Advertising is critical for Southwest Florida small business owners looking to cash in on the $22-billion local consumers will spend at retail this year.

To successfully stay top of mind, many business owners advertise on Fort Myers radio stations. These local companies depend on radio's reliable reach, recall, and return-on-investment to convert listeners to customers.

For those local business owners who do not advertise on Fort Myers radio stations, here are five facts they need to know right now about the power of advertising on radio. 

Southwest Florida consumers will spend $22.5 billion on goods and services over the next year. To claim a significant portion of those expenditures, small business owners need to be at the top of customers' minds when it comes time to buy.

Since 1940, when WFTM became the first radio station in Fort Myers, thousands of local business owners knew, intuitively, that advertising on the medium was a potent way to be remembered when a purchase was imminent. 

Now there is proof that radio advertising creates the brand awareness necessary to drive sales.

Radio advertising is processed by the brain profoundly faster than visual advertising.  This is valuable news for Southwest Florida business owners who depend on radio to market their goods and services.

SWFL consumers will recognize the first few notes of Jingle Bells five times faster than they can identify a picture of Santa Claus.  That's because it takes the human brain 5/100th of a second to process sound.  On the other hand, it takes a full quarter of a second to process visual stimuli.

This difference in processing time may seem inconsequential. But, for a local small business owner who is fighting to inject their advertising message into the mind of consumers, that .20-second gap can be the difference between success and failure.

Is advertising on Fort Myers radio just a day job for Southwest Florida small business owners?  

Thousands of local Florida companies depend on radio advertising to market their goods and services. But most of these business owners choose to buy commercials only between 6:00 am and 7:00 pm.  Is this a good idea? Maybe not.  Here are the facts.

During the course of last week, for instance, 807,219 adult consumers tuned-in to their favorite Fort Myers radio stations. This is significantly higher than the number that tuned-in to a local TV station, read a local newspaper, or logged on to Spotify and Pandora.

But radio listeners do not roll-up their ears just because the sunsets. According to Nielsen, almost half of SWFL who listen to the radio during daylight hours, also tune in at night.

Everybody in Southwest Florida used to watch TV. Commercials and all. But, as media options proliferate, viewers are fleeing. This is not good news for television advertisers.

Last week, for instance, according to Nielsen, only 79% of SWFL consumers watched broadcast television. To put this in perspective, 93% tuned-in to their favorite Fort Myers radio stations.

Compared to two years ago, according to Nielsen, the C3 rating for CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox have plummeted by 27%, especially among 18-49 viewers.

In 2003, Cadillac was the first automotive brand to make satellite radio standard in all of its new vehicles. Oldsmobile would follow a year later.

Today, there are 117 million cars on the road with satellite radio installed. 

So, have Southwest Florida drivers ditched their favorite Fort Myers radio stations in favor of music from space?  No!

According to Nielsen,  satellite radio has had no effect on the number of people who tune-in to Fort Myers radio stations each week.  For that matter, Pandora and Spotify (now owned by Sirius/XM) have not affected local radio listening either.

Thousands of Southwest Florida small business owners depend on radio advertising to successfully market their goods and services.

Take Bob Bigelow, for instance. He and his wife Dawn opened Biggy's Place, a 164-seat Fort Myers restaurant five years ago. Their sales have grown by 600% since they started advertising on Fort Myers radio.

"Three months after we took over the restaurant, we began investing hot-and-heavy into our radio advertising," says Mr. Bigelow. "I've been involved in marketing for over 37 years, but I have never been as overwhelmed by the response to our current advertising. Almost every day a new customer will tell us they learned about us on Fort Myers radio."

Conditioned Air is a Naples-based heating, ventilation, and air conditioning company.  Theo Etzel joined the company in 1995 as President and CEO.  That was the same year the company began advertising on Fort Myers radio as part of an aggressive growth strategy.

"To accelerate our growth at the beginning, we needed a strong platform to share the company's story," recalls Mr. Etzel. "So, we invested heavily in radio advertising."  To this day, Fort Myers radio is still Conditioned Air's predominant form of advertising.

There's a right way and a wrong way for SWFL business owners to advertise on Fort Myers radio.  Fortunately, there is a free resource at AdvertiseInFortMyers.com that can help replicate the successes of Mr. Bigelow and Mr. Etzel.