A Little Advice

[Networkology]

Afternoon guys and gals,

I wonder if any of you might be able to give me a little help.

I run a personal home finding service in London (for those who have seen Location, Location, Location you will understand the kind of services we offer) for house hunters which are looking for property over £250,000.

I have a modest marketing budget and am trying to decide how best to utilise it. I have come up with various ways to meet our target audience and due to the fact i cannot implement all my ideas, Im wondering which is the best way to go. Im currently choosing between:

An advert in Location Location Location magazine
or
An advert in the property section of specific areas which Im targetting
or
A mailshot/telemarketing campaign to 300 estate agents in central London to set up a referral network whereby they send us clients which they cannot currently help for a comission of £1000 per sale.
or
Something else I have not yet thought of

Any advice??

Thanks

Trev

[annethedonn]

Try speak to JOhn Courtney who provides a marketing strategy to suit your business. He's on this forum.

Anne

[crus]

OK,

theres a lot of marketing options out there,
before you spen a penny get as much free marketing as you can.

eg

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=8867&highlight=

Then look for something to give you the best return, instant and residual.

Of the three suggestions you have included, I would opt for numnber 3 everytime as you should still have some budget left, and if done correctly will give you an ongoing supply of business instead of a single hit like a magazine advert.

my 2p

D

[Networkology]

Thanks for the replies. Something to think about

[Strategist]

Before making your final choice, make sure you use the break even formula to establish how much new business /no of new clients will be needed to pay for the cost of advertising. If you need help send me a PM.

[Networkology]

Yeah I have had a bit of a think about that, but I only need one sale to pay for the costs many times over so anything would be a bonus.

Cheers

Trev

[Rob Holmes]

<< Moved to marketing >>

[directmarketingadvice]

An advert in Location Location Location magazine
or
An advert in the property section of specific areas which Im targetting
or
A mailshot/telemarketing campaign to 300 estate agents in central London to set up a referral network whereby they send us clients which they cannot currently help for a comission of £1000 per sale.
or
Something else I have not yet thought of

I think you're looking at this the wrong way.

There are 3 parts to a marketing message:

The message
The market
The medium

That is:

What you're selling
Who you're selling it to
How you deliver your sales message to the people you are selling it to

Now, if you want to get the best return from your invesment of time and money, start by working out what you're selling.

That means, answer the following question: "why should someone do business with you, above any and all other options, including doing nothing at all"?

Once you've answered that question, you'll know what message you want to deliver.

Then ask yourself who should respond to that message. And, once you've worked that out, you're in a position to weigh up the different media available to deliver the message to those people.

So, this way, while the medium is still important, it's driven by the other two factors. And that should mean it's easier to make the right choice.

Hope this helps.

Steve