margin of error). And Arbitron is similar in this regard. 

We like to use a statement in reference to this discussion: “Arbitron is like a bikini, in that what it reveals is important but what it conceals is vital!” Basically by this we mean that Arbitron offers some very useful, scientific findings about which stations people most often listen to. But it will never tell you the total story. You should combine the research element of Arbitron with a little “gut feeling” on your part. You live in this area. You know what you listen to, what your friends listen to, what your customers are likely to listen to. Use some of that judgment and instinct to guide your advertising purchase decisions, as well. 


I advertised once and it didn’t work, so why should it work this time?

Experience is a great teacher. We have a veteran sales staff that have gone through extensive marketing training and had experience with scores of different businesses and industries. There are some basic tenants of advertising that we’ve learned to respect and implement. If you follow these rules you can legitimately expect to see measurable results from your marketing. If you don’t abide by those rules you can’t expect marketing to perform miracles for your business. When we addressed horizontal marketing in one of the questions above we compared that discipline to an exercise program. You should never start an exercise regimen with the intention of quitting. Marketing is a similar discipline. You can’t built an empire quickly…and you can’t expect your advertising and marketing to appreciably benefit your business unless you follow proven methods and “stay the course.”


What are co-op funds?

Many manufacturers will help retailers pay for part or all of their advertising expenses through co-op funds. Usually a retailer will accrue co-op money based on a percentage of the goods they purchase from a manufacturer over a given period of time. For example, if a business purchases $50,000 of product in a given year from a manufacturer and that manufacturer offers 2% co-op reimbursement, the retailer will have $1000 in advertising funds from the manufacturer to use in marketing for the business. We have resources that allow us to help our clients identify how much available co-op money they might be able to use in any given period of time. Let us know if we can help you find that “free money.”


Can you tell me about ways you have helped other businesses in this area?

We’d love to tell you about ways we have helped our clients. We have extensive success stories listed on this website. You can read about their successful advertising endeavors with our stations or you can watch videos and hear from the clients, themselves. Hopefully these stories will give you ideas on ways you can improve your own business through the intelligent use of advertising. 


Is there any cost to have an advertising sales representative of your company conduct a no-obligation meeting with me?

No. We believe that we should go through an extensive analysis with new clients BEFORE they make a decision on whether they should use our services. We can’t help everyone. But by having a two-way business conversation with you we can usually determine if there are ways we can assist your business. And that initial consultation comes at no cost to you.

To get started, call us at 320-251-4422.

© Copyright 2007. Regent Broadcasting of St. Cloud