How much do you guy's spend on advertisng?

[Greig]

Just wondered really approx how much people spend on advertising and what do they think works best?

Thanks

[wheelie2]

Hi Greig,

As little as possible. I find that for myself networking is the best way forward, it is a long process but as people get to know you and trust you and your offering then word of mouth spreads pretty well. I try to attend exhibitions and seminars which are relevant to my industries and just introduce myself to people in an informal non-sales capacity, people will naturally want to know what you do.

I've taken a look at your website and I'm not sure who your customers would be - but I'd suggest having a chat with some exsisiting ones and see how they'd like to be contacted or what magazines they read etc...If you can get some PR - articles etc even in the local paper it'll work wonders.

I'm no marketing guru but I'm going through the whole marketing and advertising issues myself. So best of luck and hope everything works out!

All the best,

Sarah
Glo

[hunny]

Hi,

I have found Google adwords works for us, supplying capital equipment we find that we get quality enquiries from targeted groups. We spend on average around £25 - £35 per month, which I am very happy with.

I must say that I initially set our advertising campaign up with the help of some very nice people on this forum - still indebted - (thanks Rob @ top click) :D :D

Hope this helps

Anne

[William Wilson]

I advertise in specialist publications why? Well I get my website known in these specific market areas, other than that I rely on search engines.

For what it's worth

My William Wilson Fine Art comes up No 8, No 15 on Dogpile. http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/web/william%2Bwilson%2Bfine%2Bart/21/20/2/-/0/-/1/1/1/off/-/-/-/on1%253A1132507097745/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/0/417/top/-/Moderate/0/0
on Google.co I appear on Results 1 - 10 of about 26,800,000 for william wilson fine art. (0.27 seconds) through my osCommerce profile.

My name is very common and so is fine art so I'm quite pleased with my marketing.

[Eagle]

*
0 pence. ;)

[JustOneUK]

I pay nothing. People pay me.

sorry couldn't resist :?

[tj30000]

Hi Greig ,

In answer to your question , it really depends what market you are after and also how quickly you need the customers.

If you have a definitive plan for marketing ( which you may not have ) then be prepared to alter it , my advice is plan - execute - review and keep doing this until you get a formula that works.

Of course there are free routes to market which I would encourage you to use , but also bear in mind the image you are going to portray to potenial cleints.


I am new on here , I hope this has helped you .


Thanks

Tom.

[Hayles]

Several hundred pounds a month with Yellow Pages and Yell.com! They work well for us (catering & function venue) but I've heard they aren't as productive for other types of businesses.

We've tried lots of other things but the above works, with the occasional full page advert in our local paper when they have a special offers on the rate.

We spent a small amount on graphics on our cars too. This works well as people remember us when they see the adverts from seeing the cars about (oh dear, last sentence wasn't very good grammar but I'm tired and hungry....!!).

Hayles

[Ian J]

Nothing as my website is either ranked number one or two by Google, Yahoo & MSN so I don't need to advertise

[ajm1966]

But surely you have spent money to get your site to the top of the search engines, that in my book is still an advertising cost even if it is an indirect one.

[Pebble Communications]

Do you mean specifically on advertising or marketing in general?

The only advertising I do is payperclick and I spend up to £70 a month on that.

Other marketing I do is to network locally (through Breakfast for Business formal networking group, my local enterprise agency business club, a group called Women in Business and I've just started on the local chamber of commerce. I can't say it has been hugely successful for me, but I've had a few jobs so far, and I've found it a very slow burn approach. One job was from someone I'd met over a year before). I also network on-line.

I'm off to do my first local business exhibition next week.

Every six months or so I do a direct mail campaign (postcards) out to local companies I hope to partner with on projects and usually get a couple of takers each time.

...and of course I do some PR for myself!

Fiona Bailey
Pebble Communications

[Greig]

Do you mean specifically on advertising or marketing in general?

The only advertising I do is payperclick and I spend up to £70 a month on that.

Other marketing I do is to network locally (through Breakfast for Business formal networking group, my local enterprise agency business club, a group called Women in Business and I've just started on the local chamber of commerce. I can't say it has been hugely successful for me, but I've had a few jobs so far, and I've found it a very slow burn approach. One job was from someone I'd met over a year before). I also network on-line.

I'm off to do my first local business exhibition next week.

Every six months or so I do a direct mail campaign (postcards) out to local companies I hope to partner with on projects and usually get a couple of takers each time.

...and of course I do some PR for myself!

Fiona Bailey
Pebble Communications

How do you network online?
:oops: :oops: :oops:

[dcraigdc]

Greig, what do you think this forum is about ;)

[daveashton]

I noticed my last post on here was deleted again. I will copy it and email everyone if this happens again.

Spend as much as you can and a little bit more Greg. No leads= no sales = no business.

Test each method first though.

As for the companies who claim to spend nothing but happen to have high search rankings.

I would love to know how much time if you created the website ( or how much it cost) and how much time was spend optimising the site for those keywords. Remember Greg your time is a cost as well as spending money.


Greg Google changes how they rank sites every few months so if you do optimise you need to carry on doing it i.e. pay a monthly fee

PS Little companies spend little money and stay that way. Big or growing companies spend more and hence grow or stay big.

[Rob Holmes]

Spend as much as you can and a little bit more Greg. No leads= no sales = no business.

Test each method first though.

As for the companies who claim to spend nothing but happen to have high search rankings.

