What would you do with £1000 to spend on advertising [Archive]

www.t6c.co.uk

21st December 2005, 00:45

Hi,

I am writing an article on internet vs conventional marketing. The "budget" section will deal with small business advertising.

Where do you who advertise offline spend your money, and specifically what would you do with £1000.

I am mainly focusing on business to business services.

Any ideas and comments welcome.

Rob Holmes

21st December 2005, 11:07

Off the top of my head I'd probably do a postcard campaign to local businesses.

Rob

Ozzy

21st December 2005, 13:00

I would sponsor a well researched and targetted networking event, invite a range of my ideal clients and have 15 minutes floor time.

cjd

21st December 2005, 13:24

Probably Google ads

Admiral Collections

21st December 2005, 13:36

Hi Rob

I was thinking of doing a postcard campaign. On the front I was going to have like a beach scene, really relased and the caption, let Admiral take the stress out of your debts, or something along those lines and then contact details on back. I was going to have them placed in Chamber of Commerces, business centres, banks if possible. Did the postcards work for you?

Nic :wink:

PS Will be in touch late today re: your PM

mr.steve

21st December 2005, 14:18

Nic

Do not send out a postcard with a beach scene
and a slogan.

Tell them why they should use your services.

Explicitly.

Rob Holmes

21st December 2005, 14:25

Postcards are a proven tool for direct marketing but as Mr Steve points out - it's got to be done right.

You've got to hit the right person right between the eyes with a simple, no-brainer - 1 second to understand - Unique Selling / Service Point with a direct call to action - and a reason to do it quickly (before they think of putting the postcard in the bin)

Rob

sparklyscotty

21st December 2005, 15:28

Nic

Do not send out a postcard with a beach scene
and a slogan.

Tell them why they should use your services.

Explicitly.

I agree, I run postcard campaigns a lot, and by far they are more effective when they are straight to the point and 'boring' instead of clever and creative.
-Angel-

sparklyscotty

21st December 2005, 15:32

Back to the question...
With that kind of money, I might send samples of my popular designs out to loads of fashion magazines, or pay for bigger magazine advertising so that they would use my jewellery in shoots more often!
Can't believe I would spend £1000 marketing money on bribes! Ah, the cut throat world of high fashion jewellery. Perhaps I should hire Nic to just hand deliver the jewellery to the magazine editors. ;)
-Angel-

billhilton

21st December 2005, 16:15

I know of one local variation on the postcard campaign run - believe it or not - by a plumbing and heating engineer. Instead of cards he got a thousand beermats printed. He went to a dozen or more local pubs - mainly freehouses, I expect - and offered the landlord/lady £20 to the pub's pet charity if the place would use his beermats. I think his trade went up by around 50%.

Aside from that, I think a small business could only profit from spending a grand on advertising if it was local operator, doing the traditional flyering/leafleting/carding/newspaper ads. It would also want to be sure that it was offering something people wanted or needed.

confused

21st December 2005, 16:19

I would mail a small article I'm working on (about 4 pages) to local schools and businesses, and also do a large leaflet drop. I hope to do this in the new year anyway but havnt got the funds at the moment - I'm in that catch22 situation, I need to get some advertising out to bring in buisness, but to pay for the advertising, I need business !

fastfences

21st December 2005, 17:09

I would mail a small article I'm working on (about 4 pages) to local schools and businesses

Now I'm confused! 4 pages? Small article?

I think you'd find most would bin anything more than 2 pages. Perhaps get some 'feedback' on your proposed project.
Cheers, Nigel

confused

21st December 2005, 17:25

Thanks for that, Nigel, maybe I'll cut it down some, it will basically be an outline of what I can offer them. Its not even 1/2 finished yet (takes me AGES to do anything like that) but I'll be sure to ask for feedback once its ready.

Thanks

tommy

21st December 2005, 17:27

i would probably get the car all done up with professional graphics to pomote my company.

As i am a very keen car enthusiast and visit all the car shows and go on display all the time this will be a great to advertise to my market base.

either that or get a plot at some of the car shows in the UK and promote the company with our own stand.

Hayles

21st December 2005, 18:00

Good idea about the car graphics. We've a couple of cars with our catering business name all over them and people definitely remember they've seen us about. It certainly helps build awareness and recognition, although doesn't bring in many direct calls.

Hayles

DarrenC

21st December 2005, 20:37

I would go with either Google Adwords or hire a PR company to help raise my businesses profile amongst UK holidaymakers.

Neither I can afford right now :lol:

Cornish Steve

22nd December 2005, 03:10

Where do you who advertise offline spend your money, and specifically what would you do with £1000.

The answer depends so much on the type of business. In my case, I would use the money to attend, speak at, and maybe exhibit at a major industry conference.

crus

23rd December 2005, 10:25

OK,

my thrupence,

For the site forum I am currently working on developing traffic to,

http://www.djforum.co.uk

I would spend the £1000 on a mix of stickers and tshirts to give away in local record shops and sponsoring a portion of the printing costs for a few club nights flyers.

Otherwise, I would purchase domain names with traffic, or unregistered that are related to the product, service or site I was promoting.

D

PS does one of us win a £1000 ;-)

jklondon

23rd December 2005, 13:10

PR - which is what I am planning on doing in the next 2 weeks.

10 Yetis

23rd December 2005, 15:25

blimey, you could have a mini campaign for that much.. i would suggest:

1. Press release and distribution - 200 quid tops less if just regional media
2. Bribe students to flyer from 8-9am out side my local busiest train stations to get busiest commuters and then again at 5-6pm. 20 quid each student and prob around 75 tops for flyers
3. See what the local rag has in the realm of last min press ads
4. Create a high profile stuynt type thing in my local area, using friends and my own digital camera.
5. try and get a cab liveried (as someone else has mentioned) - starts from 250 quid depending where you live.
6. Make sure I had enough people to answer the calls and a way to measure how successful each element has been.

Hope this helps

Strategist

3rd January 2006, 23:33

DavidHorn

4th January 2006, 08:18

I think for a thousand pounds I'd put together a small mailshot and pay a temp to make follow up calls for them with a view to setting up appointments. I reckon I could send out 500 mailshots and have someone call 200 of the top prospects out of that 500, and have some change left over. (Change would go into Google AdWords campaigns)

I've always found the direct approach works best ... spending money on something measurable is definitely the way for me!

markswall

16th January 2006, 20:10

I would spend £100 of it here: http://millionpoundwebestate.com to help promote my online business and help charity at the same time!

jklondon

16th January 2006, 20:43

I would spend £100 of it here: http://millionpoundwebestate.com to help promote my online business and help charity at the same time!

ohh"&£"&*£ not another one..

gordonthegofor

17th January 2006, 08:32

The sign writing on my van is I believe the 2nd most cost effective advertising I have, as Hayles said "It certainly helps build awareness and recognition,"I have probly 3 or 4 calls that say "I saw one of your vans" at £300 and it lasts over 3 years

referrals are the most cost effective