Adverts in the local press

[Tracysnails]

Hi

I have just someone visit me from my local paper regarding advertising. I have been quoted for a quarter page advert in colour and as some of you may know it's really expensive :shock: . I have agreed to go into the 'Women in Business' section as a one off as there will be a photo of myself and a write up about my business and who I am but I really don't know if a big ad is the way to go and if it will be money well spent.

I love to know from anyone that has tired this form of advertising if
1. It does work
and
2. What type of advert did you have.

Many thanks for any help any can give .

 

[nailtiqe]

hi, im meeting with the local paper next week to discuss advertising for the launch of my new biz......ive heard it can cost nearly £200 for a small black and white ad...it'd be interesting to here what forms of advertising uve all done......vicky

 

[nats]

Hi.

I have had several ads in local papers, one small B&W one and another bigger and colours and all.... 8) They were having a special page every month and I was contacted when it was the beauty biz page... They really did a lovely ad, it ran for 4 weeks...
I got.... NOT A SINGLE PHONE CALL from it!! :shock: not even enquiries!!
I then spoke to a few friends of mine, and they all said the same thing: they would look for a handy man, maybe a gardner... in a local paper... but certainly not for a beauty / nail place... :? And after I thought about it, well.. neither would I!!! :shock:

Just my 2 pences...

 

[liza smith]

Hi guys
Ive been trading for 16yrs & there isnt many types of advertising that I havnt tried, I must admit im a bit of push over 4 a good bit of pr!
In my 1st yr of trading my advertising budget hit £2000!
That incl. yellow pages & thompson local & numerous other schemes I was sold!
Even tho word of mouth is always the best, you cant beat a great ad. campaign.
Aparently advert. works better if its repeated, and builds with tantalising small ads. leading 2 a great big eye-catching BIG ad.
However, dont advertise b4 you r ready, & dont promise what u cant deliver
Some of the biggest, flashiest salons who have the grandest ad. campaigns cant keep regular clientele because the service doesnt match the decor.
Yet some smaller salons have more success because they have identified thier market
After your initial opening/ relaunch campaign, try to concentrate more on marketing ideas. there have been some superb ideas posted on this site.
Sorry 2 ramble on!
Hope some of this helps xx

 

[Nails At The Hat Hire Company]

should be local rat.... i took out an ad in my local paper (despite advice from my hubby who'd been there done that with his recording studios many years previously) they did a piece as well on me ....how many calls.....ONE!!!!!!! everybody reads the local paper...everyone....do they not read the ad...is it just me... i dont know why i didnt get any business from it....know one can tell me (hubby says told you sos..lol )
my buisness is still building have i regular pedicure clkient once a month...but its trickling in more did 6 appoints in one week which was most i'd done but thats from shop ads (nail art parties) >Pedicures and nail art are going well (guess its summer then Lol!!!)
fete's bring in nail art customers too but its a hard slog. even did a door drop...got noone from that...
thinking of doing a carpark drop...gota check with council though.... y'now putting under windscreens (kids can help their on holiday from friday)
anway enough babbling...its word of mouth ...get out and about in your uniform.. go to tescos/town and people you are aquainted with will stop you and say (are you a dental nurse lol) no sorry what do you do or do you do nails....etc., good luck..

 

[Saffirez]

I go in the womans page of my local paper every month. I now do the nails of the lady who runs the advertising and have got my ad down to £50+vat for a 3x3 colour ad plus 100 word editorial. I get quite a good response in general and the ad goes out in the 1st week of the month so I guess a lot of people have just got paid which probably helps. I tried quite a few local publications and didnt get 1 response from a few of them. I find an editorial gets a better response than just a box ad. Its been trial and error for me!!

 

[nailtiqe]

mmmmmmmmmm i like the idea of just getting out and about in your uniform, i just bought a diamonte brooch off ebay with i do nails on.....there is quite a few on there at the mo.......really nice, they wont need to ask me then what i do...lol vicx

 

[Nails At The Hat Hire Company]

yeah i brought a diamonte one about a month ago and wear it on my uniform all the time..and people stop me and talk about it then i give them a price list....

 

[LindaH73]

I looked into advertising in the local paper a few weeks ago but thought it was quite pricey, i got quoted a box(3cmx3cm) which you can get 20 words in (microscopic!) at £10 per week.

I've done most of my advertising by word of mouth and 100 leaflet drops. I've been working now as a beauitican (until i do my nails!!!still also work part-time at a shop) mainly doing manicures, pedicures, facials and the odd special occassion make-up. I have a regularly monthly client who books in advance (discount off for block bookings!) wanting manicure, pedicure, facial, eyebrow & eyelash tint and eyebrow shape, then the rest of my clients are either word of mouth or by my leaflet drop. I normally have one client a week and at the moment parties are quite popular. I did one with a friend and we made £70 between us for 3 hours work and i've got another 2 parties booked for the next month.

So after all that wittering i think word of mouth is best or maybe a leaflet drop. Advertising in local paper is expensive and doesn't seem to get that good a response.

Love Linda.x

 

[geeg]

Advertising is a lottery.
It is totally hit and miss depending on:

Time of year/day of the week the add is placed
Where the add appears in the paper
Whether it is advertorial or just an add
What sort of people read the paper
etc etc etc

Why take the chance that it may or may not reach the audience you are wanting to excite? Advertising is expensive if you want to make any impact at all. re Liza's comments.

It is far more effective initially to do a leaflet drop around the neighborhood where you work; then you KNOW you are getting right to the doors of the people you want.
Place your business cards in every ladies toilet you visit and some you don't.
Do the nails of ladies of influence such as the owner of a good clothes shop.
One technician I know had a friend in her local dry cleaning shop put a card in every garment etc etc. There are tonnes of good ideas that won't cost and that will be more effective.

