It happens to everyone. You’re listening to the radio or watching television, and you hear a tune during an advertisement that gets stuck in your head for an entire day, or even a week. Music plays an integral role in all sorts of marketing, and if you’re not employing its power, your business is missing out. Here are some reasons you should make music one of your primary marketing tools.

The Emotional Element

Malini Mohana, a psychology expert, says, “Music can be thought of as a type of perceptual illusion, much the same way in which a collage is perceived. The brain imposes structure and order on a sequence of sounds that, in effect, creates an entirely new system of meaning.” That system of meaning has a profound effect on people’s emotions and can motivate them to take action.

The Memory Connection

It isn’t just the emotions of the moment that have a connection to music. Music can recall meaningful memories and create powerful new ones. One online language learning resource says, “Music is a powerful memory trigger, making it one of the best learning tools there is.” Use music to help your audience learn about your product.

While experts argue that smell is the sense with the strongest connection to memory, you can’t exactly send everyone in your audience fresh-baked pies and lovely perfume. Appealing to their ears can be almost as effective, and will help them remember your message.

Radio’s Broad Reach

One study found that more than three-fourths of people use radio as their primary way of discovering new music. Hence, advertising over the airwaves offers you a marketing advantage. Your radio advertisements don’t necessarily have to be catchy jingles or elaborate compositions. You can simply use appealing bgm music behind your dialogue message.

Having well-made audio advertisements at your disposal also opens to you the world of online streaming services like Pandora, which had more than 80 million active listeners in 2014.

You can use a royalty free music library to start creating attractive audio advertisements for the radio.

Music Encourages Loyalty

If your business has a loyalty program, incorporate music-oriented rewards into it. For example, offer free song downloads or host a sweepstakes for tickets to a hot concert.

You may also want to search for stock music that has elements similar to popular music that your audience enjoys. If they love mainstream pop music, for example, use their loyalty to that genre to your advantage by using upbeat, repetitive beats in your marketing.

Music Works

Most — in fact, virtually all — big name brands use music to their advantage. You can study their examples to learn how they evoke emotions and play on nostalgia. Brands like Coca-Cola, United Airlines, Xbox, Amazon, and Jeep have all put music in a prominent place in their TV advertisements. As you watch their commercials, note how the message would fall flat without the music.

Music, whether it’s exciting background music or it’s at the forefront of an advertisement, is essential to effective marketing campaigns. Explore library music, find tracks that fit your brand, and enjoy the benefits of having music in your marketing.