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For most businesses today, advertising is a very necessary and worthwhile investment-as long as it's done correctly. Most businesses will want to know which ads "pull" and which don't so they can track where the focus needs to be placed. When advertising works, because it's done correctly, it's not a matter of being a cost. It then becomes part of the investment with a return.

Radio advertising offers many advantages to other media, due largely to the fact that speech is more primal than print. That means that people are hearing and speaking earlier and younger than they're been reading and writing. Also with a well-timed ad, following immediately after a popular song, there's the psychological advantage of the consumer hearing a message while still in an "upbeat mood" from the previous song or maybe a funny joke from the DJ.

Due to the investment involved, it's just as important to approach placing an ad on any media with a plan, as it is to approach operating your business itself. However, radio advertising can require an extra step or two integrated within your plan due largely to the fact that there are no coupons or anything tangible put into the listeners hand.

So, most businesses placing an advertisement on the airwaves take the time to have anything from a special offer just for that campaign, or maybe a toll-free number in place for listeners to respond to in place before the ad campaign is even created.

And with the advent of the internet, most companies can afford to have a special website (a "splash page") set up easily and cheaply, for their customers listening, to visit and participate in anything from printing up a coupon to taking part in a survey, to requesting information.

Bearing in mind that no two businesses are alike let's take a look at some of these approaches:

Special offers-"Joe's Sandwich Shoppe" wants to advertise on the radio. Coupons in the newspaper have usually done some good for Joe's, but now the company wants to reach a younger market that's a little looser with their pocket change. Obviously they need an ad on a popular Adult Contemporary station. It seems to be difficult to track the results though, since airtime is not easily printed up into a coupon, and it's not cost-effective to have the announcer read off the entire menu, specials, announcements, and such. So Joe, being an intelligent and creative fellow (after all he does do the best Reuben in three counties), he comes up with a sandwich named after a popular DJ and advertises

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