It may come as a surprise to you to discover that customers don’t buy your products or services because they feel that you have a right to make a profit. In other words, their motive for doing business with you is not to help you buy latest Jaguar or put your children through college. You think this is a joke? Recent research shows that something like 60% of businesspeople place more importance on what they will get from a transaction than on what their customers will benefit.

In essence, their profitability is more crucial to them than is customer satisfaction. And it shows.

If you are in any doubt about this, cast your eyes over myriad of ads, brochures, websites and so on that major on successfulness of their organisation, as opposed to benefit their products or services might be to customer.

Certainly, they pay lip-service to customer satisfaction, but beneath this thin veneer of eye-shine is belief, probably implanted at birth, that their bottom line takes precedence over everything.

Oddly, advertising agencies are among worst offenders in this respect. Their promotional material illustrates what great work they have done, and states how many millions they billed in last financial year, but none (and I mean none) tell you how much product their efforts have helped shift. To put it another way, none bother to demonstrate what benefit their services have been to clients.

Much of that reputation comes from radio being tough to track. On one hand, radio does work. Businesses do notice an increase in sales when they add radio to mix. However, radio doesn't test well. In surveys and other tracking methods, radio tends to be one with dismal scores.

A good friend of mine, who's also a marketing consultant but before that she sold radio for many years, has a theory about that. She says radio works on a subconscious or unconscious level. People remember ad, but not that they heard it on radio. So, they tend to credit a different medium for ad, like yellow pages. Yellow pages gets a boost while radio drops a few points.

Regardless, radio should not be ignored because it does work. And many marketing consultants will probably tell you radio is an excellent medium to reach a local market.

However, I feel there are possibilities beyond merely reaching local customers.

Internet radio shows are starting to take off in a big way. That means advertising and sponsorship opportunities are also taking off. In addition, "offline" methods have been shown to be pretty effective at driving traffic online. If increasing Web traffic is your goal, using traditional media outlets to increase traffic should be a part of your mix.

If people already know you (which they might in your local market) they're more likely to be loyal. And they're more likely to send other customers to your site. Depending on costs of radio in your community, radio may be a very affordable way to get a good viral campaign going. (A viral campaign is what happens when other people pass around your business' e-mails to their friends and family, or send them to your Web site.)

Below are some other positive reasons to use radio:

* Affordable -- when you compare spot to spot, radio tends to be one of least expensive media out there. However, one spot ain't going to do it. To reach your target market, you need to purchase several spots. That's why radio can also turn into one of more expensive media. However, there are ways to keep your costs in line yet still reap benefits of radio -- for instance, buying less spots but running them all in one or two weeks, so your customers are more likely to hear your message.

* Psychological, if you voice commercials yourself -- hearing your voice makes people feel like they "know" you. (Hence popularity of audio on Web sites. In fact, marketing gurus claim just by adding audio to a site substantially increases how many people buy.)

People tend to buy from people and businesses they know and trust. Hearing your voice helps them feel as if they know you. These psychological aspects may be another reason to consider running a few radio ads in your local market even if you have an Internet business.

* Speed -- you can get your spot up and running in no time.