Here's a quiz for Las Vegas small business owners:

Which of these online sites reach more adults each month than Las Vegas radio stations: Google? Netflix? ESPN? YouTube? Twitter Facebook?

The answer may be a surprise. Radio reaches more adult consumers every month than all websites and apps.  This is critical information for Las Vegas business owners to knows to be able to choose the best way to advertise their goods and services.

The number one media characteristic that contributes to the success of an advertising campaign is reach. This is a measure of how many different people are exposed to an advertiser's message.

Las Vegas consumers are expected to buy $39 billion worth of local goods and services over the next 12 months. To claim the largest share of those dollars requires small business owners to advertise.

“Think you have a great product?” asks the Small Business Administration. “Unfortunately, no one’s going to know about it unless you advertise.”  The SBA goes on to say, “Advertising, if done correctly, can do wonders for your product sales, and you know what that means: more revenue and more success for your business."

According to the eBook Seven Steps for Success, "There are many ways for small business owners to advertise. Options include local newspapers, local magazines, local television, and online."

"But to achieve the “3-Rs” of advertising success, Reach, Recall, and Return, no other medium delivers results as effectively and efficiently as advertising on Las Vegas radio."

For budget-conscious small business owners, there are three tactics that can be employed to make sure every advertising dollar spent on Las Vegas radio stations works as hard as possible.

Forty-percent of contractors nationwide report that they have turned down jobs this year because they don't have enough skilled blue-collar workers.

The labor crunch isn't confined to construction. Overall, 79% of Nevada employers say they are having difficulty filling salaried and hourly craft positions. This includes truck drivers, plumbers, HVAC technicians, electrical workers, machinists, metal workers, landscapers, janitors, and health care workers.

In Clark County, for instance, there are not enough auto mechanics to fill more than 800 open jobs. These types of shortages are stunting many Las Vegas small business owners prospects for growth.

Local business owners can benefit from a study by The North Carolina Works Commission. The NCWC found that the recruitment efforts of many employers in that state are failing because they depend on hiring strategies from a time when qualified candidates were plentiful.

These failing strategies include posting on job boards like Monster and Indeed; publishing employment ads in local newspapers; and pleading on social media pages. Some small business owners still depend on hanging help-wanted signs.

What many business owners in the Valley have discovered is that the best way to recruit blue-collar workers is by advertising on Las Vegas radio stations.

 

Advertising on Las Vegas radio stations is the best way for local small business owners to reach the lucrative, local mother market.  Here's why.

Las Vegas consumers will spend $39 billion over the next 12 months. Forbes magazine reports that it is moms who control 85% of all household purchases. Locally,  there are more than 371,000 mothers with children under the age of 17 at home.

Las Vegas small business owners need to pay special attention to these mothers and their wallets. For example, compared to the general population, over the next 12 months, local moms live in households that are

• 48% more likely to take a family vacation
• 25% more likely to purchase a car or truck
• 80% more likely to buy furniture
• 86% more likely to purchase a major appliance
• 17% more likely to buy a mattress
• 147% more likely to buy a new house/condo
• 165% more likely to purchase a boat
• 25%% more likely to buy carpeting/floor coverings
• 58% more likely to move
• 39% more likely to look for a new job

Thousands of Las Vegas small business owners depend on radio advertising to claim their share of the $39.7 billion local consumers will spend this year. Cha-ching.

These advertisers have, typically, 30 or 60 seconds to convince the 1,502,898 listeners who tune-in to Las Vegas radio stations each week to become customers. So, it is essential to know how to use that time effectively.

Gathering a sample of 6003 respondents, Westwood One in partnership with audio testing experts Veritonic studied how different elements of award-winning radio commercials affect a listener's intent to buy the products or services advertised. 

Here are the results of the study that Las Vegas business owners could find useful.

Professional advice is always welcome. Especially when you are a Las Vegas business owner investing your own money trying to capture a larger share of the $39-billion local consumers will spend this year.

Thousands of business owners depend on Las Vegas radio stations to market their goods and services.  What they say in their commercials and how they say it are the most critical factors for turning listeners into customers.  This is referred to by the professionals as the "creative."

A study by Nielsen indicates that the creative elements of a commercial are responsible for 47% of an advertiser's sales result. 

Creative, it turns out, has a more significant effect on sales for Las Vegas small business owners than does reach, targeting, or branding elements. 

Producing and judging effective creative, though, can be a challenge for a Las Vegas business owner. So, here is some advice from an award-winning, advertising professional.

There are two reasons why advertising on Las Vegas radio stations is more effective than advertising on TV.

The first reason is reach.  In a study conducted by Nielsen, the number of consumers who are exposed to a commercial contributes profoundly to the number of sales it will create.  This is discussed in depth in the free eBook, "Seven Steps For Advertising Successfully In Las Vegas."

Among all media available to local business owners, Las Vegas radio offers the biggest reach.

The second reason why radio advertising is so powerful has been revealed in a new study Mindshare, an advertising agency that buys media for some of the most successful companies in the world including General Mills, Nestlé, Domino's, IBM, Rolex, and John Deere.

According to AdWeek, the Mindshare study used brain activity detected from electroencephalograms (EEGS) and galvanic skin response technology (which measures changes in sweat gland activity) to get a deeper sense of how advertising resonates with people.The Mindshare study indicates that when a brand tells a story using audio media, it elicits a 21% higher emotional intensity than the same story told using visual media.

The Greek philosopher Plato was born 2188 years before there were radio stations in Las Vegas.  There's no doubt, though, he could have written some great commercials.

Plato once said, "Those who tell stories rule society." This quote sounds very familiar to rule #7 for creating a memorable commercial for Las Vegas radio:

Rule #7: Tell a story… listeners are hardwired to emotionally respond to features and benefits when presented in story-form rather than as a list. The advertiser should be the hero of the story.

Lee Habib wrote in the National Review a few years ago, "Stories are packed not with hard data but with something far more powerful: emotional data. That’s why we remember them and why they’re so easily transported, even through generations. Stories stir our souls."

When a Nevada small business owner buys a 60-second commercial on a Las Vegas radio station, she is limited to about 160 words to persuade listeners to become customers.  To be successful, then, each word needs to be carefully selected to fulfill the desired marketing objective. 

A telephone number comprises seven words. Ten if the area code is included.  If the number is repeated three times during the commercial, then it will consume 21-30 words or up to 18% of the total.

So, should a local business owner sacrifice a significant portion of a radio commercial to insert a phone number? Except for certain circumstances, described below, the answer is no. 

Here are the facts.

Marketers call them Generation Z.  Las Vegas small business owners call them teenagers.  Whatever 12-17 years old are called, they live in homes cluttered with video games, smartphones, and tablets. They have easy access to Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and hundreds of other apps their parents have never heard of.

What may come as a surprise to many local business owners, despite an over-abundance of options, Las Vegas radio stations dominate teenagers' media consumption.

Last week, according to Nielsen, 147,100 teens tuned-in to Las Vegas radio. On average, each of these 12-17 year olds spent 90 minutes per day listening.