Heard It On the Radio (5 of 5)

So how will you make your radio ads most effective? A few ideas:

In advertising there is the “Rule of 7.” (It has nothing to do with Mickey Mantle.) The idea is that, on average, a person needs to hear about something seven times before they’ll check it out. I bet there’s some restaurant or movie you heard about, but ignored it, then heard again, and ignored it, then heard again, and thought, “What’s up with this?” and then heard again, and asked, “Tell me more,” then heard again, and thought, “I might try it,” then heard again, and decided, “That’s it, I’ve got to give this a try.” Right?

So make the rule of 7 work for you. You need people to hear about your church seven times (or more). All seven hits don’t have to come through radio ads, but they will be far more effective if people hear them multiple times. You can do this by running them a bunch on one station and/or having them air on multiple stations.

You can also make the rule of 7 work for you by getting the word out about your church in other ways. The week of your radio ads … do a free car wash, or have people in your church throw block parties, or give your people invite cards to share with their friends, or send out postcards…

And this leads to my last thought. Without question the best way to reach lost people is through relationships. It’s through life on life, one friend building a relationship with another, showing that person what God is doing in their life, and then inviting them to check it out. So if you want to make radio ads more effective, tell your people that you’re doing them, and that it would be a great week to invite their friends to come check out their church. That way if the person hears the radio ad it will combine with the personal invite and have real power.

Hope this series has helped you all who may do radio ads someday. But remember, video killed the radio star.

– featured on newchurches.com