“In just the last three years, the retail industry has experienced growth that would normally take almost a decade by pre-pandemic standards,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “While we expect growth to moderate in the year ahead, it will remain positive as retail sales stabilize to more historical levels."
The challenge for Fort Myers area retailers, however, is keeping a significant share of these dollars in local cash registers. According to the NRF, the amount of money spent online and non-store options will increase by 10-12%. This is nearly twice the growth rate of all 2023 retail dollars and translates to more than a $2.5 billion dollar outflow.
To keep the expected deluge of new retail dollars local, area small business owners will need to advertise to convince Fort Myers consumers of all the benefits of buying from local companies. By almost every marketing metric, the best way to advertise is on Fort Myers radio.
According to Nielsen, after the message itself, the advertising metric most responsible for driving sales is the number of different consumers reached by a campaign.
Every week, according to Nielsen, Fort Myers radio reaches 877,056 adults. This is more consumers than use any other medium, including local TV, local cable, streaming video, social media, online audio, and newspapers.'
Radio's unrivaled reach among adult consumers contributes to the medium's ability to deliver an extraordinary return on investment (ROI) for advertisers.
From April through July of 2021, Neilsen measured the sales results of a radio advertising campaign conducted by a major retailer. The study utilized portable people meter technology to segment consumers into two discrete categories: those who were exposed to the retailer's advertising campaign and those who were not.
Nielsen was then able to match the consumers in each segment to their credit/debit or shopper card purchase behavior. Consequently, the study decisively measured how sales were affected by the retailer's advertising campaign.
Here are the key takeaways from the Neilsen study:
Most importantly, the Nielsen study revealed that every $1000 that the retailer invested in the radio advertising campaign returned $13,000 in sales. A 13-time ROI.
Fort Myers business owners should know that these findings support 23 other Nielsen studies that indicate, on average, that advertising on local radio delivers a 10-time return on investment.
AdAge, a trade magazine for advertising professionals, calls these types of returns "eye-popping." The magazine goes on to say radio's ROI is superior to commercials on TV, online, and social media.
To learn more about Nielsen's latest ROI study, click here.
Both reach and ROI are the critical metrics for determining the best way to advertise in Fort Myers. By either measurement, local radio is the logical choice for reaching Easter Holiday shoppers.