It’s Your Story – So Own It 

How do you differentiate your business in your radio ads?  Listen to most ads and you’d think the secret is to tell everyone how long you’ve been in business, where you’re located and then go on endlessly about how wonderful you and your products are. Oh and if you really want to impress us, throw a list of all the product lines you carry – nothing impresses us more than a list!

Okay, I know what you’re thinking…they’re your ads, you’re paying for them – so you’re going to talk about yourself and your business!  Well, if your business is so successful you can afford to buy ads just to brag, and you don’t need any more customers – then go right ahead.  Now if you are in same boat as the rest of us and you always need new customers -- as a general rule talking about yourself is not a good way to market your business in radio.  Truth is your customers really don’t care about you or your products – unless you or that product can help them solve a problem – they’re stuck in their own heads and their own lives.  So they want to hear about themselves.

But if you’re bound and determined to talk about you – then please don’t fill your ads with boring ad speak, like lists and years in business – tell us a story.  And not just any story – your story! You’ve got a unique one – because only you are you.   So share some of that story with your customers. 

Here’s what I mean – I’ve worked with a very smart business owner who told stories in her ads.  Stories about how she found specific artists she featured in her gallery/store.  Stories that centred around questions her grand kids asked her things she had in her home (the same kind of art she sold in her store).  Stories about special orders she’d done for some of her customers – stories only she could tell, that she could own.  Stories that other customers could remember and comment about.  Stories that told you about who she was, why she did what she did and the passion she had about the products she sold.

Oh, and by the way – these story ads worked very well for her, as they resonated with people who were listening to the radio.

So if you’re going to talk about yourself in your ads, make sure those ads tell your story – go ahead take ownership of the business you own and tell the world about it – but do it in a way that tells us a bit about who you are, and why doing business with you is so special.

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zitona/4053097146/">» Zitona «</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>