When you think “national radio advertising” the word “expensive” very likely also comes to mind. For years this was very, very true. The price to reach a national audience was dictated by some very well padded gatekeepers who could name crazy high prices if you want to get your message in front of the masses. Because of this, many start up businesses were forced to slowly grow in small cities before they could take their message to a national scale on the radio.
While this is still the case with many syndicated radio shows broadcast over am and fm dials, satellite radio does not hold the same gate keeper or price points of years gone by. In fact, the cost to advertise nationally on satellite radio is lower than it is to advertise on many medium and large cities across the USA.
The trade off and reason for this is the fact that your audience is very spread out and not in one select pocket. If you are selling a product or service that has no select geographic target and you want to push your message far and wide, this makes it a great medium to advertise on while keep your marketing budget at realistic levels.
However if you do need to target one select city or state, the reach of satellite radio advertising may not be strong enough for what you had in mind. For example: A car dealer or boutique shop owner who have store front locations and only sell out of that location would not benefit from a low cost national advertising plan on satellite radio. They would be better on their local am or FM radio stations.
However lets say that the car dealership can ship their inventory nationwide or that boutique shop is pushing their unique website and can ship nationwide, satellite radio suddenly becomes a very attractive option for reaching a national audience that in the past would have been out of the price range for either of these companies.
To be clear: If you have a product or service that can reach a national scale and you can get it to your customers for a low price – then satellite radio advertising should be something you and your marketing department can explore. If you are only going after a select city or region, then it is not an option you need to put in the mix of your next marketing meeting.
