Newspaper advertising

[alan888]

Anyone used this ? and is it effective?

IM starting to sell custom built PC's soon and i need marketing tips.

Any help would be great thanks!

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Well think about it. Your target market is people wanting to buy PC's. At one end of the market of advanced PC users it's very saturated and the general consensus is that we all have our favourate places to shop. At the other end theres people who have no idea about PC's but may be thinking about buying one since they can use E-mail, internet etc.

Based on this I'd say you go inbetween/higher (in this imaginery spectrum we have) for where to target your marketing. Looking further into that it could be young people, students, urban people, amateur gamers, tech-savvy individuals, business people and folk of any age who don't know much (or do) and just want a computer that works. They may put more trust in you as a local business to not rip them off. You can also think about targetting the high end of the market but they are very scarce compared to other computer user types, the market is also saturated with similar companies in that field (of absolute top-spec gaming rigs, for example). Then again if your local area has no competition in that field then it's worthwhile avenue to look into. As you can see it's impossible to give a definate suggestion until you research your area and potential client base.

From that it's pretty straightforward to notice that advertising in somewhere like the local old-persons free newspaper wouldn't work too well. You need to research your paper media options in your local area.

I've probably sidetracked a bit there but to answer your original question it can be effective and it also cannot, it entirely depends on what service you're advertising. However I'd have to say if your budget is tight then I'd look into other advertising sources first such as PR.

 

[Grounded Vertigo]

I have to agree with a lot that Scott has said. It is so important to remember your target market before making any marketing decisions - that may sound silly but it's so easy to get caught up in the moment and go down completely the wrong route.