"We advertise on Boston radio because it brings in new customers," says Elizabeth Russell-Skehan, VP of Marketing at Russell's Garden Center. "We like radio advertising because the commercials provide us with enough time to explain all of the products and services we offer."

Russell's, located just off of Route 20 in Wayland, MA., is set on a 55-acre farm, seven of which are open for retail 360 days per year. Half of what the garden center sells are plants including, annuals, perennials, and shrubs. 

The other half of their sales come from hardgoods including, garden supplies, tools, seeds, specialty gifts, and toys.

At Christmas time, Russell's sells 3000 Christmas trees. The company is also a full-service florist providing flowers for weddings, proms, bar mitzvahs, and other celebrations.

"New customers tell us all the time that they learned about what we do from our radio advertising."

For New England small business owners who depend on Valentine's Day to spike first-quarter sales, this year could prove to be a battle as the decline in celebrants is expected to continue.

Based on estimates from the National Retail Federation, 2.4 million Boston area consumers will be participating in the holiday this year. This is 20% fewer than ten years ago.

There is good news, however, for local business owners. Although there are will be fewer customers, local Valentine's Day spending is expected to grow to $388-million. This is 28% higher than a decade ago.

So, how does a New England retailer or restaurant win the battle for the hearts and wallets of romantic consumers?  Advertising is a necessary weapon to win this war.

No weapon is as potent as advertising on Boston radio.

By April 15th next year, 1.9 million residents in the Boston area will file a tax return.  More than 53% of these returns will be completed by the taxpayer themselves, either by hand or with the help of an online provider like Turbotax.

Every season, New England small business owners who specialize in tax preparation services lose customers to the do-it-yourself options.  This year, 916,000 local consumers will spend $176,000,000 with tax professionals. But, based on the average cost of services, more than $202,000,000 will stay in the wallets of the DIY crowd.

To clawback this enormous amount of money from the DIY market, local tax preparers will need to advertise the valuable benefits of using a professional.

The best advertising option for tax professionals is on Boston radio stations. Here's why:

"Advertising on Boston radio has helped to build our company's name and reputation," says Paul Kunze. "Without radio advertising, no one would know who we are."

Mr. Kunze is the Vice President/Director of Sales and Marketing for IntraSystems, a Braintree, MA. The company provides computing-infrastructure and cybersecurity solutions to mid-market and enterprise-sized companies.

The company was founded by Mr. Kunze in 1996 along with his childhood friend, Jim Hanrahan, who serves as President of IntraSystems.

"The majority of our customers are in the healthcare and financial industries," says Mr. Kunze. State and local governments are also a big part of our business."

"We work with our clients on assessment, design, product deployment, support, maintenance, and education. Few other companies can provide this depth of service."

"Our first customers came from cold-calls I was making from Jim's living room. It paid off, though, the first year we brought in $600,000 in sales."

In an attempt to accelerate growth, IntraSystems began advertising on Boston radio in 2002.

Many times the difference between winning an election and losing is a handful of ballots. This is true in races for almost every elected office, referendum, and issue on the national, statewide, and local level.

To win a modern election requires advertising. Successful advertising requires reach. In the Boston area, the most potent way to reach voters is on local radio.

The Boston area includes the counties of Essex MA; Middlesex, MA; Norfolk, MA; Plymouth, MA; Suffolk, MA; plus portions of Worcester, MA; and Hillsborough, NH.

Last week, for instance, 90.6% of all registered voters in these counties tuned-in to a Boston radio station.  This is significantly more than were reached by local TV, local newspaper, or the major social media sites like Facebook and Instagram.

Almost 989,000 adult consumers in the great Boston area belong to a fitness club. These memberships bring in close to $1.8 billion in sales to local gym owners.

January is critical for the small business owners that operate gyms in New England. According to the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association, this one month alone, accounts for 10.8% of annual membership sales. New Year's resolutions are the reason for this early year spike.

To capture a larger share of the $196-million local consumers  will spend on gym memberships in January, requires fitness center owners to advertise. The best way to do this is on Boston radio. Here's why.

The first radio stations in New England went on-the-air in 1921.  Eighty-four years later, Facebook inaugurated the social media era.  Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and hundreds of other sites quickly followed.

As social media matured from a novelty to part of consumers' daily rituals, some Boston  area small business owners began to experiment with advertising.

By every key advertising metric, though, Boston radio remains the best choice for a small business to market their goods and services. Here's why.

It's time to set some misguided New England small business owners straight: When we say everybody listens to Boston radio stations, we mean everybody.  Generations X, Y, and Z. Also, Boomers, and, yes, the millennial generation.

You know...millennials. Those are the "kids" who came of age at the turn of the millennium (which is, debatably, either 2000 or 2001).  This means 18-34 year olds. 

In the greater Boston area, 1.2 million millennials make-up 30% of the adult population and will deliver $30.2 billion to local cash registers.

But here's the thing about millennials that many New England small business owners get wrong: millennials listen to the radio.  Almost all of them. 89.4% of them, to be exact.