I once sent my son for a week after school to Sainsburys car park (which was near my salon) on his skate board to put flyers behind every windscreen wiper ... Christian being Christian recruited 10 other friends and they placed thousands all over the place for me. We got a lot of notice from that.

THINK -- Where do women go?? And put information there
Dr's surgeries often have notice boards for cards
Supermarkets
Local gym
Airport personel lounge
Even our local fish & chip shop has a notice board.

And don't underestimate the advertising your shop will do for you! An attractive facade will soon get you noticed too.

One last thing ... NEVER go ANYWHERE without a fistful of your business cards --- can't tell you how important this is --- people always ask for them and how else are you going to stick them on the mirror of the ladies loo???

 

[Belle De Jour]

hi girls i put in for my free one line ad in the yellow pages costs you not a penny and they also put you on yel.com for free! so far i have 2 regular cleints from that and the yellow pages hasn't been printed in this area yet! i have also placed a business card sized ad with my local yellow pages which should be out in the next couple of weeks........
like geeg says never go anywhere without you business card i give them to everyone i talk to! i was in tesco's yesterday and asked if i could put one on the board but the girl didnt know so i said ' i'll leave it with you if you can put it on the board great! if not put it in your purse and call me!' she was realy pleased that i had told her to keep hold of it.
next step for me is leaflet drop kiddies dont mind helping with that kind of thing and they get board stiff in the summer hols!
im also down to do a nail art stall for a charity fete in august so i will have plenty of business cards and price lists on the table there and i will also send one of the kids round with leaflets to hand out.
i think you could probly invest your money more wisely on the yellow pages as at least that runs for a year and not one week and it will probly work out the same price. hope it helps nickkix

 

[Tracysnails]

Hi Everyone

Thanks so much for all the replies. After 'listening' what you've all had to say, I've just rung the advertising rep and left a message cancelling my ad. Now I've just got to be strong when she calls me back to try and change my mind ale:

Why take the chance that it may or may not reach the audience you are wanting to excite?

That comment really hit home, do I want to take the gamble of throwing away a couple of hundred quid?!

I have decided I'm going to do a nice leaflet drop (had success with these before, why fix it if it ain't broke ) and have been today and brought a crock pot and paraffin bath to improve my exisiting services.

Once again, thanks for the advice and my boyfriend is now pleased the credit card isn't expanding (well not as much lol)!

 

[nailtiqe]

i agree, im meeting the paper rep next tues morning, think ile be strong too and save my pennies, ile get the kids out in the hols doing leaflet drops and we have a new avon lady i was going to ask her if she would put leaflets in her brochures for me if i buy my toiletries like make up remover etc for my sunbed rooms from her...sound good? vicx

 

[groovynails]

theres gonna be alot of nail techs pounding the streets of the uk in this summer holidays.i was gonna do a small ad to build up my mobile clients but will now be walking the streets insted .quite good excerise at the same time(burn of a bit of flab so my geek thong will be looking good )lol

 

[Nailsinlondon1]

Well this has worked for us a treat...............

We have got our logo which is WWW.NAILSINLONDON.COM
on the front of our T-Shirts and on the back of our jackets.
I have to travel to the shop on the tube and you will be amazed how many people are looking at my chest now.................
It gives our Website out loud and clear, an unusual search engine but then hey, we are a bit unusual at times..................

Yes Business cards are with me at all times, yes Loo's, notice boards, the restaurants where the Ladies and Gents lunch, the local shop counters they all get them lol...............Whether they want them or not..............

We didn't do a leaflet drop in the city as it is sometimes pretty hard to get past reception desk................. so we have e-mailed all
companies.....addressed it to HR Human resources............... and asked them to pass this info on in there internal e-mail bit...........
Most of them have obliged and we have had some great responses........
I found that if you can get just one girl from the office to come to us, the rst will follow, and then of course we have the introduce a friend scheme, so they just drag their collegues along...............

just another thought
love Ruth xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[Nailsinlondon1]

Well this has worked for us a treat...............

We have got our logo which is WWW.NAILSINLONDON.COM
on the front of our T-Shirts and on the back of our jackets.
I have to travel to the shop on the tube and you will be amazed how many people are looking at my chest now.................
It gives our Website out loud and clear, an unusual search engine but then hey, we are a bit unusual at times..................

Yes Business cards are with me at all times, yes Loo's, notice boards, the restaurants where the Ladies and Gents lunch, the local shop counters they all get them lol...............Whether they want them or not..............

We didn't do a leaflet drop in the city as it is sometimes pretty hard to get past reception desk................. so we have e-mailed all
companies.....addressed it to HR Human resources............... and asked them to pass this info on in there internal e-mail bit...........
Most of them have obliged and we have had some great responses........
I found that if you can get just one girl from the office to come to us, the rest will follow, and then of course we have the introduce a friend scheme, so they just drag their collegues along...............

just another thought
love Ruth xxxxxxxxxxx

 

[nailtiqe]

hi ruth how does your introduce a friend work? do they have to introduce so many to get a discount or freebie? vicx

 

[Nailsinlondon1]

Well if they recommend a friend they get Solar Oil the1/2 oz size as an incentive and thank you..............
If they already have that they can choose something else to the retail value of theSolar Oil..usualy a nice bottle of creative polish..........
Just adapt it to your pursestrings...............

Never give your time away for free............
Never call anything Discount lol unless you are Nails @Tescos.....lol

Products are much better and that way they look after their nails, with a product you are familiar with...................

just a thought
love Ruth xxxxx