Central Savannah River Area small business owners may perceive the continuation of advertising as a luxury right now. This is especially so when compared to the necessity for covering the costs of utilities, inventory, payroll, and rent.

Before pulling the plug, though, business owners from Aiken to Evans must consider the consequences of 'going dark', a marketing term which means to stop advertising.

"According to our analysis, short-term decisions to go dark create significant risk for long-term revenue," says Ameneh Atai, Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy at Nielsen. "This affects both incremental revenue and base sales."

"Our database of long-term effects models suggests that cutting ad spending for the rest of 2020 could lead up-to 11% revenue decrease in 2021," says Ms. Atai. "It could take three to five years of solid and consistent brand building to recover from an extended dark period of media."

"We have a ton of evidence in our historical analysis," adds Nielsen's Tsvetan Tsvetkov, Senior Vice President of Agency and Advertiser Solutions. "Companies that step away from advertising efforts for a period of time, whether it's a couple of quarters or a full year or longer lose the momentum they have built over time the minute they stop. To recover takes a long, long time."

To avoid the economic risks of going dark, local small business owners need to make sure every dollar spent on advertising produces solid returns.  By most marketing metrics, advertising on Augusta radio could prove to be the best option.

"I can tell which weeks we are advertising on the radio," says Colby Orr, "because our showroom gets busy and phones start ringing."

Mr. Orr and his wife April opened Olympus Granite on Bobby Jones Expressway last June.

Before buying the store, both Mr. and Ms. Orr had considerable experience in granite countertop retailing and as entrepreneurs. They purchased the current business from a struggling owner, changed its name, and locations.

"The store had been on Washington Road in Evans. But we wanted to be in a location with more traffic. Now, we have 100,000 cars a day pass by," says Mr. Orr. "That's interstate type traffic."

For the first few months, most visitors were drawn into the showroom by the giant slabs of polish granite placed along the side of the road.

"They are like giant billboards," says Ms. Orr. "Curious drivers would pull in to see what we were all about.  That's how we got most of our first customers."

"During our first three months our sales were averaging $100,000," says Mr. Orr. "We were paying the bills, but we needed more to help us to grow."

Mr. Orr believed radio advertising could accelerate sales. But, his wife was skeptical".

Suppose you found a 100-year-old machine in your attic. You, then, quickly learned that every time you deposited a dime in the machine, one dollar popped out.  How many dimes would you drop in that machine?

Good news for Central Savannah River Area  small business owners: such a machine exists and you probably have one in your car, at work, at home, even on your phone. It's called local radio.

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