Radio is almost always there – as long as I’m not in a tunnel.

Radio is free to listen to, it doesn’t break like a CD and it doesn’t require me to look away from the road too much. It’s hard to disagree that radio is one of the most convenient forms of entertainment out there, especially while driving. But that’s not all, Nielsen shows that radio may have one of the best returns on investment for advertisers.

Brands averaged a sales lift of more than $10 for every $1 spent on radio ads – an ROI double that of even the best results from many recent studies of digital or TV media.

If you’re still, somehow, unconvinced about the power of radio, check out these detailed stats.

Radio ads are most typically associated with brand awareness… but, what about radio as a lead gen tool? What I am about to tell you will change the way you see radio, a traditional marketing tool, as the perfect complement to a digital marketing lead generation strategy for many small, medium and large businesses alike.

During an average week, radio reached 93 percent of America. (Nielsen Audio-State of the Media: Audio Today 2017; June 2017, persons 6+)

Almost everyone listens to the radio – which includes your potential customers. So, how can you use this to your advantage?

Flawless execution of the following three steps is absolutely critical to running a successful radio lead generation campaign.

Step one is setting up an effective, well-targeted radio campaign. Making sure that your ad quickly, clearly connects with your audience is imperative. The ad must contain an offer that is enticing to your audience.

Step two is getting a unique domain name which will forward listeners to your landing page. You will want to make sure that the domain name you choose is short, easy to spell, uses common and easy-to-remember words.

Step three is clearly tying in the radio ad with the information on the landing page, having a simple and clear (and clearly visible) call-to-action and of course a short conversion form to capture lead information.

We love to be our own case study, here at SmartReach Digital, which is why we ran three radio campaigns for our agency, using our parent company’s stations in our target markets. Two radio campaigns promoted an educational webinar and one promoted a giveaway offer. We ran 30-second spots for each campaign, as filler – meaning a lot of them ran during off-peak times.

The agency generated over 200 leads, in three months, from radio alone.

That said… radio, like all other marketing channels, may or may not be right for your business. Results will depend greatly on the quality of the ad, the targeting, the offer and the ease with which people can remember your landing page URL. Many radio advertising professionals will say that radio ads generally have to run for at least a month to be effective – the key here being repetition.