What Print Advertising Is Working For You?

Glad I live in OZ as in the states you can't do this on the cheap - Letter box drops -print my own - use compatible ink cartridges, cost under $3 each - costs about $40 per 1000 to get delivered, do alternating suburbs each week, only advertise a couple of times every 6 months now.

Facebook - not paid FB advertising, just post to comments of groups, create business directories for your local area, even created a computer help group.

I would advertise more but with a 20 month old and missus expecting again I suffer from a massive loss of time as she's got a leaking heart valve which really exhausts her and so I spend a lot of time taking our very demanding 20 month old of her hands so scrape by on just a few jobs a week as have to put family first even before business. Can't seem to get a handle on this time management thing which sucks but transitioning over to MSP I hope things will be better.
 
Postcards 2x a year reminding people to test backups.

We also advertise in the local natural foods co-op grocery newsletter. It's like Whole Foods-high end expensive food. Best quality customers too.
 
Our best is the local parish magazine (done by local Churches)

We have adverts is 6 the average price is £50 some as low as £25 per year. This is the best return for us as it jsut takes one job to pay for itself

We have just started in a new magazine (Carlisle Guide) it goes to approx 33K homes. and works out at £175 per quarter - But it has just come out today so no figures on it yet.

I'm due to start in with the local newspaper in the new year some new advertising
 
calldrdave said:
Postcards 2x a year reminding people to test backups.

We also advertise in the local natural foods co-op grocery newsletter. It's like Whole Foods-high end expensive food. Best quality customers too.
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How do you sign up for that advertising? Contact local manager or HQ? How many jobs do you usually get from that? Cost?

I am in Olathe and trying to get started part time right now. I appreciate the help!
 
MarkSTS said:
How do you sign up for that advertising? Contact local manager or HQ? How many jobs do you usually get from that? Cost?

I am in Olathe and trying to get started part time right now. I appreciate the help!
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Olathe---not my primary market so I'm sure we could network.
This is at the Community Mercantile. It's $50 a month, but I pay for a year at a time so I get a free extra month. I get probably about 3 clients a month off of it. I'm also known as the computer guy that advertises there, so many times people just look for my number in the newsletter.

I don't think there is something similar in Olathe, but email me and I'll try to brainstorm some ideas with you since I know the area. My gut says to try to see what kind of publications Mid-American Nazarene has. Probably lots of students, staff and faculty need computer help there.

There are a few retirement places there too. I know because my Mom lives in one. I see ads for all sorts of services on the wall. I wouldn't service that building because then my Mom would guilt me into fixing all the computers for free!
 
I'm open to it. Technibble Meet Up in Kansas!

I will look for some local newspapers that might make sense. My goal is business clients more than residential but I will take what I can while I am starting out.
 
MarkSTS said:
I'm open to it. Technibble Meet Up in Kansas!

I will look for some local newspapers that might make sense. My goal is business clients more than residential but I will take what I can while I am starting out.
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I want to keep this relevant to the forum, but specifics also help. Olathe has a ton, a ton of medical offices. Many of them are managed by OMS (Olathe Medical Services) so you won't be able to get much inroads there. Look for the independent practices and make sure they aren't managed by OMS.

If it were me, I'd flat out call and ask: "I'm looking for other medical offices as clients. Are there common publications read in this area I could advertise in?" A few will ignore you, but you only need one helpful person. Send that helpful person a Starbucks gift card for their time.

Knowing a little about the area, I bet targetted inserts in the KC Star would work wonders. That's much cheaper than ads -- Kansas City Star is a huge paper. This lets you target by zip code. You might try EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail).
 
Thanks for the tips Dave! Great ideas! I will get a list going through google maps and then just give them each a ring. I think I am going to hold off on the KC Star. I have heard of too much success being a reason small businesses go under. They can't handle the traffic and with a full time job and this on the side, it's a concern of mine.

And now I feel like I hijacked the thread :-)
 
We have an ad in the local paper that runs everyday. Although I don't get as many new customers now as I used to 10 years aso, I get more than enough to offset the expense.

We also advertise in the Yellow Pages (not Yellow Book), but we've gradually cut back the number of phone books we're in to the point where this may be our last year.
 
Postal direct has worked well for us. Making sure we are mailing out to the owner/operator and offering cost effective options, based on on the local demographics...
 
In my opinion, direct mail does not turn good results unless they are existing customers. My typical metrics are 1-4% return from non-customers and 10-12% from existing. Depending on the rates where you are located, that can be quite an investment that may not pay for itself...much less your services.

Direct mail: 1-4%
Local publications: 18-23%
In person sales process: 73-86%

Those are my actuals from CRM, but it depends on your target market (residential, small business, or enterprise).

Hope that helps. (Design is worthless if the card goes straight to the trash).
 
Dustin Hennis said:
In my opinion, direct mail does not turn good results unless they are existing customers. My typical metrics are 1-4% return from non-customers and 10-12% from existing. Depending on the rates where you are located, that can be quite an investment that may not pay for itself...much less your services.

Direct mail: 1-4%
Local publications: 18-23%
In person sales process: 73-86%

Those are my actuals from CRM, but it depends on your target market (residential, small business, or enterprise).

Hope that helps. (Design is worthless if the card goes straight to the trash).
Click to expand...

P.S. Yes I know, contradiction to my previous post, but the numbers don't lie.
 
Dustin Hennis said:
In my opinion, direct mail does not turn good results unless they are existing customers. My typical metrics are 1-4% return from non-customers and 10-12% from existing. Depending on the rates where you are located, that can be quite an investment that may not pay for itself...much less your services.

Direct mail: 1-4%
Local publications: 18-23%
In person sales process: 73-86%

Those are my actuals from CRM, but it depends on your target market (residential, small business, or enterprise).

Hope that helps. (Design is worthless if the card goes straight to the trash).
Click to expand...

Totally agree it's common that people run mailers that don't perform - I'm specifically looking for details from someone that has had success (I know there are some of those too)
 
The real question is...what is your target market?

If you are doing residential, then door hangers work fairly well...they have to at least look b4 they toss it.
For SMBs, it depends on your area. Mail out some flyers that are specific to the business, then follow that with a walk in providing docs about how awesome your company is. From there do touch base calls, and get a meeting with "the decision maker".
Enterprise is way different, skill set based and mostly requires some in-roads to the right person.
 
In a course of 3 years, the number of clients I gained from different methods of paper advertising is less than 10.
 
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