Marketing departments are built to grow brand awareness and awesome sales leads. Many of these professionals are unaware of the power that PR can bring to their marketing efforts. Instead, it is quite common for businesses to go down the costly road of advertising to get their company, product or services the desired exposure.

But there is a much more cost effective answer: being interviewed as a guest on talk radio. Appearing as a guest on talk radio shows will help you attract the attention of your consumers in a new and effective way. It really doesnt matter if you are a small local firm or a huge multi-national company - talk radio will get you fantastic local or national attention for your business. Do as many talk radio shows as possible. Talk radio is a goldmine. So lets have Friedman educate us as to why talking about your company on a radio show is such a PR goldmine:

1. Attractive Target Audience and Demographics. On the AM dial - most listeners are 35 to 64 in age, 55% male to 45% female, a large percent graduated high school and went onto college, says Friedman . Also there are so many different shows focusing on anything from finance to relationships so you can easily identify shows whose listeners are a match for your company.

2. It is Not a Budget Killer. Talk radio shows are no longer strictly done in studio. Friedman says, Almost all interviews on talk radio are held by phone so you wont have to jump on a plane in order to be interviewed in-studio. If you are being interviewed by phone you can be anywhere and doing anything as long as you are a stones throw from a home phone line.

3. A Highly Effective Tool to Boost Sales. Although PR is not advertising , if you get good coverage, it can increase the effectiveness of your sales and marketing . While you are being interview on a talk radio show, little do you know that you are actually having a conversation with hundreds, maybe thousands of consumers says Friedman.

By executing your interview on talk radio successfully you have been able to communicate your message to consumers in a way that they will remember it! People who are listening to your interview want to know exactly where they can get your product. Many hosts will drop your website and phone number throughout the interview in order to for you to not sound to pushy or sales oriented.

4. Third Party Endorsement. Talk radio hosts have loyal followings - thats how they maintain their ratings. And listeners tune in daily to hear what their favorite host is talking about. Friedman says, Hosts are many times viewed by their listeners as great friends and sometimes even mentors , when you appear as a guest on their show, so when you appear as a guest on the show, you get a fantastic endorsement almost instantly. Credible by association if you will.

5. Credibility. This is a crucial ingredient in every marketing campaign - and talk radio supplies it in abundance! Friedman says, One of my PR firms clients told us, ! almost every time I am a guest on a talk radio show - the host tells his listeners about my great expertise, my many accomplishments and how proud they are to have me as a guest on their show!

Of course, the more important I am as a guest, the more important the host appears to be. As far as promotion and credibility goes - it just doesnt get any better! What a great testimonial!

6. Enough Time to Tell Your Whole Story. With advertising you have a specific amount of space (in print) and time (on radio and TV). Talk radio interviews can be as long as 30 minutes or more, and all of this is time you can be using to tell the listening audience about how terrific your product or service is! says Friedman . Hopefully these reasons will compel you to give talk radio a try. It really is a fabulous way of getting consumers educated about your product and interested in finding more about you.