For my young, start-up window cleaning company, I am trying to get started with my advertising campaign. I was curious if anyone has had success advertising in local newsletters for specific sub-divisions, towns, and communities. Just curious about any past experiences anyone may have had in this area. Thanks in advance…
I think newspaper ads are great idea as reinforcement for a few really good fliers.
You have to test, test, and test more to see which ad works best where, instead of just going and putting the same ad in as many publications as you can.
I have had really good luck with some local newsprint ads. However, I don’t just leave it at that. I usually run a continuous (weekly or more) ad with the local news, and 1.) I also send out direct mailers, 2.) I send letters occasionally to specific housing editions, 3.)I run an ad in the local (county wide) magazine that is only quarterly, 4.)I sponsor local events such as benefit golf tourneys, 5K’s, and such.
I also run an ad in another local newsletter that runs in a specific neighborhood with 3,000 high value homes. Both of these usually see my advertising several times per month, if not weekly. Plus, they also see my work vehicle in their neighborhood.
All of these things ad up to a lot of name recognition.
On the other hand, I ran an ad in addition to my normal stuff when things got a little slow…nothing…nothing to speak of anyways. Not one person that called for service in the following 4 weeks mentioned this ad. It ran for 5 days and cost $425.
But, I am sure that someone is still holding on to that ad and will call when the weather cools down a bit.
My well-minded, poorly-aimed point here is that if you are going to committ to newsprint ads, be prepared to run them a long while before they become very recognizable and memorable. Also, don’t let just any print ad salesperson design your ad. Do it yourself, or have them give you multiple choices before you approve the artwork. Talk to the marketing guru’s here before you go to print. Folks like Paul, Chris, Larry, Kevin, all have great input.
My last piece of advice is to be patient and let the ad work for you. It will…eventually.
I nearly started my own newsletter - I was getting fed up with what these magazines charge. I was going to turn it into a full blown monthly magazine just to get my name out. In the end the organiser/printer guy just didn’t get on with his side of the deal, I got busy, so it got shelved. But it could be a nice little local info mag with money making ads if I’d followed through.
I did some newspaper ads once and will never do it again. For what I paid I could have sent out 100 flyers every week I ran the ad. I got no calls from the paper. I have already gotten calls from the flyers I sent out.
Of course every area is different so I guess it would be good to see if any other wcers in your area have ads in the paper. If so it might be a medium that works in your location.
My best return on investment is from a crappy little classified-style ad in a homeowner association’s monthly newsletter.
As Bert mentioned, a combination of things must take place to increase one’s name recognition.
