When you think of “national radio advertising,” the word “expensive” likely comes to mind as well. For years this was very, very true. The price to reach a national audience was dictated by some very well-padded gatekeepers who could name sky-high prices if you want your message to reach the masses. Because of this, many startups were forced to grow slowly in small towns before they could take their message to a national scale on the radio.

While this is still the case with many syndicated radio shows that are broadcast via am and fm dials, satellite radio does not have the same gatekeeper or prices of years gone by. In fact, the cost of advertising nationally on satellite radio is less than that of advertising in many medium and large cities in the US.

The trade-off and the reason for this is the fact that your audience is widely dispersed and not in a select pocket. If you are selling a product or service that does not have a selected geographic target and you want to spread your message everywhere, this makes for a great medium to advertise while keeping your marketing budget at realistic levels.

However, if you need to target a select city or state, your satellite radio advertising reach may not be strong enough for what you had in mind. For example, a car dealership or boutique store owner who has locations across from a store and only sells at that location would not benefit from a low-cost national advertising plan on satellite radio. They would be better on your local AM or FM radio stations.

However, let’s say the car dealership can ship their inventory across the country or the boutique store is promoting their unique website and can ship it across the country, satellite radio suddenly becomes a very attractive option to reach. to a national audience that in the past would have been out of price. rank for any of these companies.

To be clear: if you have a product or service that can go national in scale and you can get it to your customers for a low price, then satellite radio advertising should be something that you and your marketing department can explore. If you are only looking for a selected city or region, then it is not an option that you should include in your next marketing meeting mix.