The Great Debate 1: To advertise or not?

[stlewis]

This is a bit off topic, but what do people think on advertising spend? I need to boost my hits and one option is to spend say £3000 on one or two large or 12 small adverts in a targeted magazine. Will it deliver?

What is your experience, or can you recommend a Talkgraphics-quality forum elsewhere for other advice?

As always, many thanks for your thoughts.

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk

[stlewis]

This is a bit off topic, but what do people think on advertising spend? I need to boost my hits and one option is to spend say £3000 on one or two large or 12 small adverts in a targeted magazine. Will it deliver?

What is your experience, or can you recommend a Talkgraphics-quality forum elsewhere for other advice?

As always, many thanks for your thoughts.

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk

[smorg]

You might want to mosey on down to www.unleash.com and register to post this question there. It's Gary's "other home" after the XaraXone, the Xara forum, the Xealot, yada, yada [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

The Admin is really cool. Let's me spout off without flaming me back. (hehehe)

[Jen Worden]

Hi Simon ...

Hmmm. This is a tough one to answer as only you know what kind of results you are after.

From personal experience, the more you get your URL in front of people, the more traffic it will generate. Tourism related magazines seem to translate well into increased visitors (for tourism businesses). We've had poorer response for web design services from print material.

Don't overlook business cards, letterhead, signage and email signatures as obvious URL placement. You'd be surprised how many people forget these!

Finally, I don't feel that the "next step" is off topic at all! So keep those questions/opinions/comments coming!

cfn ... Jen
Jen Worden
Web Developer
www.meadoworks.com

[jassony]

I agree with Jen, the more you get your URL out there the better, and well targeted publications would certainly be the ticket. Most magazines have the back part dedicated to small ads, which would be a less costly area to place an ad in.

Now that everyone has a website, I am far more willing to check out an advertiser, that I would never bothered to phone or mail for additional info before.

Re: charging. If you want to have a long list of locals, you can charge for preferrable placement on the list of the category they are in. And/or maybe a banner of the month. (you probably don't want the site cluttered with a bunch of bouncing banners)

Here's another one, that actually angered me, but in your type of site it would be okay. Our local Chamber of Commerce lists all the addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of their members. I noticed some of them had website addresses, so I e-mailed them to add the web address of our local community gallery and I was told we would have to pay to have that added to the listing! grrrr like, we already pay annual dues to be a member of the Chamber.

Good luck! I really enjoyed the site and especially loved the 1890 house.
Judi

[stlewis]

Many thanks for your comments on this and the related thread.

The site can only ever become more than a hobby if I can drag some income out of the Products and Services directory! I have thought about adding ads to the content pages, but I am loath to add too much download weight/wait(!) to them.

One view I have picked up from books on Business Plans is to bite the bullet and ask potential customers what they would be prepared to pay!

On site advertising, *perhaps* I will invest in a magazine ad. I have been doing door-to-door posting of leaflets but it's tough on feet!

Thanks again

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk

[Jeff Fisher LogoMotives]

In 1995 I personally took a position to no longer do any paid advertising for my business. The return on any paid print advertising had always been minimal over the previous 15 years but I always felt the need to promote myself in some manner - especially having been an advertising student in college.

Instead I began to do most of my marketing by way of press releases announcing new clients, promoting completed projects, informing people of articles written by me or about my business, and tooting my own horn in regards to design awards won. An article I wrote about this method of marketing may be found at:

http://www.visualartstrends.com/Ea/E...ssrelease.html

While my press releases are design related it does not take much to alter a press release for the purposes of your own business. It is very important to target publications/sites that will be specifically interested in your content. The initial press release can actually announce the existence of your site. It should be emailed and mailed to appropriate website and publication editors.

I would also search for online directories of sites offering similar or related content. Many online directories offer free entires of a limited size.

It is about getting information about your business out there in the marketplace. It doesn't always require money out of your pocket to do so.


Jeff Fisher
Engineer of Creative Identity

Jeff Fisher LogoMotives
http://www.jfisherlogomotives.com

[mom_de_bomb]

Web Rings are a free source of traffic too. Most of my traffic has come from links on other sites, web rings and forums like this, where my url is part of my signature.

Maybe you can cross link with local do-it-yourself centers. In the US we have a place called Home Depot for example. Other places might be your local Historical Society, paint stores etc... The people visiting these sites are already surfing around for this kind of thing.

Now, anyone have advice on how to part these visitors with some of their money??? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Sharon P.
www.fischerpassmoredesign.com

[stlewis]

Thanks Jeff for that link to your article.

I have been trying that approach too. The first announcement didn't get much exposure but I am hoping to have another in conjunction with a couple of pressure groups. My fingers are very crossed!

Certainly the cost of a press release is nothing compared with that of advertising; for £3000/$5000 (typical prices in my sector) you have to get a lot of hits!

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk