“Don’t waste your money or time advertising on the radio.”
“The radio is prehistoric.”
“No one listens to the radio anymore.”
I am certain you’ve heard one or a version of the above in your real estate career. Consequently, most real estate investors believe they should not use the radio to generate leads. However, the statistics on radio usage may surprise you. Radio is still one of the most powerful mediums in the United States with a weekly reach of around 90% among adults. Since adults are listening to the radio and adults own real estate, the radio can be a great way to generate leads. But the myth isn’t quite debunked just yet… Enter Chris Arnold. We interviewed Chris on the Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show. He has closed on
And guess what? Every single deal came from a lead generated using the radio! Now, the myth is officially debunked. One of the main reasons why Chris has had so much success using the radio is because most people believe the myth this blog post is attempting to debunk. How many real estate investors do you personally know who use the radio to generate leads? For most of you, I bet the answer is a big fat zero. Many people are listening to the radio yet very few real estate investors utilize it to generate leads. Therefore, there is a massive supply-and-demand imbalance from which Chris is benefiting, and so can you. How can you replicate Chris’s success on the radio? Here’s his simple four-step process:
First, you need to define your target audience. Chris’s target demographic are people over the age of 50, because this is the demographic that is likely motivated to sell a home due to things like retirement, inheritance, tired of being a landlord, etc. Since defining a target audience isn’t the purpose of this blog post, Click How to Become Famous: General Fame vs. Selective Fame and Ideal Target Audience For Apartment Marketing Campaigns to learn more about this topic.
Once you’ve defined your target demographic, the next step is to create your advertisement. Like any advertisement, it needs to touch on the pain points of your target demographic, as well as include how you will alleviate that pain point and a call-to-action. Chris says you can either record the ad audio at home or, if you don’t have the proper equipment, you can use the local radio station’s studio.
After you’ve created your advertisement, you need to find the right radio station on which to air your advertisement. Selecting the right radio station is easy. You’ve already defined your target audience, so all you need to do is determine the type of music they prefer. Since Chris targets the 50+ demographic, he airs ads on classic or old school rock stations. If your target demographic is rural, he says country music radio stations are best. Or R&B stations if your target demographic is urban.
The last step is negotiating the costs of the advertising spot. Chris says the average person calls into a local radio station, asks for their media packet, and pays that price. However, Chris pulls reports on the value of the radio station prior to calling. Based on the reports, he calculates how much the advertising spot is actually worth. Then, once he calls the radio station, he tells them how much he is willing to pay based on his research rather than asking how much do pay. As a result, Chris is able to pay $1,500 for 100 sixty second ad spots per month. One of the major benefits of using Chris’s method is that it is a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Record the ad, send it to the radio station, and wait for the phone to ring. This is contrasted with other, more active marketing strategies like cold calling, direct mail, or driving for dollars. And, as I mentioned previously, the number 1 benefit of using the radio to generate leads is that no one else is doing it. Chris’s episode is scheduled to air July 22, 2020. Be sure to mark your calendars so that you can listen to his episode to learn even more about this powerful lead generation strategy.
About the Author:
Joe Fairless is the co-founder of Ashcroft Capital, a fully integrated multifamily investment firm with more than $2.7 billion in assets under management, and the founder of Best Ever CRE. His podcast, the Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show, is the world's longest-running daily real estate podcast with more than 500,000 monthly downloads.