Really? Did you just call the 807,219 people who tuned-in to a Fort Myers radio station last week nobodies?

Don't worry, though. You are not the first SWFL advertiser who has made that mistake.  Media expert Doug Schoen used to share the same opinion. He came clean in a Forbes article.

"You wouldn't know it from all the media coverage focused on streaming video and streaming music," says Mr. Schoen, "but recent Nielsen data shows radio actually has the most reach among American media consumers. 93% of adults listen to the radio each week as compared to 87% who watch TV, a substantive difference."

This is true in Southwest Florida, as well, where Fort Myers radio listeners far out-number the people who watch local TV; read local newspapers; or logon to a streaming audio site like Pandora and Spotify.

When an Southwest Florida small business owner advertises on a local radio station, the first words determine if consumers will pay attention. The article "Be Heard: The #1 Job of Commercials on Fort Myers Radio" discusses this topic in-depth.

When it comes time to buy, however, getting in the final word can be equally important.  Advertising on Fort Myers radio is often the last voice an SWFL customer hears before making a purchase in-store or online.

Being the last voice serves as a potent reminder to consumers that a business or product exists.  Especially since our brains make things very easy to forget. Science says it's so.

Some of the bravest people in Southwest Florida are small business owners.  These hearty entrepreneurs invest their passion, their hope, their time, and, of course, their money despite the odds.

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), the good news is that 80% of small businesses make it through the first year. After that, though, only about half will make it to their fifth anniversary. Even fewer, 33% will keep their doors open for ten years.

CBInsights performed an analysis to determine the top ten reasons small business owners fail.  I have included the entire list. But, of particular importance, is reason #8, "poor marketing". This subject will be discussed in more detail because this is where advertising on Fort Myers radio stations can help business owners not to fail.

Let's set the record straight. You can't see the Great Wall of China from the moon. Your fingernails don't keep growing when you're dead. Shaving does not make hair grow back quicker or thicker. Chicken soup will not cure a cold. And a penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building cannot kill a pedestrian below.

Don't believe me? Just ask Google.

Like the so-called facts above, there are also things that many SWFL  small business owners think they know about advertising on Fort Myers radio that just aren't true.

Here are the five most common misconceptions followed by the truth.

Just about every adult in SWFL spent, on average, 15 hours last week listening to the radio.  As a matter of fact, more people tuned-in to their favorite Fort Myers radio station than watched TV; read a newspaper, or logged-on to Pandora and Spotify.

"Sure," a Naples small business owner said to me. "People are still tuning-in to local radio stations, but do they switch stations when my commercial comes on?"

Not to worry. Unlike TV, which makes avoiding commercials a breeze, there is no ad-skipping technology for radio.  As a result, a study by Nielsen reveals that 93% of radio listeners stick around for the ads.

This raises the question: Consumers are not button-pushing during radio commercials, but are they paying attention to the content of the advertising? Research says YES.

The number one job of a radio commercial is not to sell products for the sponsoring SWFL small business owner.

The number one job is not to build store traffic or to create top of mind of awareness.

The number one job of a radio commercial is not to build brand or deliver ROI.

The number one job of every commercial on Fort Myers radio is to be heard. Period. When a commercial is heard, then all the rest will follow. But being heard is not easy.

At the exact second a radio commercial begins, 11,000,000 other pieces of information are all wrestling for the listener's attention.  Sadly, a consumer's brain is only capable of dealing with about 50 bits of that information at a time.

If you are a local business owner who would like to secure a larger share of the $7.1 billion Fort Myers radio listeners will spend this year, then what you say first in your commercial is crucial to winning the battle for a consumer's ear.

Of all the advertising options available to Southwest Florida small business owners, streaming audio services like Pandora and Spotify are the least effective.  Here's why.

According to Nielsen, after the content of a commercial is considered, the element of an advertising campaign that drives sales the most is reach. In other words, making sure the most people possible are exposed to the advertiser's message is crucial.

When it comes to achieving reach among consumers, Pandora and Spotify rank dead last.  Advertising on Fort Myers radio stations, actually, can reach 200% more consumers than these two streaming-audio platforms combined.

In 1940, WFTM in Fort Myers signed on as the first radio station in Southwest Florida. Since then, local business owners have depended on radio advertising to successfully market their goods and service.

Using any metric, advertising on Fort Myers radio remains the most potent medium for fulfilling the marketing objectives of SWFL business owners of every size.

It's time to set some misguided SWFL small business owners straight.  When we say everybody listens to  Fort Myers radio, we mean everybody.  Generations X, Y, and Z. Baby boomers, and, yes, the millennial generation.

You know...millennials. Those are the "kids" who came of age at the turn of the millennium (which is, debatably, either 2000 or 2001).  This means 18-34 year olds. 

In the Fort Myers metro (Collier and Lee Counties counties) 196,800 millennials make-up exactly one-third of the population and will deliver $6.6 billion to local cash registers.

But here's the thing about millennials that many SWFL small business owners get wrong: millennials listen to the radio.  Almost all of them. 94.6% of them to be exact.

Over the next 12 month, Southwest Florida consumers will spend $22 billion on retail products.

Small business owners who want to compete for a share of this cash will need to advertise. As Professor Jef Richards at Michigan State University points out, “Advertising is totally unnecessary…unless you want to make money.”

Bottom line: SWFL consumers will only buy from retailers they know about.

There are many ways small business owners to advertise. This includes local television, newspapers, or streaming media platforms like Pandora and Spotify.

But regardless of what product a retailer sells, the best option is advertising on Fort Myers radio. Radio reaches significantly more consumers in every major retail category than all of the other media choices.