Advertising: What works, what doesn't?

[Treetom]

On the other hand...

This other Tom guy who trims trees, may be doing more to promote my business than detract from it. By associating the name Tom with tree work, he's keeping Tom's Tree Service fresh in people's minds. And when they forget where they saw the ad, and the papers have been put out for recycling, all they remember is Tom had something to do with trees, so they go to the Yellow Pages. Or they remember treetom.net, much easier than a phone number.

 

[reachtreeservi]

I spent about 6500.00 on advertising this past year.
3500.00 on yellow page ads alone.
Small in column yellow page ads.

Did I mention we have 5 phone books that cover our area.

Ads in all the local papers.

Once a year the local christian radio station runs a half price special on a years advertising. You really get some great bang for your buck.
1000.00 will get you 5 daily, 25 second spots for a year.

I usually take most of the profits from the 1st month or two and pay the years advertising and liability insurance off early. Seems less painful.

I'm trying to increase my ad budget every year. I think it's money well spent.

 

[custom8726]

I spent about 6500.00 on advertising this past year.
3500.00 on yellow page ads alone.
Small in column yellow page ads.

Did I mention we have 5 phone books that cover our area.

Ads in all the local papers.

Once a year the local christian radio station runs a half price special on a years advertising. You really get some great bang for your buck.
1000.00 will get you 5 daily, 25 second spots for a year.

I usually take most of the profits from the 1st month or two and pay the years advertising and liability insurance off early. Seems less painful.

I'm trying to increase my ad budget every year. I think it's money well spent.

I spent about the same last year ($6,500) in advertising. This year I am at 9k already but it seems to be paying off quite well. I am hoping to decrease my advertising costs with time though. I have been keeping records on where people are getting my # from and plan on figuring out the average sales VS ads in association with the sales. That way I can better decide where the money is best spent.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Papers have worked well. I like small papers - not big like the Oregonian. But the small ones fizzle after a while. It starts small, peaks, then dwindles for new customers.

Word of mouth is okay, but I'll never say it's the best, because a new guy can survive off referrals if he has just a handful of customers - not usually. But for established companies, referrals are nice.

But I doubt that's what you are asking about, because our answers won't affect your increase in calls.

Websites will bring something.

Flyers or Brochures have always been reliable. Those can also be inserted into newspapers.

I think that Yellow Page ads are on their way out in big cities, but if that will be utilzed, the ad needs to be fairly big sized. I can only imagine how many post cards, brochures and other stuff I could spread around for the cost of a large yellow page ad.

Have any large movie theaters locally?

Sometimes it's only about $400 per month to show your company on the screen of every auditorium for every movie showing.