Small business advertising budget

[JPS]

I am researching a new advertising idea which will initially be aimed a small local businesses. The idea could work for many different types of businesses although it will most likely be best for high volume sales based businesses such as restaurants, gyms, certain independant shops etc.

What I need to get an idea on is the size of the advertising budgets that these types of businesses might have, so if anyone out there has this knowledge I would be grateful for your response.

The idea could well work for national advertisers but I want to test it out on small local businesses first before approaching national businesses.

[Indizine]

There simply isnt an average budget for each of thse types of businesses. Their turnover will largely dictate what marketing budget they have and within that, how much can be spent on advertising.

Why would you need to know their budget?

[JPS]

I need to just get a feel for their budgets as part of my research in order to establish whether the cost of my idea is likely to be within the budgets of small local businesses.

[Indizine]

wouldnt it be easier to name your price of your service here and get some feedback on that?

[JPS]

Possibly buts it difficult to say as its very much bespoke however realistically it would start between £2k-£4k per year but could be 10 times this figure.

[RS Print Services]

I think you will have to concentrate more on the potential returns.

If you want a company to spend £2k to £4k a year, they would need to be looking at a return of £20 to £40k in extra sales....

[Indizine]

yeah good point there, so you need to sell the ROI really (which is the benefit)

[LOS Design UK]

Excellent Post RS

Bang on the money, do not sell it as a cost....tell em the benefits (ROI in this case)

[JPS]

thanks all, very useful comments. the benefits would be the number of extra customers / revenue, but to really quantify this I would need to know average sales figures for each client business, correct?

[skeeter]

This post doesn't make any sence.

I buy advertising space for business customers
I know their budgets...I set them

Most don't budget but they do if they learn how to make advertising work then they start to. I have customers who rely on advertising for new business growth. It's quick, cheap and doesn't take any time up.

Most small businesses will tell you to "get lost"...because they either haven't the cash or they've done it badly before...and it hasn't worked out.

Whatever you are doing sounds interesting...but I don't understand it...

Can you elaborate? Or is it "top secret" ?