Newspaper ad offers?

[Justin Beaudoin]

I'm thinking of doing an actual newspaper campaign, in a market where seniors are the number one demographic by population. They also are a great customer base. I want to do advertising but I need some type of call to action. I'm going to do a half page or a whole page ad. Biggest campaign in paper for me.

What works for you when you do these campaigns? Do you offer a contest, or some freebie?

What can I do to entice people to make that phone call?

 

[acscva]

Do people actually still get newspapers? LOL. Personally I am not sure newspapers is the best source of advertising anymore.....

 

[katz]

Don't expect a huge response on your first ad run.

Maybe a couple of new clients, but in my experience it takes multiple advertisements in the same media to get very much result. Personally, I've had very little success with special deals/coupons, although I suspect seniors may be a good target for coupons, as they are more apt to take time to read all of the adverts and look for special deals.

I ran ads in the freebie community newspapers in my area and didn't receive a single call. I've had better luck with the paid newspaper subscriptions.

Let us know how it works out for you.

 

[wickedmojoit]

I have done advertising in the free weekly community paper (the one they mail to your house). I did get people in the door and let people know I exist. I got lucky on one of the papers it was a short 6 week run on the edge of my service area. I picked up 1 home office that ended up being 1200 off the bat, she calls 2 or 3 times a year and has referred several other good producing clients. That one was a bit of a unicorn.
To touch on what Katz said, you don't see a huge return after a short run. I went for smaller ads that appeared every week.
If your looking for a direct sale, a freebie with purchase will be a better road. You will also be better served doing a longer run.
I have done free Anti-Virus with virus removal/tune up and people liked that one a lot, costs me little to nothing as we do the free version of Bitdeffender.
I have also done a $10 off tune up coupon that people liked (this worked best with my older clients). If memory serves me, you don't have a shop, maybe do a waived travel fee if you normally have one.

If you decide to do a free with purchase, add something in the ad saying - cut this coupon out and save it! I know it seams remedial but people don't think of it ,but if you remind them to save it for when they need you a light goes off.
I have also found that with advertising to residential, you have to be aware of how they describe the problem. Use the buzz words like "slow computer" annoying pop ups... stuff like that. I found ( especially with the older population) if you don't use language that clicks with them they will not figure out what you can help them with.

My last thought, instead of doing a contest/freebie, any interest in doing a class? I have not done one yet, but I know others that have and they seem to get a decent amount of jobs from it. Use your ad space to advertise a free class (might even get a break on cost because its a community event ). Then you can take a copy of that ad and distribute it in community centers, church rec rooms, common spaces at luxury senior condos

I'm getting ready to offer one on backing up data and pics to cloud storage. I have been suggesting to residential clients lately to start using their cloud storage/google drive/Dropbox. None of them know how or understand it. So I have been doing one on ones in my shop. After the 4th one in a week and a half I figure there must be interest in it. The one on ones have been easy for me as I don't do much of the tech stuff, mostly run the business. A busy tech could easily hold a 2 hour class at a community center.

Request to be in a popular section of the paper, for me it was the local sports section, lots of people only read that part.
Oh, make sure you negotiate the price... learned that one the hard way.

 

[Justin Beaudoin]

wickedmojoit - I don't have a shop, yet. I also don't have any travel fees. But I like the idea of the free antivirus push. I think I will try that. I've done a couple weeks before in the paper got a call out of it, but really want to do a good run this time around to see what I can pick up. I'd do classes, but you need the space for that one. Thanks for the tips re negotiating.

Katz- thank you for the advice too!


acscva - It's Canada, we still have some surviving papers, especially for the high seniors population in my area.

 

[katz]

I'd do classes, but you need the space for that one.

You can offer free classes at the local senior center, they won't charge for the use of the center since you are offering your services, at least they didn't in my case. I did a very basic tutorial class once and they ate it up, and you can hand out promotional materials during the class. I got a few jobs from it. The senior age group is a good one to deal with for the most part. The center even provided free refreshments.

I should follow up with another class...