What kinds of marketing are truly successful and to what degree they work are questions that business people have been asking themselves for hundreds of years. Merchant John Wanamaker is credited with saying, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half". This is a problem that persists today. Are those high priced Super Bowl advertisements for Doritos and Budweiser really worth it, or are they just good for entertainment? Can the Internet really bring in better sales, or are businesses just investing money in marketing plans that look good on paper but fail to play out in reality?

The answers to some of these questions are definitive, while others are not; that's part of why people have been playing the advertising game for so long. For business owners, however, there is one approach which seems to be more successful than any other, and that is marketing the right message to the right market at the right time.

Of course, those are all very relative conditions to place on the question of a marketing campaign. They depend on what kind of business you own, where you are located, and your range of clientele. For local business, public broadcasting may present the best chance to invest in marketing strategies that present the message to the right audience. The market is all local, and this type of advertising may represent the right type of investment; however, such small market approaches may not work for every type of business.

Up until recently, that capacity could be directly measured by the cost of the advertising method you were engaging in. Again, take a look at those Super Bowl commercials. On average, a thirty second slot would cost a business more money than any small local company could possible afford. Some businesses are willing to pay these prices because they feel they can reach the target market more effectively; they also have the added benefit of giving the advertiser a profile boost by association. Doritos and Budweiser are good examples. The companies know they can reach people in large numbers, at a time when they are likely to be open to receiving a message about fun food and party drinks.

The good news for today's small business is that you can reach a large amount of people without operating on a huge budget. Public radio gives you the opportunity to include all the pertinent information about your business at a fraction of the cost of a television ad. Radio advertising through a number of different strategies is a great overall advertising medium for any business, and it works for most budgets. We found some great tips for getting the most out of your radio budget in this article from AllBusiness.com.