[BC] Power of Local Radio

[George Brand]

and I agree. I own an insurance agency in a small town (Lewiston,MI) in a
rural area. When I took it over, it was a mess. My in laws had paid taxes on
income that didn't exist, the books were hallucinatory. I had never seen the
"books" as they were in my M.I.Laws own code, I only knew something was
wrong with the Accountants monthly reports (he was not paid to audit) We
survived the first year by reducing our pay, re-negotiating the rent to the
in-laws for the building, you get the drift.  Then Michigan's economy
started to really tank... I took the opposite method, I tripled the ad
budget using co-op dollars and my savings. I also added RADIO, where I
received immediate feedback and some sales, directly traced to RADIO, from
a small town 20 miles away. There will be two unhappy newspapers in April as
I will not renew the contract as their ads have produced nothing. Some of
that is already channelled to the internet, where I had results the week the
Yellow Book site went up. (They didn't have to tell me it was up, the phone
started ringing) The rest will go into RADIO.

Your product can be made to work effectively, stimulate the sales force,
Increase the commission, cut the rate card (call it a SALE)  I always liked
over night matching of spots for 10% of the regular price, they will snag
aome audience for the customer and makes you sound busier. Give bonus spots
if you have unsold time. Host a client breakfast, have a buffet at a clients
restaurant, trade out if you can. Introduce the staff inc sales, make them
familiar faces to your clients ( if a client remarks he's never seen the
sales force, you've uncovered a problem and the opportunity to make a new
friend/client) If breakfast is too costly, coffee and danish works fairly
well also. I've seen weenie roasts do a job too but IMHO breakfast is best.
Our Boy Scout Council now uses them heavily, we doubled the donations, cut
Friends of Scouting fund raising time by 1/3, and remember to announce this
is the first ANNUAL event as you'll be doing it again next year.

BTW business is increasing monthly, we stopped the red ink after the first
year, have repaid over half the loans, black ink is good, and I note one
competator has closed, and the other guy's parking lot has only 1-2 cars per
WEEK  in it. Oh, BTW, he does no advertising as it's a waste on money.
That's ok, I buy his space in the HS yearbook, BB games on the radio etc etc
as it does make money.

George will now step off the soapbox and go back to listening to the RADIO

 >   The first thing a locally owned businesses will do
 > when they have to cut back expenses is on advertising.

 >And they won't be in business much longer after that, either!! That's proves
 >it self time and time again.