[SteveGibson]

But advertising only works when its repeated enough times for recall.

I think a lot of advertising only works when it's repeated over and over. However, that's a consequence of the advertising approach chosen.

(typically "brand awareness")

Ads that ask the reader to take action can get a response when seen just once.

Steve

[admagic]

Originally Posted by SteveGibson

I think a lot of advertising only works when it's repeated over and over. However, that's a consequence of the advertising approach chosen.

(typically "brand awareness")

Ads that ask the reader to take action can get a response when seen just once.

Steve

Im not convinced that awareness advertising works at all for many small businesses if not most. The problem is it cant be measured!!

But the reason for the post is surprise at the result of the poll

I know that if I rang 10 random small businesses and asked if print advertising worked , less than half would tell me it worked well for them, and most would say it is an expensive waste of money...

It is often a hard sell to explain to people, that one major reason it does not work, is not the medium or the targetting....

It is the message and the lack of any offer to respond to. And to get them to give it another go, using a better ad.

[glencooley.com]

Its the proposition that works when advertising (branding is a completely different thing)

You can build a brand through advertising in its purerest form of repetition but that is a slow process. What people sometimes over look is that an established presence will yeild better results as there is already loyalty and a recognition of a company/product/service.

At the high end of marketing and branding Coke, Microsoft, Apple (which is just a huge marketing company anyway) dont advertise per'se they promote lifestyle choices and aspirational products. It is alot different than saying "half price sale on"

It is quite a mix from the big companies but for smaller business the advertising is hit and miss because of a lot of factors like the perception of a product or service, the resistance to new services/products or businesses and finally because what they hope to achieve is usually focused on short term goals like the tangability of a campaign or ad. What you have to remember is that each ad/website/seo/adwords/flyer is just a starter and that it is laying foundations further down the road.

I dont use printed collateral because its not what my clients expect, they like to see my newsletters, me in the search engines and practising what I preach in terms of leveraging web/new media marketing.

1.5p

Thanks

[pvcprinting]

Not sure how I feel about this one

We advertised for 2 years in our local paper.....running offers and the like for the salon
After 2 years of advertising I decided to include a coupon within the advert

Out of a distribution of >50k papers we got the grand sum of 1 coupon back

We have not advertised since

Am sure it does work if done by a professional............something am going to need for the printing site

Regards

Pete

[Dotwhack]

I don't think it's a case of a by getting a profressional to do it it'll work - I think it depends on what you're selling and who to. I'm sure a salon coupon in the right place would work for you.

[James]

Originally Posted by pvcprinting

Out of a distribution of >50k papers we got the grand sum of 1 coupon back

Not good. It does depend of course what the coupon was for and how good the call to action was.

James.

[admagic]

Originally Posted by pvcprinting

Not sure how I feel about this one

We advertised for 2 years in our local paper.....running offers and the like for the salon
After 2 years of advertising I decided to include a coupon within the advert

Out of a distribution of >50k papers we got the grand sum of 1 coupon back

We have not advertised since

Am sure it does work if done by a professional............something am going to need for the printing site

Regards

Pete

Your experience is far more typical of what I hear than the apparent overwhelming support for advertising on the poll

By salon - is that your present business?

If so, If you post up the ad, Im happy to critique it if you like.

[boxby]

I raised this once before on UKBF, but I still don't get why people spend money on banner advertising and other forms which have click through/enquiry rates of 0.1%?

Yes, maybe I could understand if I had thousands or millions of pounds to spend on advertising, but surely I'm not wrong in expecting a return of more than 0.1% for my money?

[admagic]

Originally Posted by boxby

I raised this once before on UKBF, but I still don't get why people spend money on banner advertising and other forms which have click through/enquiry rates of 0.1%?

Yes, maybe I could understand if I had thousands or millions of pounds to spend on advertising, but surely I'm not wrong in expecting a return of more than 0.1% for my money?

Forums are generally dreadful places to advertise - I would advise against it in general

Because the ratio of impressions to visitors is far too high....despite the apparent traffic, it is the same visitors time after time ..

Non forum Site targetted PPC on sites ranked #1 for your key phrases is a much better bet.

[SteveGibson]

Forums are generally dreadful places to advertise - I would advise against it in general

At the risk of getting banned by Rayb (lol), I agree.

Forums tend to have a lot of habitual users and they tend to become blind to everything that's in the background.

(ie. not threads or PM boxes)

Steve