Four States Small Business Blog

Every year, the radio industry's premiere magazine – Radio Ink – ranks America's top 30 program directors in the Country format. This year, Zimmer Radio's own Randy Brooks made the list thanks to his hard work and dedication to KIX 102.5 listeners. Since there are hundreds of country stations, this puts him into a very exclusive group. Here is more about Randy and how he was able to surpass all of the competition to make this list:

Building brand awareness is key to promoting your business. It refers to the extent to which customers can recall or recognize a brand, and it can have a positive impact on your marketing efforts, consumer perception and revenue. For this reason, most businesses rely on brand awareness campaigns to increase their visibility.

Your website plays an important role in the success of your business. It helps to turn prospects into customers by positioning your business as a dependable, trustworthy and experienced provider in your industry. However, it’s not enough to have a website. You must also ensure that it’s well-designed and optimized to drive specific actions, like clicks, downloads, sign-ups and purchases.

With 3.5 billion Google queries being made each day, search engines are critical to the customer journey. Savvy, empowered customers use search engines like Google and Bing to find and research the products and services they ultimately purchase.

A business can only be successful if it has the right team members. These are loyal, hardworking people who are committed to doing their part to create great results. They also remain with the company long enough to truly master their jobs so that they are both effective and efficient.

CPG giants like Procter & Gamble (P&G) have traditionally relied on TV advertising - and more recently, digital - to reach the maximum amount of consumers. However, a P&G executive recently revealed the company has become frustrated with “narrow digital-ad targeting” and TV can’t provide the reach they desire. As a result, many of these companies have rediscovered radio as an ideal way to reach their target audience.

TV and radio advertising have been two of the most consistent mediums for reaching consumers. For years, they were the only two methods for getting the word out to target audiences, delivering branded messages and promotions. However, the emergence of other channels - specifically digital - has given advertisers more options for reaching their audience. Interestingly enough, while TV watching is declining, radio listening remains strong.

Local businesses face a number of challenges when it comes to marketing. These include limited time, limited marketing expertise and limited staff. Although these are real constraints, marketing is a critical function that should not be overlooked. By outsourcing this function to a trusted marketing partner, the business can still achieve marketing success.

Great advertising doesn't happen accidentally - it's created by a combination of factors that includes reach, exceptional messaging and content that is specifically created to appeal to your target audience. Ad content can take a variety of forms across media channels: text, audio, images and video. But regardless of the medium, it's the quality of the content that will drive people to your product or service. See first-hand why data-driven, relevant, informative and engaging content can make the difference between advertising that is simply good or truly great.

Are you looking to build awareness, spark engagement or even drive sales for your brand? If so, an integrated advertising approach that pairs radio and digital can work well in helping you achieve your goal.