Did it bring in business? Please let me know your experience. I have a client thinking about running a radio campaign for his physician laser center and I am leary that he will just be wasting his money.

The overall goal is to bring in clients, NOT brand the business.

Feedback please.

I have done a little. It didn't work out. Two problems - I didn't give it much time (my own fault) and it's not a visual medium. We are in the visual business so I think there are other forms of advertising that are more beneficial.

That being said, I do know other spas that have had good success with it. But it didn't work for me.

Do you know what they did that made them successful? Were they already really known? Did they have some dirt cheap offer to get the phones ringing? Did they truly track it to say with 100% certainity that it was radio that moved people into their offices?

Alan: In 2004 and 2004 my partner and I did a TON of radio advertising in the Twin Cities. We tried to track our leads carefully and did a comprehensive cost per lead and cost per sale analysis each month. I don't think the ads EVER cost justified. My theory about this is that with radio advertising -- at any given point during the day (or evening) -- you are marketing your services to a small "slice" of the overall pie (since every major city has MANY radio stations.. and at any given point only a small percentage of their audience will be listening). And only a small slice of that slice will be interested in your offer. Unless you find someone to give you an incredible "deal" on the cost of the ads I think it will rarely cost justify.

I am a big advocate of "internal" marketing to a doctor's existing patient population largely for this reason. These people already know the doctor and trust him (or her), etc.

Wow! I was surprised to see so many negative opinions on radio advertising. It has been one of our most successful marketing techniques. It is because I decided to buy block programming from our local AM talk radio station and host my own "Slim Body Laser Spas Health and Wellness Show" The cost is a paltry $200 per hour and I am on air every Tuesday from 9-10am.

I have been consistently hosting the call in show for +2 years. We are communicating with somewhere between 4000 - 8000 listeners each morning. Talk radio attracts the older more educated demographic. Hosting your own radio show positions you as an authority to the public. WE do not want the 30 something crowd who listens to radio as background noise. They also do not have the extra money to spend on aesthetics. So far we are averaging at least one sign up per week at $2500 per client. Last month we did $7500 in services from a monthly $800 dollar investment.

We also had good results when we sponsored the FM morning talk show hosts "Laser Assisted Weight Loss" experience. She lost 12 inches of stubborn belly fat in only 3 weeks while she slept! It ran for 6 months and generated referrals but not as good as the talk show! The cost for the sponsored host was a whopping $2500 per month!

As far as radio is considered a regular call in talk show is the way to go. It is inexpensive and effective. The only part is it actually requires time and a commitment from the doctor or staff to be there every week with new content and lots of "special offers" and an easy phone number to remember. Ours is 1-800-MY-SLIMBODY

most of you will not host your own show since it actually requires time and energy and people skills. Business's fail because many are looking for the magic Print ad or the one time message that you run on air to bring in people. It takes what I just described to make it in aesthetics now a days.

Good luck! Dr Tred