Need advice on advertising package!

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PLK

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Hi Guys,

I have been a member of this forum for a while know but rarely post (i read more :lick:)

Anywho.... I own a non-surgical clinic, and currently advertising by using organic Google searches (which is where we get say 60% of business) word of mouth but business is a bit quiet think because of the holiday season (I hope)

I have been looking into advertising into newspapers mainly the local ones here in my local county.

Basically I attended a presentation held by the Local newspaper organisation. (You get a free advert in the paper if you attend that's why i went really :lick:)

They had a speaker there from a "big" advertising company telling you all the normal stuff like steps to better marketing and how brand awareness if important.

Sorry I'm rambling!

So what it was really about is the newspaper have put together a "package" for business to advertise with them at discounted price of the normal rates.

Package:

- Press (15 x 3 advert in paid paper and a free paper every week)
- Online (X amount of impressions on there website)
- Radio (30 second advert on there radio station played 50 times a month minimum)

They are asking for around £139 ex vat a WEE K

BUT here is the catch it's for 12 months! so it works out at around £667 a month inc VAT. So £8,000 for the year.

which sounds A LOT!

My dilemma is, is newspaper the way to go and is it worth the risk!

We tried the paper before for a couple of weeks but got hardly any response at all. They do say you should continue week to week to get noticed more but for that much it's a RISK!


the 12 month contract is the thing that really is the risky part.

HELP!!

P.S. Some of you may have even attended this presentation over the last couple of days :p
 
Wow. £8000?!! That sounds a bit much to me. Especially when you've tried a few weeks before and got very little. Have you tried every free way of advertising? Eg social networking etc? Or is there a way you can just advertise in the actual newspaper? You say you already get a lot of business from google, so obviously have a pretty good online presence. Maybe concentrate on the offline (so the newspaper itself, or does your area have a booklet that's distributed to every home, say, every month or so?).

Hope I'm clear, and hope you get sorted!
Robyn
 
Right? Does sound like a lot to commit to when there are no guarantee!

- Yes we are on all major Social networking platforms.

There are booklets but we have been approached by many "suspect" people about those you know the type..police booklets and charity ones.

Fell into a trap of paying £300 once to be in a health booklet which got us no business at all. So I am wary now.

We were thinking of setting up a stall or something in local supermarket (front entrance) to hand out leaflets and also give one on one advice about skin treatments we offer.
 
Hi,

My immediate response before I got to the end of reading your post and not knowing the price was an absolute NO.

The people that rabble on about what great advertising mediums they have and how well it will reach a large potential audience etc are just pushing hard but will promise nothing, they just encourage you to gamble on what they offer.

12 months commitment is stupid but they say that probably just hoping they will get lucky or that when you go back to them saying NO that they can offer you 6 months commitment instead, wow!

I have several lines of business besides our hairdressers and have tried all kinds of advertising since I started in 1996. I have learnt from my mistakes.

Papers do not work ! simple as that, certainly not enough for what they charge, same goes for radio. Internet works but only in certain areas but dont get too carried away with some web advertising that claim large traffic.

Years ago I tested out the local paper and I was sure it doesnt work, they say it does so instead of arguing I did an experiment and paid £4000 to have the Free paper that goes to over 10000 homes with my own cover, its called a newspaper wrap advertising so 4 full pages inc front and back page, did a discount voucher and a competition on it too.

I had 4 responses !!! 1 of which was a complaint that I had a half undressed (tasteful) girl on the front.

My point is that I had ensured that everyone saw it even if it went straight in the bin and still it was a waste of time.

Radio was the same, it works for large companies with a dominant branding to maintain or with large pockets to see the branding awareness through.

There are better ways of spending your money and I would say 80% should be spent on the internet to get yourself found and 20% with a local leaflet drop or leaflets placed in local shops that are willing.

Sorry for my long waffle but hate to see these advertising vultures prey on new and struggling businesses that need to try something.
 
I agree with jay_g.
Best advertising nowadays would be social media.
Try simply offering a treatment package worth £100 (just an example) for free on the facebook with a rule that only those who have liked your page and shared that post will enter for a draw to win that package.

Do it monthly or on special occasions - amazing way to get followers for your page - more eyes will see your salons daily updates and other offers :)

Person will be happy and might recommend you to friends, and it will cost you only the costs of each treatment (not the £100).

The same with twitter.

Hope it helps :) If don't know how exactly do everything, drop me a line, will try to help you as much as i can :)
 
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I use social media, my website and also find I get a great response from local leafllet drops - just got some new clients from leaving my pricelist in the local butchers.

We are very isolated - there is a butcher and us in the village, and we have cows for neighbours, so we really have to advertise. Our leaflets are a thing of beauty, and were a complete labour of love, but I know that people will look at them and make a judgement about us, our treatments and the quality of our work!

I have advertised in a newspaper and had absolutely nothing from it - we find that small local publications work marginally better, and are a cheap way of getting our leaflets distributed in specific, targetted areas x
 
Hi, I worked in advertising for 10 years before changing career. Newspaper's and directories used to be the only thing that did work. Times have changed and I would highly recommend internet advertising. In particular I advertise on yell.com and 99% of my work comes through this. I have a very basic online presence for less than 150 per year (there are lots more packages available). I only work 2 or 3 evenings a week at the mo and alongside repeat and recommendations I am reasonably busy.

I would not recommend newspaper's as they are out of date in my humble opinion.

Good luck. X

Sent from my GT-I8190 using SalonGeek mobile app
 
Crikey- I think I could do a LOT more than that with 8 grand....

I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole personally. Newspaper ads (along with Radio) was one of the worst performing marketing channels we tried for our salon in the early days.

You can get 10,000 leaflets designed and printed for less than one months worth of that advertising- and you'd have control over that!
 
Hi Guys

WOW I'm amazed at the quick responses :p

After hearing your various views i agree £8k is a lot to spend!

I see a lot of you saying internet advertising

Could you elaborate a bit on that?

Currently we sit in the top 1-2 positions for hair removal, tattoo removal and other skin treatments.

What other forms of internet advertising are there.
 
Facebook and Twitter I assume they mean?

Just be careful of putting all your eggs in one basket. You need a good "marketing mix" of traditional stuff like leaflets and ads, and a mix of pro-active internet stuff like social media.
 
Facebook and Twitter I assume they mean?

Just be careful of putting all your eggs in one basket. You need a good "marketing mix" of traditional stuff like leaflets and ads, and a mix of pro-active internet stuff like social media.


We did do a mass leaflet door drop but got nothing at all in the way of a response! :sad:
 
In regards to your ranking are you sitting at the top for 'hair removal (your area)' or hair removal alone?

This makes a big difference.
 
So £8,000 for the year.

which sounds A LOT!

My dilemma is, is newspaper the way to go and is it worth the risk!
Do you ever read ads in newspaper? Nobody does. At least nobody I know of. You wrap your mugs in in when you move the house and run out of bubble wrap, that's what adverts are for. For this money it's just crazy!
 
In regards to your ranking are you sitting at the top for 'hair removal (your area)' or hair removal alone?

This makes a big difference.

Yes it's for our area not in general :lick:
 
We never do any advertising in print form anymore as it has never worked for us ! All our new customers are either recommendations from our recommend a friend scheme , or they have found us on the net!
The Internet has never been so prominent as it is now and personally we put all our efforts into that !
It is very easy in business to lose a lot of money on ads that will never work , we always try to calculate how many new customers we would need just pay the ad company then on top by the time you allow for tax, vat , staff and stock costs to do those customers it is usually impossible to make a profit from that campaign .
 

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