Advertising 2009

[makitaman]

I know from the forum that advertising is one of those subjects that splits peoples opinions but.......... rightly or wrongly I'd like to get some feedback on this subject concerning my company.

I've been advertising each year with Thomsons directory in the Bucks area, the budget has gradually expanded to where last years budget was £3200.00 per year (exclusively with Thomsons).

Now historically this has always more than paid for itself regarding new business, recommendations and word of mouth make up approx. 40% of the turnover, therefore 60% from advertising.

Over the past couple of months there has been a huge fall in enquiries which I realise is not unusual considering all thats going on, but my question is will it be worth advertising to the tune of £3200.00 + in 2009/10 or should we target a more locally based advertising campaign (which would be cheaper). My main concern is that as business has dipped is it even worth advertising? You spend the budget and the phone doesn't ring as the people your advertising for can't finance projects in 2009.

I realise this is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' type question but I'd like to hear the opinions of those longer in the tooth on the forum who have been through recessions like this before.

Everyone - keep up the good work.

 

[kevindgas]

trick question

from my own business experience (Gas & Electrical installer)

Yell.com / yellow pages did work for a long time until I fell out with them - agreed terms - 4 payments of £900 2 months apart paid 3 then the Bstrds decided to give the remaining payment (not due for a further 5 weeks) to a debt collector! = result no further business from me IDIOTS!!!!!

Thomson - paid for ads - they didn't print them - threatened them with court - got money back eventually = result no further business from us

Local paper - run adverts every week takes a while for people to get used to you being in there but usually pays for itself

Leaflets - DONT use distributors they bulk deliver 8 or 9 at once most end up in the bin - distributed singly by yourself (how we do it) hard work but it works might take a couple of months (or a cold spell!!!) before work trickles in = definately worth doing

 

[WoodYouLike]

How many still use a Directory like Thomson/YP?

We get most of our enquiries and almost half of turnover from our website. For £3200 you can spend a lot on web marketing (but it doesn't have to cost that much - last year we spent hardly £800 on web marketing)

Wom is a great tool and so is - for us at least - local monthly 'directories' that contain more than just advertisements (i.e local news)

 

[makitaman]

Thanks for the replies, some food for thought.

As a matter of interest is anyone out there thinking of increasing or decreasing advertising spend during the next 12 months?

 

[kevindgas]

probably spend about the same but will spend it more wisely !!

avoid the cold callers who say i can get you loads of work blah blah for just a £100 blah blah most of the good advertising is the big ones like TL/YP etc.
online search engines like google / yahoo are pretty good the rest don't waste yout time on unless its free or you have money to waste

 

[Paul Barker]

Don't spend a penny on advertising it only attracts conmen and other people selling you advertising.

Just do all tyhe jobs people try to get you to do, those will branch off into more jobs for same people and their friends.

If you ever have advertised in the past change your phone number to get a peaceful life away from the scum of society who phone up all the livlong day trying to con you during precious time you are meant to be hands on.
Nope. Dead serious advertising attracts scum.

 

[kevindgas]

you have a point there paul
advertising has its downside as well

 

[noseall]

advertising?

 

[Paul Barker]

The biggest lie they tell you is that you will be able to pick and choose your jobs.

In real life you can't tell a good job from a bad one by the telephone call, but because you advertise you can't get on with any job for all the phone calls you are fielding, most of which are not people about to start you on the road from rags to riches.

 

[Dodgydave2]

Last two years we have spent over £8000 with Yellow pages thompsons Yell.com ect we worked out that we had a return of under £20,000 out of a turnover of just over £300,000

Most of our work comes from our website and a good ranking on google. we have decided not to advertise in any book this year and just rely on our website

it works out a lot cheaper and you get a much bigger area than the yp book

 

[danny33]

How many still use a Directory like Thomson/YP?

Its declined and rapidly declining... I'd never go with yell again. far too expensive for what they do and Horrible horrible telesales staff...

 

[ericmark]

As a user I have not received a Thomson's directory in years, I may use Yell.com but never Yellow pages. If I want something I will go to PC first. I will Google and I have got to work out those pages which list loads of companies are waist of time.
It needs to load fast anything which says wait while xyz loads I cancel. And it is so easy for companies to make their own page.
There are one or two bad pages to find where other people have near the same name.
And meta files are still important to let people find your page.
Except for my parents now 84+ everyone I know uses internet.

 

[Bahco]

Isn't Yell.com not free to just put a basic listing.

I have recently been on a business course and they reckon MARKETING is the best thing you can do for your business. That does not mean spending a fortune on adverts that only boost the profits of yellow pages etc

MOST PEOPLE PAY OUT LOADS TO ADVERTISE BUT DO NOT MEASURE HOW EFFECTIVE THEIR AD HAS BEEN!

THIS GUY is good but don;t sign upand enjoy his free tips.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Chris Cardell
Yeah, got loads his free stuff, but I know better ones out there:
Paul Gorman, bizRichard, Robert Craven - just received his latest book for free.

There is a great quote about advertising and measuring:
"I know 50% of my marketing budget is working, just don't know which 50% !"

 

[Alastairreid]

Isn't Yell.com not free to just put a basic listing ?

Yes it is...........