Metro Detroit small business owners are fighting the coronavirus battles on multiple fronts.  Their first objective is to keep their families and employees safe. Then, of course, there are the concerns of keeping their businesses healthy enough to survive current disruptions.

The business literature has an abundance of case studies showing how survival is often connected to a thoughtful communications and marketing strategy during challenging times.  

Business owners need to let Southeast Michigan consumers know if they are still open. If their hours have changed. Or if they are providing alternative shopping methods (e.g., delivery, curbside pick-up).

Most importantly, it is imperative consumers know that a business will still be there for them when the crisis is over.

For those owners who are depending on communication to preserve their business, the best option may be to advertise on Detroit radio.

If you were one of the 2,985,400 adult consumers who listened to  the radio in Southeast Michigan last week, then odds are you heard a commercial for the Law Office of D. Todd Williams. The firm specializes in criminal defense cases involving traffic violations, probation matters, expungements, and serious felonies.

Mr. Williams has been advertising on Detroit radio every single month for the past 23 years.

"Radio advertising has been critical to building my practice," he says. "I can tell the days when my commercials run because those are the days my phones ring."

Shortly after passing the bar exam in 1995, Mr. Williams opened his firm operating from the basement of his Rochester Hills townhouse.

Mr. Williams's first cases came from friends and their referrals.

The top concern of every Southeast Michigan small business owner is the health and safety of their families and employees.  Local information and breaking news regarding the Coronavirus is available by clicking here.

Of course, a secondary concern is tending to the health of their business amid an overabundance of social and financial disruptions. 

There is one prescription that helped many Metro Detroit businesses survive the Great Depression of 1929, the economic crash of 2009, and every recession in between.  The Rx for keeping a business healthy during chaotic times is to continue advertising.

The best example of how advertising can fend off tough times was shared by The New Yorker magazine financial columnist James Surowiecki.

Metro Detroit retailers spend a considerable amount of time and money marketing their small businesses on social media.  Is this effort paying off?

Each month, according to Nielsen, 2.2 million Southeast Michigan adults use Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. This equates to 65% of consumers.  This reach is rather anemic compared to Detroit radio and TV, which attracts considerably more users in a single week than these social media platforms do over 30 days.

Among local millennials, the monthly reach of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is eclipsed by the weekly reach of Detroit radio.

The number of consumers reached by an advertising campaign, according to Nielsen, is the media consideration that has the most significant effect on increasing sales. 

"Our franchisees love advertising on Detroit radio," says Katherine Villeneuve, Director of Marketing & Franchise Support for Auto-Lab. "They understand that radio reaches the masses, and can achieve the messaging frequency to be effective."

Auto-Lab started in 1989 as a single-independent store in Sturgis, Michigan. The company has expanded to include 21 franchises across the country. Nine of the stores are located in Metro Detroit, each operated by a local, small business owner.

Auto-Lab offers consumers the same diagnostic, maintenance, repairs, and parts as a car dealership's service department but, for what Ms. Villeneuve describes as a 'fair price'.

To drive traffic into one of Auto-Lab stores in Southeast Michigan, each franchisee contributes 3% of their gross sales to a cooperative marketing fund. Ms. Villeneuve then works with the owners to create persuasive, annual advertising campaigns.

"Each of the owners has input into how the money is spent," she says. "Afterall, because they are in the stores every day, they have the best sense who their customers are."

For the last four years, the Metro Detroit Auto-Lab owners have chosen advertising on Detroit radio as the primary way to reach new customers.

Suppose a Metro Detroit small business owner woke up one morning and found a 100-year-old machine in the basement of her store. She soon discovered that every time a dime was put into the machine, one dollar came out.  Imagine, now, how profitable that business would become.

Good news: such a contraption exists,  and every business owner probably has one in their car, in their store, in their home, even on their phone. It's called Detroit radio.

Over the past few years, Nielsen has conducted more than 20 studies to determine what type of return-on-investment (ROI) a business owner  can expect from radio advertising.  Although the results varied by industry, the average company generated $100 in sales for every $10 invested. Turning dimes into dollars.

There are 2.3 million consumers in Metro Detroit who own their own homes. 

According to Zillow, more than 60% of homeowners carry a mortgage. A record number of owners are considering refinancing  now, which means millions of dollars in fees for local lenders and brokers are up for grabs.

Why the sudden urgency for Southeast Michigan homeowners to refinance their mortgages?

According to The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (aka, Freddie Mac), "The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit a record 3.29% this week, the lowest level in its nearly 50-year history."

"Meanwhile, mortgage applications increased 10 percent last week from one year ago and show no signs of slowing down. Given these strong indicators in rates and sales, as well as recent increases in new construction, it’s clear the housing market continues to be a positive force for the broader economy."

If a consumer Googles 'refinance my mortgage in Detroit', more than 4.4 million results come back, So, to set themselves apart, lenders and brokers will need to advertise.  By any key metric, advertising on local  radio is the best way to reach area homeowners.

"Our advertising on Detroit radio generates 10-12 quality leads from prospective students every week," says Robert Cahill, Director of Communications at Northwestern Technological Institute in Southfield.

"On average," he says, "22% of these leads will close. This is a bigger return than our television advertising delivers."

Since 1979, the school has been training students for careers in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning industry. Currently, Northwestern Tech enrolls 650 students per year into its 45 week, program.

"For 35 years, our marketing strategy was to primarily use advertising on daytime television to target unemployed men," says Mr. Cahill. "This approach really helped build the school."

"By 2015, though, our enrollment had dropped by nearly 40%. That's when we knew we had to try a new approach."  The new strategy would include advertising on Detroit radio.

There were a lot of 'firsts' in Southeast Michigan on voting day of 1920.  It was the first time, ever, women could participate in the selection of the U.S. President. It was also the first time live election results were broadcast on the radio. Not to mention, it was also the day of the first radio broadcast, ever.

The voters' choice that night was between Warren G. Harding  and James M. Cox.  Both men had derived their political power as successful newspaper publishers.  It is quite ironic, then, that one of these men would reach the highest office in the land on the same night that the nascent radio broadcasting business began its takedown of the newspaper industry.

Nowhere is this takedown more apparent than locally, where Detroit radio has become, by far, the advertising medium with the largest reach among local consumers.

"Our phones started ringing even before our first commercial on Detroit radio ended," says Dr. Kairi Horsley, DPM.  He and his father, Dr. Barton Horsley are co-owners of Horsley Foot and Ankle, a podiatric medical practice in Southfield.

"That was, in 2015," says the younger Dr. Horsley. "Five years later, our commercials still bring us 12 or 13 new patients every week."

Before 2015, the Horsely's had been no stranger to the power of radio. 

When Dr. Kairi joined the practice after his medical residency at the Michigan Surgical Hospital, the two Horsley's teamed up to purchase time for their own talk show on AM radio. During their program, the doctors would discuss prevention and care for the pathologies and diseases concerning the feet.

"We were finding enough new patients from the show, so we weren't losing money," says Dr. Kairi. "But, I kept thinking there could be a better way."