[mpajek]

hi guys!

Any comments on local paper advertising?

I was thinking of placying an add  in 7 local papers (some kind of combo offer),  which are delivere to 250 thousand homes in north London every week.
The price for 8 weeks for a 3cmx7cm would be 315+vat.

Is it a good deal?
Is local paper advertising any good or is it a waste of money?

cheers

Martin

[LRAZEC]

I don't know about your area and what you call local papers...
I've advertised in our local paper (here being just one and the result was poor (barely paid for its self)
Didn't try ever since.
Seems that the internet, yell and leafleting is the way to do it.

Luc

[mpajek]

Thanx for the reply, 

I'm based in North London, and the 7 papers are distributed in this part of the city.

I was thinking it might make sens because it should reach 250 thousand homes 8 times. So the reach is pretty big.
But if the response is small, I might be better of with leaflets.

The question is it better to buy such an add or is it better to spend this amount on one priority listing in yell or on leaflets ( it won,t be that many of them if you add up printing cost, distribution costs or your time).

I'll propably try all kinds of advertising, just to check how it works in my area.

Any comments on what kind of advertising is most effective for you??

cheers

Martin

www.angelclean.co.uk

[BSF]

Hi Martin,

Just had a quick look at your website, their's alot of spelling mistakes on it.

[Ian Gourlay]

Im not sure what you regard paying for itself.

Enough new clients to pay for advert.

In Domestic and Commercial Cleaning you have a Lifetime value of a client.


Therefore the consideration could be  how many weeks profit am I prepared to spend recruiting new customers.

[mpajek]

BSF

My webpage is not finished yet, so there is a lot of mistakes on it, especially spelling and frazing   

the pricing is also not correct,
 
I'm not operating yet so I have time to fix it

I still have a lot of question marks in my business plan, so as soon as I clear that up I'll have the proper info in the web.


Ian

what I ment is, what in your opinion is most cost effective,

New customer should provide income in long term, but how much you have to spend to get him. 

Some ways might be more effective than others...

Example:

You have Ł350 you can spend it on

-local paper add I meantioned above
-priority listing in Yell.com
-leaflets

Which method would be most succesful?

Thanks guys for your opinions, I appreciate it

cheers

martin

www.angelclean.co.uk

[dirtbusters]

we have done a lot of local paper advertising over the years and unless you are going to keep your advert running for at least 4 weeks, you probably won't get your money back.
also you can usually get upto 50% discount if you haggle so never take the first price your offered.
it is better to take a smaller add and keep it running for longer than a big add for a short time. what happens is that people notice the advert and don't act upon it immmediately so if you pull the add to soon you will loose potential customers.
as a tip always specify early right hand page 3-5-7-9 because if your after this your fighting a loosing battle.

[stains-away]

we have done a lot of local paper advertising over the years and unless you are going to keep your advert running for at least 4 weeks, you probably won't get your money back.
also you can usually get upto 50% discount if you haggle so never take the first price your offered.
it is better to take a smaller add and keep it running for longer than a big add for a short time. what happens is that people notice the advert and don't act upon it immmediately so if you pull the add to soon you will loose potential customers.
as a tip always specify early right hand page 3-5-7-9 because if your after this your fighting a loosing battle.

Some good advice there, dot be tempted by your local rag phoning up offering last minute deals that are more than you would normally want to spend but seem good, if you choose to do it plan an ad over a period of time so that people get used to seeing it, and monitor the response closely,if it isnt working you always have the option of changing the ad layout until you are happy, Andy

[mpajek]

thanks everyone for your opinions

Martin