What do you consider WASTED advertising ??

[arbor pro]

Advertising that has worked well for me: uniforms, truck lettering/logo, cards/brochures, small yellow pages ad.

Advertising that has been a waste of $ (and time) for me: advertising boards in grocery/retail stores (managed by an advertising company), door-to-door flyers and brochures, printed pens, cups or other junk, big yellow pages ads.

As for the yellow pages ad, I have found that, if you try to 1-up the competition, they will just try to 1-up you next year and the battle begins until everyone is buying full-page ads and the only winner is the phone book company selling the ads. Once every tree service has a full-page ad, none of them stands out. It's best to just go with the same size as everyone else but try to make your ad stand out somehow.

 

[OLD CHIPMONK]

In retrospect of 2008 the "Yellow-pages" ad was not worth the bucks! A total contract of $9400 w/the business-line & just 1 payment to go. I'm thankful that it's over.... No contract for 2009.... no ad in the "yellow-pages....means less financial stress in a poor economic climate. I did a geographic ad in " The Island's Directory" for a total of $454 & paid cash. Let me add that 95% of our annual income ( population 30-45,000) is derived from the 7 islands covered by this phone book. Our city population is at 250,000-300,000 which is covered by "AT&T Directory". Within a radius of 25 miles we have an additional population of 150,000 residents. Home values range from $65,000 to $7,000,000. Gulf-Steam Areo-Space is our largest employer.Housing & Business starts are still vibrant. Landscapers number about 200 & stay busy year-round. No snow or ice-storms ,58 degrees today & 63 degrees Tuesday. Good fishing, hunting,all sports & recreational facilities.
I might ad that we are a 15 minute drive from S.Carolina & occassionally work (legally) over there & still remain 20 minute drive from our dump site. We have a facility that buys (clean wood chips @$18 per ton) close by us. Summer temperatures are hot 90-103 degree range. The work is out their but I don't persue it in all areas. We are well known & respected on the Islands. Word of mouth, referrals would keep us busier, but I can only do so much.
My son is moving to N.Y.C. in March ( a job using his computer skills). This leaves me alone & weighing my options.

Your input would be well received & respectfully weighed. Any ideas would be
helpful. Thanks for any thoughts. I'm not 30 anymore, but in good health & able to work.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Advertising that has been a waste of $ (and time) for me: advertising boards in grocery/retail stores (managed by an advertising company), door-to-door flyers and brochures, printed pens, cups or other junk, big yellow pages ads.

I watched the boards mounted at some grocery stores, and some of them were bulletin boards where the paid ads were signs around the perimeter, and the center a cork board bulletin board.

People would just start taping their ads over the paid ones, and the center became a compost heap of mess.

No one really maintained it right.

That reminds me of something else I have not used, and would not base on my own habits - that's shopping cart ads.

I couldn't tell you what company I saw last on a cart sign. I tend to look at food, prices and where I'm going.

 

[lxt]

One advertisment gimmick that really, really worked well for me, but only at a certain time of year was to have magnets in shape of football with pittsburgh`s favorite team symbol, schedule, stats & my company info...along with this I gave out shirts too...

do this every year around end of august or sept., spend around $750-$800....but this generates me in upwards of $10,000 no ****!!!

I feel this all depends on your team & how they performed last season, Detroit residents would not want to attempt this! this is one of the best marketing gimmicks that yields more revenue than any other form of advertising, for me!!


LXT............

 

[Blakesmaster]

Anyone ever tried signs at the end of baseball fields? Or sponsoring teams or games?

 

[TreeTopKid]

Anyone ever tried signs at the end of baseball fields? Or sponsoring teams or games?

Someone has contacted me saying they want to sponser a local Soccer teams T-shirts. I was genuinely tempted but caution got the better of me. You ever tried it?

 

[kbiv]

I use home printed business cards for the firewood gig, but I saw where a lot of people didn't like the pens. Funny story, I'm a city paramedic and when we get called to a call where the patient doesn't need an ambulance for a true emergency, but can't get around, we usually recommend that they call a private ambulance service. We can't recommend services, but dropping hints like pens and notepads are always good fun and usually end up in somebody else waking up at 3 am to make the trip. Some like to swap the companies around, I usually stick with the service I use to work for, keeps old coworkers hacked off at ya. The boss probably doesn't mind the extra calls, but for the people on the truck, this definately counts as negative advertising!

 

[Blakesmaster]

Someone has contacted me saying they want to sponser a local Soccer teams T-shirts. I was genuinely tempted but caution got the better of me. You ever tried it?

Nope, never tried it. I kinda like the idea though. Not only will I be getting advertising I'm also going to be helping my community out. Win-win? Just curious what others experiences were with these types of ads...

 

[(WLL)]

imo, TKO-KID's truck is a wast of advertising not ta mention another black eye to the industry

 

[arbor pro]

Now that's not nice.

Funny though...

 

[TreeTopKid]

Nope, never tried it. I kinda like the idea though. Not only will I be getting advertising I'm also going to be helping my community out. Win-win? Just curious what others experiences were with these types of ads...

That was the way I was thinking too. Not mention I got twenty t shirts free! (good for work). I reckon it may good. The thing I like most is that it keeps the work local.

 

[TreeTopKid]

imo, TKO-KID's truck is a wast of advertising not ta mention another black eye to the industry

LOL!

 

[lxt]

That was a good one!!

the sponsor a team thing is fairly expensive, you will have to supply the uniforms (atleast thats what they wanted from me), you will have to pay for the sign on the fence at the field & that comes with a monthly fee, there were other hidden costs....but when all said...was gonna cost me close to $2000.00

Now mind you if you want "goodwill" shirts & hats to put on the kids, you can save alot......but if the team you sponsor looks like crap.......how will that reflect on you!

you know there will be some mom who tells everyone about that cheap SOB who she would never hire....I have heard this before!

if you can afford it.........awesome, remember if your sponsored teams a loser they might just associate that with your biz!! marketings weird!


LXT.................