Offline Advertising Results

[aslack]

Anybody advertised offline in mag's or local papers etc and would like to share there results....

Is you current advertising working or just costing you a massive fortune??

I'm sure alot of people would be intreasted to know

Thanks

Andy
www.stock-control.com

p.s currently I do not advertise offline but would like to

[kyber]

We tried local advertising for a while but it was not worthwhile for LAM Design. It sounds terrible but the local catchment does not fit the customer profile that well. Most of the customers travel from well outside of the local area. Yellow Pages also did not work well for us - at least the first, when we dropped it, but we have had more business from it the second year with people still using their old copies!

Google has been the most succesfull advertising channel for us (especially through adwords originally) but now we are getting a lot of recommendation business.

Other small businesses we have spoken to through local networks have found a lot of success with some of the more glossy local advertising/article magazines but not been happy with the local newpapers or free sheets. For the smaller businesses (one or two man sparkies, chippies, etc.) some of the village and church newletters have been very effective.

Stuart

[nanny]

Over the years I have tried many methods of off line advertising, from local newspaper classified ads (can't afford display ads!), leaflet drops, semi-display ads in local charity group newsletters (eg NCT, Tamba), newagents windows, all which have not resulted in much new business.

I get most new business from the web. I provide a childcare service to parents living in Surrey, Berkshire and North Hampshire and I am finding that parents who want the services of a nanny, maternity nurse or babysitter often turn to the internet, rather than to offline media. 10 years ago, I found that leaflets were great at generating new business, but these days I think they are regarded as junk mail so are a waste of time.

I have recently booked some local advertising in printed directories (Familes Magazine, Family Grapevine) and in the Website section of a local paper (The Villager). This might attract some new business but I don't expect response rates to be high.

Would be interested to hear what methods of advertising people find work well, especially if you are selling products or services to parents (as that's my target market).

Nick

[Colin]

Advertising off-line has been dismal for me. I have tried local newspapers, yellow pages, various local newsletters and magazines, direct mail and even getting on my knees and begging. Net return for a lot of money spent has been negligible. Thank god for the internet!

Nick - I have pretty much the same taget market as you - would you be interested in any joint promotions to your existing and potential clients?

[Sibs]

I'm also very interested in this topic, as a relatively new web design business we don't have a large advertising budget so i'm trying to decide what might be the best route.

I've just taken out a large ad with the FSB but it won't be out for a while. i'll let you all know how successful that would be.

I've tried Adwords but that wasn't very good, I think people don't tend to choose their web designers that way. How did everyone choose theirs? is it more word of mouth?

Kind regards
Sarah

[gary]

I think you'll find that the type of advertising that works varies between different types of businesses. Print ads aren't usually that effective for services like web design, but may work very well for something else.

For example, for Managed Web (http://www.managedweb.com) most work comes via word of mouth, whereas for something like Tie Warehouse (http://www.tiewarehouse.com) most sales come from search engines. The one's a service, the other's a product.

Best thing to do is try a range of different things and see what works. Try not to spend too much on one ad though or your whole budget could be wasted in one go!

Gary

[stevencrane]

Too many people fall into the trap of starting a business based on a passion or specialist skill before thinking about whether they have all the necessary knowledge to run a business - this is normally refered to as blind faith.

Whilst there is nothing wrong with the passion that makes you want to start a business, your energy can soon drain when there are no customers beating down your door.

So the first thing you really need to do is gain knowledge about what marketing really is rather than just trying to copy what everyone else does.

The first thing to realise is that you are in the Marketing business whether you like it or not, as it is your marketing activity that will bring you customers.

Without understanding what a marketing strategy is and how to select the rights ones for your business then you are just shooting in the dark.

If you complain about your ad not working it is not because that medium dosen't work it's because you don't understand how to write a responsive ad that is targeted to your audience and tells them exactly what to do and why they should do it.

I market a range of products aimed directly at small business and provide free consulancy on the back of them. If you would like a free marketing audit over the phone then send me an email, detailing what your business is, where you are right now and what you see your business looking like 1 year from now.

I will do this for FREE on the condition that if you really think I've given massive value in the 45mins it takes then you will give me the names of three business owners of similaer quality to yourself that I can introduce myself to.

[aslack]

Agreed, but at the same time we both know that running a business is hard work at times and with out a passion for the business it will not get through the hard times??

I personally believe if you have the passion and your product is a good one, the demand can be found if the time is put into the business.

[Ozzy]

Back on topic ;)
My 2c worth is that I have tried a small amount of "paper" advertising and found it to be total non-cost effective compared to online advertising. A couple of grand of online advertising brings upteen times more business than a couple of grand of offline advertising.

