The current high rate of inflation is tempering how much Southwest Florida business owners can spend on advertising.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are approximately 31,000 small businesses in the Fort Myers area. There is one thing each of the owners of these companies has in common, whether they own a hardware store in Naples, a furniture store in Cape Coral, or a restaurant on Sanibel Island. They are all experiencing the negative consequences of inflation.

In a monthly survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business Owners (NFIB), inflation now ranks second as the single most important problem companies face. A year ago, inflation was barely an issue.

Inflation has not hampered the enthusiasm to spend among Fort Myers area consumers keeping retail sales hovering above pre-Covid levels. But, inflation is taking a dramatic toll on the amount of revenue business owners can keep.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, small business owners see inflation-fueled price increases in almost every cost of operation, including inventory, utilities, rent, and wages.

Because of these rising operational costs, Fort Myers business owners are looking to cut expenses where they can, including advertising expenditures. But, because there is still robust consumer demand for goods and services, these companies need to make sure that the amount they do invest in advertising has the best return possible.

By almost any marketing metric, advertising on Fort Myers radio provides the greatest return-on-investment (ROI) of any medium available to local business owners.

Fort Myers-Naples area business owners are expected to spend $620 million advertising online in 2022. This, according to Borrell Associates, a company that tracks advertising expenditures across the country.

Borrell's forecast indicates that almost 50% of Southwest Florida's online expenditures will be in the form of paid search. The most recognizable type of this advertising is the paid ads that appear adjacent to the results of almost every search query on Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Borrell's forecast also indicates that approximately 27% of online expenditures will be in the form of display advertising. This consists of traditional banner ads that appear across millions of websites and apps, including social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. According to SmallBizGenius.net, the average SWFL area consumer is served more than 1700 of these ads per month.

Video advertising in Fort Myers is forecast to account for 23% of all online ad dollars in 2022. Like search and display, millions of websites can support this type of advertising. This includes sites, apps, and platforms like YouTube, Roku Channel, Hulu, Paramount+, and most social media sites.

The remainder of online advertising dollars is expected to be spent on audio advertising, including streaming sites like Pandora and Spotify; or email marketing campaigns.

There are 30,689 small businesses in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL Metro Area, according to the US Census Bureau. Based on projections from the National Federation of Independent Business Owners (NFIB), nearly half of these companies have job openings they cannot fill.

As a result of the acute labor shortage, says the NFIB, 29% of small business owners rank the quality of labor as the most important problem they face. A year ago, only 21% said finding workers was their biggest issue.

The labor crunch in Southwest Flordia is being driven, in big part, by a record-high number of employees voluntarily quitting their jobs. Just last month, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.5 million employees across the country left their current place of employment.

According to the Wall Street Journal, those who are not currently working say they are in no hurry to return to the workforce. The lack of urgency stems from five primary reasons:

• 29% say they don't need to work right now because their spouse is employed
• 28% say they cannot return to work because of care responsibilities at home
• 25% say they don't need to return to work because they have a financial cushion
• 20% say they are fearful of returning to work because of COVID-19
• 5% say they do not need to return because of current unemployment benefits

There seems to be little chance that these resigned workers can be lured back into the labor force. Therefore, to fill open jobs, local business owners will need to focus their efforts towards recruiting among Fort Myers's "passive" job candidates.

To ensure success, every Southwest Florida business owner needs to advertise.

"Think you have a great product?" asks the US Small Business Administration. "Unfortunately, no one’s going to know about it unless you advertise.”

The SBA goes on to say, “Advertising, if done correctly, can do wonders for your product sales, and you know what that means: more revenue and more success for your business.”

There are dozens of ways for local small business owners to advertise. By most metrics, the best way to advertise is on Fort Myers radio. These measures of effectiveness, however, are often obscured by the glimmer and glitz of newer technologies. 

To help reduce the glare that often blinds business owners to the potency of advertising on Fort Myers radio, here are the top five things many local business owners get wrong.

It wasn't too long ago when advertising on Fort Myers television stations was considered the gold standard for marketing by local business owners. But over the past few years, the number of viewers reached by WINK, WBBH, WZVN, WGCU, and WFTX has plummeted. In all only 77% of adult consumers now tune-in to at least one of these channels during the week, according to Nielsen.

The consumption of video content isn't diminishing among Southwest Florida consumers. What has changed, though, is how they are watching it.

In November, according to Nielsen, the share of time watching broadcast television has fallen behind other video options including cable programing and internet-delivered choices such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and hundreds of other streaming networks.

