As window cleaners we have an annuity-based business model: i.e. it’s hugely unusual to only get one-off business from a new customer, but more likely to result in repeat business. Therefore in terms of what your return is it should be based on how many new customers you would get from your effort (and how much you would earn from them over say a year). Only you know whether spending a Grand for exposure to almost half a million prospects is worth is. If the grocery store is in the area you work in, the largest proportion of their customers are going to bang in your territory. Perhaps you could formulate your ad more as a coupon rather than a plain ad. Offer a good deal in exchange. Maybe a free inside window clean if they pay for the outside. Maybe a buy-one-get-one-free offer etc. That being said, we find that leaflet distributions work really well. To produce 5000 and have them delivered we only have to bring 2 new customers on board. We easily achieve that. If you’re brave enough to go knock on doors, that works even better. Our personal experience is that for every 5 people we actually get to speak to we’ll do 1 quote. 50% of that turns into new business. Good luck!
HI everyone. I just happened upon this thread and although its been a pretty long time since anyone commented on it I just wanted to put my personal 2 cents in abou the subject since my fiancé actually works as a salesperson for a company that features local advertisers on the backs of grocery store receipts for most of the major grocery chains nationwide and although it might not neessarily be the right fit for someone with a small business that isn’t trying to expand it is a very, very different type of advertising than the ones mentioned above. FOr one thing, only 40% of people who go to the grocery store even use shopping carts, and when you are grocery shopping you don’t stand there and gaze at your cart, your children are the only ones eye level with your shopping cart. And as far as the bench advertising theres also a lot of flaws in that method as well since usually people are focused on either leaving or entering the store they aren’t stopping to look advertisments that are mostly likely hidden since people do tend to sit on benches. I’ve never personally asked someone to move for a moment so I could check out that coupon I cannot take with me on the bench they are sitting on for that Dry Cleaners I need to go to later…it’s just not practical. Receipts are something that every person that enters the store is going to get when they exit the store, when their minds are no longer cluttered with a grocery list of items they need to buy, and then it usually ends up goign with them and probably sitting on the kitchen counter or somewhere within plain view or just hanging out in the car cupholder for them to spot when they need to get a carwash. Coupons are just not even coupons if you can’t take them with you so these are two totally different types of advertising. Just wanted to make those points. Thanks for reading!!
I’ve been grocery shopping for many years and have never looked at the back of a receipt and said wow that’s a deal let me call that guy ! 
Hmm perhaps not, but if you are a male, I bet your wife has haha! Every time I’m bored sitting in a drive thru at McDonald’s and I forgot my phone charger I’m definately reading the back of the Walmart receipts. Usually thinking about getting my oil changed, especially at half price with a complimentary “something something” haha! I don’t know anything about oil changes… My point is that it’s the women reading the backs of the receipts, and guess who is dying to get the windows cleaned? XD
Men compulsively save air compressors, perfectly good 2x4s if it’s a good wood like cedar, metric tools they have never used, and women cannot throw away a coupon because they might need it someday
Sounds like it’s right up there with advertising in these little booklets that golfers use. I get calls for that several time a year.
Dammit…. This dude is so right… I think there is a pile of receipts on the wife’s desk… I made the mistake of tossing some away when we were first together. Now I’ve learned I don’t touch them and I hand over all receipts that aren’t business related to her for inspection/to be saved for who knows how long.
Do better on the community board