[aslack]

This is what I have found also... is there any successful offline advertising

anyone?

[stevencrane]

Ok, here it is, the low down on Off line advertising.

First I have to point out that advertising is only one form of marketing a business and there are far cheaper alternatives that you could try first…..

So what is good advertising??

Advertising is simply Salesmanship in print. In other words, if you are going to use advertising then you want to fill the space that you have bought with as much text as possible.

Most businesses tend to copy what everyone else has done before them, ie You put a big bold headline of the business name at the top, followed by a bullet pointed list of features you offer, and some beautifully designed graphic picture that’s associated with your service or product….. Doh!

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Just imagine for a minute that you are stood in front of a new customer. What are you likely to tell that new customer about your products/service? How would you describe the many benefits of doing business with you?

Now imagine if your best salesman (i.e. usually you as you know the product or service inside out) were to stand in front of a new customer and just be allowed to bleat out the company name, followed by a short list of features and then shut up, just think how unimpressed that customer would be. Do you think they would turn around and walk away? I do.

If the customer is stood in front of you then you would give every ounce of detail possible to that customer regarding the benefits they will receive and then the features that you use to deliver to that customers need.

So why stop short when it comes to advertising. Whether it’s you yellow pages ad, newspaper as, or magazine ad, you need to be using Advertorials (Editorial style ads).

For example: Just look on the back of the free magazines that come with the Weekend papers. Ok these are usually full pages, which are very expensive, but they work. There is always a large description telling why you should buy and a call to action e.g. a number to call quoting reference number 1234 for credit card orders, or a coupon to cut out and return with a cheque, or a brochure to send off for etc. This type of ad pulls in thousands of pounds in orders and that is why they keep repeating them.

Just because you don’t want a new set of pans with a free set of carving knives, or the latest light weight hover, it doesn’t mean that no one else does.

When you are writing the ad write it as thought you are speaking directly to one person like I am doing to YOU right now.

Because you are literally taking the best of the best from the conversations that you would normally have with a customer face to face and putting it in print.

You have to start with a bold headline to draw the customer into you ad. Just like a news paper uses headline to draw you into the story. Just think about when you read a paper. What do you look at first? Yes, the headlines. Most people will flick through a paper scanning the Headlines to see which articles to read. They are not scanning for adverts. So you have to make your ad look as much like the rest of the newspaper as possible.

A word of caution. When you show your friends or colleagues your new ad don’t be surprised if you get a negative reaction. If they are not in the market for what you are advertising then why would they find the advert appealing? You are looking for people who want what you have now, at this precise point.

I have example ads where by two carpet cleaning companies advertised in the same local newspaper over a two week period. One used the traditional Company Name, bullet point list, and the 2nd one used the advertorial type ad. Both used the same size ad space and so paid the same amount.

Over the two week period the first one received just 2 enquiries, the 2nd one obtained 11 Orders for real work. Now which one would you use for your business?? That’s an 1100% difference in response.

So you may be asking yourself why dose everyone tend to follow like sheep on stick to the normal template. It’s a good question and do you want to really know why, then I’ll tell you. It’s because glossy ads win awards for the designers and make easy money for the advertisers.

Most people advertising for the first time will simply take the advertiser up on the offer when they say “and we can give you a template to help create your ad…. and our in house graphic designer will assist you. You send in what you want in the ad, we’ll put together a draft and you can approve it or change it” have you heard something similar to that before??

You have to understand that the advertiser doesn’t care what you ad looks like or how many leads or orders it generates, just as long as they take your money and sell the space on the page. They may lure you be telling you about the many 1000’s of copies that get distributed, but ask yourself, “how many of those 1000’s actually fall into your prospect profile” ??

If you are going to use advertising as a medium then you need to know how to create the ad yourself. If you would like to know how they just drop me an email.

The other way to use ad in newspapers etc is to use small classified ads. It only takes a few lines and so is cheap. What you want to advertise is something for FREE. i.e. a FREE Report disclosing the 8 easy steps to decorating your house, or A Free report on how to easily mange your stock reducing wastage and freeing up your time. Etc. What ever your product or service offer to give something for free in the form of a report.

Those that call for the report are really sticking their hand up to say we want to know about that, please tell us. When they call you can collect all their details, always get permission to store them in your database. Now you have the hook to start really marketing to them as a qualified lead.

I hope this has helped a little. If you would like to know more about other ways to generate leads for your business then please feels free to send me an email. But do it now before the summer holidays kick in.

Warmly
Steve Crane.