It used to be so simple. When a small business owner wanted to advertise on Fort Myers area television, there were only a few options including, WINK, WBBH, WZVN, WGCU, and WFTX. But slowly, the number of options expanded to include cable channels provided by Xfinity, DISH, and DirecTV.

Heading in 2022, local advertisers have even more options as internet-connected devices deliver hundreds of more programming choices to Southwest Florida consumers. Collectively, this type of content is called OTT (Over-The-Top-Television) or CTV (Connected-Television). For the purpose of this discussion, OTT & CTV will be referred to singularly as streaming video.

Streaming video can be viewed on any device that can connect to the internet. This includes computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Programing can also be accessed using a smart-TV, Roku Stick, Amazon Fire Stick, or a game console. In all, according to Nielsen, 95.7% of Fort Myers-Naples area households own a device capable of receiving streaming video.

In all, says Nielsen, 610,634 SWFL consumers watch streaming video content every week. Combined, these internet channels now reach more adults every week than local newspapers, podcasts, and digital audio services like Pandora, Spotify, Sirius/XM. Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio.

Surprisingly, streaming video now reaches almost as many SWFL adults as local TV and local cable.

When WFTM-AM became Southwest Florida's first radio station in 1942, there was no Facebook, no Xfinity, no Sirius/XM, no Netflix, and no podcasts. It would be 12 years before there was even a local TV station.  Consequently, it was pretty easy for radio to become the number one reach medium among local consumers.

Over the past 80 years, Fort Myers-Naples area business owners have come to depend on the mammoth reach of radio among local shoppers to successfully market the goods and services they sell. Advertising on Fort Myers radio has helped SWFL companies to survive and thrive during world wars, natural disasters, recessions, depressions, and even a pandemic.

Heading into 2022, local consumers have more media choices than ever before. But, despite the overabundance of social media, video streaming, audio streaming, cable, and other technological marvels, Fort Myers radio is still the most used advertising medium.

Based on projections from the National Retail Federation (NRF), Southwest Florida consumers are on track to spend $17.2-billion with retailers by the end of this year. This would be 13.5% higher than was spent in 2020.

To earn a significant share of these retail dollars, Fort Myers area business owners are expected to spend $621-million to advertise by year's end, according to Borrell Associates. This company tracks advertising expenditures in local markets across the U.S.

To ensure they are spending their advertising and marketing dollars wisely, many SWFL business owners research how to best target prospective customers by using local media. An exceptional resource for local business owners to investigate the media habits of localconsumers is on the advice section of AdvertiseInFortMyers.com.  

Here are the top five most-read articles on the site in 2021:

Every week, according to Nielsen, 943,000 adult consumers in Southwest Florida watch something on television. But, of course, the definition of what it means to watch TV has changed since the time when the number of available viewing options could be counted on the fingers of a single hand.

Today, SWFL consumers have a gargantuan number of viewing choices. This includes programs from stations like WINK, WBBH, WZVN, WGCU, and WFTX. Or maybe cable and satellite systems like Xfinity, DISH, and DirecTV. There's also content delivered over the internet from Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime.

No longer are Fort Myers-Naples consumers tied to the 21-inch Zenith in their living rooms. Instead, TV can be watched on giant LCDs, smartphones, and tablets from any room in the house, in the backseat of their cars, or practically anywhere else.

The best way to think about TV watching in Fort Myers is in terms of three buckets:

1. Over-the-air...including all broadcast channels
2. Cable...including all premium and non-premium programming
3. Internet...including all streaming services. This is also known as OTT or CTV

Here's how many Fort Myers adult viewers fall into each bucket. Remember, viewers are not limited to a single bucket.

In 2020, there were 62,672 new cars and trucks registered in the Fort Myers metro area. This number is based on projections from the National Auto Dealers Associaton (NADA) and the U.S. Census bureau.

In all, says NADA, there are 878 new-car dealerships in Florida. Despite the pandemic, these dealers, including those in the Fort Myers area, sold $83 billion worth of new vehicles.

Through June of this year, these same dealers have already rung up $51.8 billion in new car sales.

When it comes to buying new vehicles, Southwest Florida consumers have a broad range of preferences. Some buyers want Fords while others want Chevrolets, Toyotas, or Teslas.  Some buyers want pick-up trucks, while others want sub-compacts, SUVs, or sports cars. Of course, some want blue vehicles, while others want pearl white, orchard green, or redolent red.

There is one purchase criterion, however, that most SWFL car buyers can agree on. They want an AM/FM radio smack-dab, in the middle of their dash.