New business idea

[Andycharger]

Hello, I am looking to get some opinions.

I am considering starting a business to consumer directory which is industry specific.

It will be in the Uk holiday caravan and camping industry. The directory will be posted out to people who own holiday homes, caravans and regularly go camping etc. The directory will be a list of parks, with what they have to offer, camping supply websites, camping sites, caravan supply websites etc..

I will aim to get 200 adverts in this directory with an average of £500 per advert,,

Whats everyones thoughts... if this idea works I would look to follow this business model in other industries and run a call centre selling the advertising space...

what I will say is the directories will be delivered free of charge to qualified leads,

 

[Food From Cyprus]

It will be in the Uk holiday caravan and camping industry. The directory will be posted out to people who own holiday homes, caravans and regularly go camping etc.

How are you going to find these people? If you think that you can get thousands of caravan/holiday homes to register with you and prove to prospective advertisers that you get several thousand hits on your website every month then your idea might be viable.

 

[Andycharger]

I have a friend who works in Lead Generation and is able to supply me with this data. I am not looking to set up a website, its going to be a directory sent out to peoples houses.

 

[ethical PR]

Good luck with getting £500 per ad in an untested print directory.

And why not go online...that's where the most people look for their information and can be updated easily.

 

[Andycharger]

£500 to reach 25,000 qualified prospects is a cracking price! I don't want to go online - I want to keep it simple. Simple thing is £500 to reach 25,000 prospects via a direct postal mail directory. .......... the plan would be to do this - and send it out twice a year and to then grow the business into a media sales company

 

[ethical PR]

It maybe to you, but it's whether your potential advertisers feel the same about spending £500 on an untested product.......I doubt it, particularly with existing online directories already providing a similar service.

And are you saying you have the details of 25,0000 owners who have agreed to receive your content?
Be careful that you don't fall foul of data protection by using data you don't have permission to access.

https://www.pitchup.com/motorhomes/

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/

http://www.5vandirect

http://www.uk-sites.com/ory.co.uk/

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Have you looked at W H Smiths there are loads of Camping site directories including the two massive ones

I think you are to late into this one

 

[The Byre]

Have you looked into the cost of origination, printing and distribution? My quick mental arithmetic tells me that a fairly modest page number over 25,000 would cost at least £150,000. An ad price of £500 implies a half page and that would take up 150 pages to cover costs. Also would you be able to show your mail-outs or a postal audit to prove circulation?

It can be done, but as Chris has pointed out, there are oodles of directories out there.

If you want to get into media and publishing, I would start in a field where the big boys are unlikely to want to play.

 

[The Byre]

P.S. The trick to free-sheet publishing is to access a small number of people who have a large amount of money to spend. That usually means targeting some industry that uses expensive items with high margins and low total numbers. That way you send out just a few thousand mags or directories, but target a buying power of many, many millions.

The problem there is, all the established niche markets are taken. From broadcast equipment, to film production, from site machinery to pick-n-place machines, from 3D graphics to PET bottle manufacture, there are directories and magazines.

So you have to be first in, on a new and emerging market!

 

[cam93]

Personally any business which doesn't going online nowadays especially with advertising has no future. How can you scale your business?

You have to pay people to distribute all those paper directories, who's to say people will even read them?

Spend £100 on hosting and domain for the year even less, you can scale worldwide.

Think you need to spend some time on the drawing board.