[nickc]

Thanks all for a very interesting thread. My own experience of offline (newspaper adverts, direct marketing, leaflt drops etc) have had dismal results - I've even offered FREE services with no real effect. The best I got was from a few lines in the experts classifieds section of the local newspaper and it has the advantage of being cheap (about a tenner per ad).

Nick

[tommy1]

Having worked with the famous names that businesses use to advertise thier services with i.e. YELLOW PAGES...BT.. ETC.. to name a few ,most of what is the same old stuff year in and year out when you advertise with them does make it difficult for your business to stand out in the world of offline advertising.

You have to treat your business as an individual when it comes to advertising and it is not always a foregone conclusion that you must advertise where everyone else does.

There are always new and exciting ways to do it .

A typical example of a crowded marketplace in a very popular directory is where there is over 167 pages of solicitors... all fighting for the same client .... when the potential client looks at this it becomes overwhelming and very hard to pinpoint the service they require.

What i am trying to say is look at where you advertise and ask the question is it my target market or not.

I always ask my clients that question and it reveals alot of interesting answers such as ... "i dont know who or where my target market is anymore "

i hope this has helped some of you and if you want to discuss more about marketing or advertising offline then please feel free to call or email me ..

regards

Tom.McEWAN.

[Ozzy]

This is very interesting and given me some food for thought - Thanks Tom and Steve!

[M-Add]

There is an old adage in marketing

Only half of my marketing works, the problem is I don't know which half.

This is very true for advertising, you can't measure the results so many people think that it isn't working.

Advertising is like any other form of marketing, used in isolation it often isn't that effective.

What I have found in previous jobs is that when we stop advertising all other marketing was harder;

Telesales was harder because people didn't recognise the name of the company so wouldn't talk to us.

Direct mail didn't produce the same level of results because people binned the letter.

We didn't get as many people visiting our website.

I think advertising is very important to a companies success, especially as they grow, but it needs to be part of an integrated marketing campaign.

[wheelie]

Having read through this post i have learned that not all forms of advertising is suited to every business.There aren't many coments about offline advertising and how well it has worked, the problem therefore is finding advertising suited to your business. You need to know where your clients are and how to reach them. In our experiance clients who have an idea where there target market is and have utilised our servises have had a tremendous response. "Store openings" or "Sales" is the best example, our Advans circle the store, visit local competitors, park where prospective clients would congregate ie Town centres, high Streets, etc. Online advertising wouldn't have any where near as good a response.
If your target is local - advertise locally. If your target is sitting at a pc
then they wouldn't see our Advans until they go outdoors. Think carefully where your market is and how to "speak" to them.
www.wheelie-ads.co.uk
Good look in your quest and if you would like any help please contact us
Cheers,
Simon.

[Top Hat]

We used to do a bit of magazine advertising, FHM Viz Maxium etc. Heres what we found, of course it may be different for you.

* Always negotiate - you should get at least 1/3 of the rate card, get a deal then take a bit more.

* Doubling the size of an ad doubles the response rate.

* You need to do a series of ads, the first ad will get a response of about 1/2 the response to the 3rd ad.

* You will get lots of salespeople bothering you to advertise in their publication.

We don’t advertise offline anymore, it only paid occasionally, but it helped get us started.

Worst advert for us was a series of 3, £300 each, we had a total of 30 visitors on our special landing page, some of those were us and the magazine salesman, so that’s more than £30 per visitor and no sales. I always remember this when I get ad space phone calls these days.

[10 Yetis]

Everything Top Hat says makes perfect sense.

Remember that you should really check that you are advertising in the right place and not just advertising for the sake of it.

Research the circulation of a magazine/paper (don't always believe what the sales people say) and try and get your ad matched up with an article that is related to your product area.

Advertising is a costly form of getting new clients/sales (not as expensive as other areas such as telesales though!) and often a cheaper more efective starting point for winning new customers is tailored mailings (known as Direct Marketing - for those of you who love jargon).

There is a whole legal minefield to watch out for when using different marketing ideas and this is one of the benefits of using a service provider to help you out (as well as getting 'kick ass'1 creative work!)

1. .I use this word to try and appear "down with the kids".

[globalart4u]

I get all my business from offline advertising ie magazines, newspapers etc than online, which is why I do not advertise online anymore. But may consider it if it changes in the future.

[Andriy]

I know people in building trade, they tried all sort of advert and didn't get any jobs. Even if they get response it all ends on the estimate stage.

At the same time clients come after recomendation in 9 out of 10 sign the contract.

By the way anybody tried yell.com or Thomson local web ad.

[globalart4u]

We advertise in specialist magazines every few months and even receive calls from people from 4 year old back issues looking for something we were advertising at that time - a referal actually from others. Newspapers we do not advertise in at all - we received no sales or added hits etc.