Advertising advise needed-

[BISHOP]

Hey guys,

I advertise in small community newspapers which come out monthly- In the past I would advertise an article for 2 or 3 months in a row and as a bonus they would also run an article about my business in 1 out of the 3 months publications. It worked out well- with the general $75.00 monthly ad I would receive about 1 call that never went any place but with the bonus article I would receive 10+ calls. Anyway to make a long story short this year I contacted my regular community newspaper and they told me since they ran an article about my business in the past year that I would be put on a long waiting list to be eligable to get a article about my biz in this years paper.

Should I bother to advertise monthly with a paper that won't throw in a bonus article? I only get 1 -2 calls off a monthly ad and have been advertising with them for 2 years. + I'm solo and need to keep my advertising budget low as pos.

Thanks for the advise in advance
Bishop:alien:

[BISHOP]

I want to add one more note:

In these community papers I've noticed at least 2 or more other landscaping co. advertising in the newspaper per month.

Do you think I'm wasting money with this type of adverting?





Bishop:alien:

[MATTHEW]

I think the only reason to have your name in a paper is for "name recognition". Not to actually get calls. The more people see your name, the more they might wonder what they are missing. But it is still not enough to get them to actually call you. But if they get a referral and remember seeing your name, they might just do it. Same might apply, to a lesser degree, with a flyer on the door.
$75 a month is pretty cheap. You might as well just keep it going.

[ealbertson]

I started new last year. What I found worked the best to get the intial contact were newspaper inserts. You know those things that fall out of the paper when you first open it up. The paper put together an 8 1/2 x 11" page with my services a picture etc. The first time I think we did three thousand for somewhere around 200 dollars. I got a lot of calls and initially enough to easily pay off the advertising costs. It continued for quite a while - people would save the flier and call later on. Another important point I learned was some of the work was not all that appealing (cleanups etc.) but the majority of those jobs resulted in other work. Always remember regardless of the job you agree to do do it well even if halfway through you realize you underbid it and are losing your shirt. QUALITY work gets word of mouth referals and repeat work from the same customer. I hope this helps.