[terrymaloy]

Thinking of putting an ad in the local free paper. Circulation is approx 97,000 at a cost of £24 + Vat per week for a small box ad.
Thing is, I'm competing with the Real Cheap Brigade !!! All 3 carpet cleaners have pretty much the same ad :
CARPET £20
SUITE    £30 in big Bold Letters

It's been a long, long time since I charged those prices. Dont get me wrong, I'm not expensive, but I do charge more than the above. So basically, am I wasting my time putting the ad in, when I tell the customer  I charge £30- £40 for a living room cpt and £40-£50 for a suite ?

Gonna test the water this week and see what happens.

Cheers

[declanb]

I wouldnt focus on price here, you're targeting a different market than these guys serve. Focus on quality of service and results achieved i.e. top of the range equipment, no sticky residue, maybe a short discription of the process and what the customer can expect from your service. Dont try to fight them on price, beat them on quality.

Regards,

Dec

[stains-away]

There are the regulars who advertise in our area in the local papers, never beaten on price etc, I wont advertise in there because I don't want people phoning me up price shopping (I always survey and then price in the home), although I haven't been in the business long I found out very early on that pricing over the phone is hit and miss, and the survey allows me to charge higher prices (with, so far a very good conversion rate),the one thing I would say without wanting to open the pricing can of worms again is that even on start up my prices were, looking at what you have written more than double what you are currently charging, most of my work comes through leaflet drops into targeted areas, although the recommendations are starting to build up quite nicely now.
As I have said (just a few times!) before, why chase the people who according to figures regularly have their carpets cleaned (20%) when if you could market successfully to 1% of the remainder you would have an unbelievable amount of carpet and suites to work your way through!!!, to target these potential customers requires thinking outside of the box instead of putting yourself in a price competitive market, Andy

[Neil Grainger]

Hi

Free paper works for me, I pay £76 a week for and advert with an editorial. Tried the box advert without the editorial but did not really work, so they suggested that I pay the extra with the editorial and it works really well.

You have to stick with it for a while to make it work, people seem to like the fact that you are regular advertiser. It seems to build up a trust in the company.

Its my most expensive form of advertising but it also brings in the biggest reward.

Circulation is 154,000 a week,

[Mike Halliday]

how do you work out your prices?

I charge £30- £40 for a living room cpt and £40-£50 for a suite


a L/R takes 45 mins a suite 2-3 hours but you charge almost the same

when prices are this low the customers are usually thick, benefit wallers so can be easily made to pay a higher  price with a bit of clever sales talk

remember if you are quoting £45 and the other guy is quoting £35 the all you are trying to sell is £10 not £45, just try and work out what you can say to justify that extra £10

Mike

[craigp]

neil,

sorry if its a bit daft question, but whats 'editorial' ?


mike,

have you any tips on what to say to justifi that extra £10 ?

i've often thought about this but find it hard, 'we are trained'  'we use best equiptment'

selling not my strong point.

anyone got better suggestions what to say?

[clifford123]

the paper do a general write up along side your ad....our paper does this as a one off, especially if it's a new business start up. maybe you could do a job for free (always a good local interest story)...write or phone the editor and give some of your ideas...if you go about it the right way you may not have to pay for an advert.....hope this is of some help..
cheers dave

[Neil Grainger]

Hi Craig

Editorial is a write up about your Business and why they should buy from you. My local does this as part of the deal but they have the right to change it so it fits in the paper.

This sells the business more than the advert.

Cheers

Neil

[craigp]

i see, sounds good.

[HolmansUKLTD]

Hi Terry i pay over £3200 to go in my local paper,it is expensive but it goes in 250k copies a week the return is allways between £9000 &12000 i have been advertising there for 3years now, in the beginning it was slow but once people see the same name there it picks up, i dont care what people say about the type of clientel you get from them in my area its the best form of advertising, ( allthough my YP is kicking arse this year)

NIck

[Mike Halliday]

Craig its easy to justify an extra £10.

say when someone charges £35 the only allow an hour to clean the suite, then they move onto the next one (because they make there money with quantity),  you allow 1.5 hrs so you have time to give their suite a professional, thorough clean, but because of this extra 1/2 an hour you have to charge a little bit more. But its this extra 1/2 an hour that makes all the difference.

Say "on average when we clean a suite it stays cleaner up to a year longer than the £35 suite cleaners, is it it worth an extra £10 for a years extra clean?"

Mike

[craigp]

cheers mike