RADIO ADVERTISING SECRET #5: The Only Reason Ever To Include The Client’s Phone Number In The Commercial

This is the fifth of a 6-part series of Secrets of Radio Advertising.

The only reason ever to include the radio advertiser’s phone number in a commercial is if the Call to Action — the way to act on the sales message — is to call the advertiser.
    
For most local retail merchants, giving their phone number is a complete waste of time.

Giving their phone number five times is five times the complete waste of time.
    
Maybe that’s not what you were told when you started writing copy.

Probably you were told something like, “Mention the name client’s name at least five times and the phone number at least four times.”
    
Wrong.

If you’re advertising a restaurant, nobody cares what the phone number is.

Nobody calls a restaurant until — maybe — the day they want to go there.

And then they might go online, find the phone number, and call to ask, “Do you take reservations? What time do you open? Where do I park?”

Or, more likely, they Google the restaurant and get all that information from its website.