Congratulations!  Your radio advertising is a success!  Your media mix is sound and the rates are just right.  You even have a control commercial that’s true to your brand and delivering the goods.

Time to make what’s working work even better.

A single creative execution placed across radio’s vast spectrum of formats might work well, but in many cases there are opportunities to polish that gem even brighter.

For instance, you might take that great, straight read and record a half-dozen different variations to fit a half-dozen different radio formats.  Let an African-American woman lend her inflections to the copy for Urban Adult Contemporary stations.  Let the blue collar Everyman talk one-on-one to his buddies on SportsTalk radio.  Let the trusted authority figure deliver the news on Talk Radio stations.

Same copy – just delivered in a voice and style likely to deliver your message with greater impact on a variety of different stations and format.

See how well actual radio personalities might improve upon your return by lending their voice and implied endorsement to your brand and the quality of your offer.

Tinker gently with a few key words.  Or the urgency of your call to action.  Or the upfront attention-grabber.

In all of these examples, the actual script would remain 90-100% true to the original (the one that’s working).  But these – and other subtle variations on a theme – can squeeze every last drop of profit out of a radio schedule without dangerously fixing what ain’t broken.

Start by identifying five or 10 or 20 different ways your successful creative might be tweaked, ever so slightly.  Then identify the 3-5 ways most likely to get better results.  And then test them for 2-4 weeks.

A year from now, you might be broadcasting essentially the same message, but beautifully spun to maximize appeal to a dozen different audience segments.

After all, radio never sleeps.  So why should your efforts to optimize your return from this valuable marketing tool?

Mark Lipsky is the President and CEO of The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the email or RSS links above.Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com