I would love to know how much time if you created the website ( or how much it cost) and how much time was spend optimising the site for those keywords. Remember Greg your time is a cost as well as spending money.


Greg Google changes how they rank sites every few months so if you do optimise you need to carry on doing it i.e. pay a monthly fee

PS Little companies spend little money and stay that way. Big or growing companies spend more and hence grow or stay big.

Greig - DON'T spend more than you can if it's a risk to your business finances - wait until you have a proven advertising avenue.

It's a question of getting THE RIGHT advertising.

So I would recommend small tests with small strategic investments.

Make sure what you invest in is trackable. If things are tight and you can't afford to just throw money in all directions make sure you can at least test the results - that way you know where to re-invest your money.

It's also worth investing in how your adverts are presented - tests have shown a far higher response in general to direct advertising messages rather than branding.

Rob

[ewan]

I have spent absolutely zilch so far on advertising my eccomerce business, and intend to keep it that way for a while to come

[Ian J]

As for the companies who claim to spend nothing but happen to have high search rankings.

I would love to know how much time if you created the website ( or how much it cost) and how much time was spend optimising the site for those keywords. Remember Greg your time is a cost as well as spending money.

Greg Google changes how they rank sites every few months so if you do optimise you need to carry on doing it i.e. pay a monthly fee

Mine is an ordinary website bought at ordinary cost that has been in the top two or three on every major search engine for the last two years. I spend a couple of hours a week refreshing it and glancing through SEO forums and obviously enough other people are intrigued by what I do as the whole site is regularly downloaded by competitors.

There are two major factors that help my site ranking - Google places some store on the length of time that a domain has been active and my site has been around for six years. I'm afraid that the second reason isn't for public discosure as I must retain some professional secrets :lol:

[daveashton]

Ok Ian

How much based on a 220 day working year is 2 hours a week?

Sorry but all this time adds up and if you take the governments figures of 1:1.5 for real cost of employment and you took out 40K salary that would equate to a real cost of £272 per day

so 7.5 hours and you must do this for say 48 weeks a year so this costs = £3490.00 per year or nearly £300 per month

[clairemackaness]

I pay for the odd banner or ad on directory sites, but the only thing I've paid for recently is some advertorial in a specialist magazine.

Most of my current work comes from UKBF members as well as people who have found me on Google.

Recently I went and walked round all of my local towns handing out business cards and talking to owners of bars etc and I have had two bits of work from that.

I am going to investigate Google ad words though.

[Ian J]

Ok Ian

How much based on a 220 day working year is 2 hours a week?

Sorry but all this time adds up and if you take the governments figures of 1:1.5 for real cost of employment and you took out 40K salary that would equate to a real cost of £272 per day

so 7.5 hours and you must do this for say 48 weeks a year so this costs = £3490.00 per year or nearly £300 per month

Your figures assume that everyone works productively for a 40 hour week which clearly isn't the case judging by the high volume of posts made here during the working day.

[clairemackaness]

Your figures assume that everyone works productively for a 40 hour week which clearly isn't the case judging by the high volume of posts made here during the working day.

If I hadn't posted on here every day I would have lost the majority of my business! I'd say it's very productive.

I guess it depends what you do though

[Jayne]

Having a bakery means I have done a shift before most of you lot have got out of bed, so I'm lucky that I can rattle on all day on here if I want to.

I haven't paid for any advertising yet as i'm only really playing at internet business as a hobby so far until the bakery sale comes through. I will be putting more of a effort in next month though, to get them off the ground :D

Jayne :D

[DuaneJackson]

Your figures assume that everyone works productively for a 40 hour week which clearly isn't the case judging by the high volume of posts made here during the working day.

... I'd say it's very productive.
...

I'd have to agree with that, although not all of my postings on here are constuctive for me, I think most of them are - I have quite a few people here that have bought and paid for KashFlow subscripitions and also gets lots of valuable advice that would otherwise cost a good few quid.

[WakingDragon]

Your figures assume that everyone works productively for a 40 hour week which clearly isn't the case judging by the high volume of posts made here during the working day.

What!!?? You mean this isn't work? I thought I was... er.. online networking.. or summink ;)

[Mwebb]

My problem is my marketing , it needs to be 2 fold.

I need people to use my new site for selling their cars, but also for looking for a new car to buy.

With this in mind, my first 3 months marketing expediture plan, is probably going to scare alot of you, looking at some of the posts. ( other s will laugh and say you spend that in a day)

It will be, including PR costs, radio advertising, and few other neat things, about £5000 for the first 3 months. I would prefer to have 4 times that available, but i haven't, so it is imperitive that i get a return on this, which is why for the last week, i have spent toooooo much time trying to make decisions on where to invest the money.
Trying to work out where people will see the adverts, when they will see them, and which ads cause the reaction i require.....go to the website and advertise their car!! ( or search for a car)

I have also come up against problems: Mainly being i can not advertise in most papers as i have a competitor product, which basically means they will not let me advertise my service within them.

Some one before on this forum, suggested i advertise in autotrader.....but why would they let me pay to take customers away from them??

So i will continue to test, and research, and monitor everything i spent, and it's return to the penny!!

Just an incite.

[ramble/]

Michael

[lightload]

You need to look at your product, think what results you want. You should always set yourself a budget and do not go over that budget. You will then need to keep an eye out on that campaign and see how it worked for you. You will then know if to go down that road again