Phone Book Ad

tmacsad

tmacsad

Take Luck!
Hey guy's, I'm thinking about getting a phone book ad.:idea Do any of you have an ad in the one? In the package they are going to give me a by one get one free dollar size and in the phone book. Plus a listing in the white pages in the business side. Also comes with a listing on the Internet. All for $155 a month. Is this a good deal? :dunno: Do you think business would pick up? :dunno:
I know the phone call volume would increase. I just don't want it to increase and be a bunch of people calling for price quotes, and leave me :hmmm:

I try each year to do a little bit more marketing then I did the previous year. However I try to be wise in the marketing that I do. (hate wasting money:wall) So if you guy's have any pointers on this side of the biz please hook a brother up.
 
Bad idea. You're going to get just as you feared...people calling for prices, then not using your services. And that $155.00 nut to crack comes in every month, whether you bring in money or not. And, if you decide after a few months that it's not working for you, you're still obligated to pay the monthly bill until the new book comes out or you give up your phone number to stop the obligation.
Sorry I only have negative for you, I currently don't have a good advertising idea for detailing, but I am well versed in the negatives of the Yellow Pages.
 
heatgain said:
Bad idea. You're going to get just as you feared...people calling for prices, then not using your services. And that $155.00 nut to crack comes in every month, whether you bring in money or not. And, if you decide after a few months that it's not working for you, you're still obligated to pay the monthly bill until the new book comes out or you give up your phone number to stop the obligation.
Sorry I only have negative for you, I currently don't have a good advertising idea for detailing, but I am well versed in the negatives of the Yellow Pages.
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Don't be sorry for the feedback that's :exactly: what I want. I've made a lot of bone head decision in my life.:wall I try to learn from my mistakes and the mistakes of others. I really appreciate the feedback :bigups because every thing you stated is what has been on my mind. I don't want to be paying for something for a full year and it isn't producing clientele. :huh:
 
Craigslist is a good free source for finding biz...do a search on this here...one member is real good at creating ad's....
 
Did you know that you get a free listing in the Yellow Pages just for having a business telephone number? Not a display ad, just a listing.
 
heatgain said:
Did you know that you get a free listing in the Yellow Pages just for having a business telephone number? Not a display ad, just a listing.
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Heatgain, I did know that ;). I already have one listed on there. I just thought maybe if I listed in the book it would open up some different avenues.
 
Yellow page ads are not cost effective anymore IMO. Spend your money on targeted mailings. Make sure you have a good website too. Affluent customers do web searches to find services these days.
 
Troy@DetailCity said:
Yellow page ads are not cost effective anymore IMO. Spend your money on targeted mailings. Make sure you have a good website too. Affluent customers do web searches to find services these days.
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Ain't that the truth ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^. Troy do the targeted mailings work well for you?
 
I agree that I would not do yellow page ad.

Has anyone given any thought to a bulletin board that hangs in your high school sports stadium. They hang around the boards in a hockey rink or on the outfield wall of the baseball field. I cannot think this costs to much money ($150 a year maybe slightly more?). And if you post one in a affluent area then you will be hitting your target customers along with any others.

Just a thought!
 
Troy@DetailCity said:
I bet there are some guys on here who can answer this. I don't do any advertising other than my website anymore. I stay busy enough without it.

If I were going to I would check into this company -

PostcardMania - Direct and Bulk Mail Postcards - Postcard Marketing Experts

They were at the Expo and it looks like they do a good job for you.
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Direct mail is a tricky beast to manage and do it well. As a Marketing VP one of my primary responsibilities was to know where marketing dollars were best spent. That said, unless you have one heck of a qualified list of recipients post card marketing (actual hard card) is one of the least effective ways to get your message out there. Answer this question honestly, over the past year how many direct mail pieces have caused you to act towards the advertisement? I can't remember the last time I didn't look at the piece of mail and just sent it towards the garbage. Companies that are in the business of facilitating this service make all kinds of claims about how well it works. If you're really interested pick up a couple of good marketing books and see what they have to say about direct mail.

The average amount of time your mailer stays in the hand of the recipient is about 8 seconds before it hits the trash. The average cost per post card is about a buck. You often have to repeat message several times to get someone's attention. The average response rate to post card marketing (at least in my field) was between 1% and 3% to your call to action (I've tried this by handling in house as well as outsourced to direct mail specialists, it changed very little). That typically doesn't equate to an actual sale but more often a call back or request for more information.

At that point you need to have the right contacts on your end to seal the deal. Virtually any company that you hire to do this is paying the $7/hour employee to read a script with the hope of sealing your deal. Companies don't have the resources to staff their own phone centers to put your best foot forward once someone actually calls. The companies you pay to do this look at it as one more on the list of scripts to read. They will deliver your information but not with the kind of enthusiasm your hard earned dollars deserve. In a situation like this perhaps it isn't the best idea to put your pricing on the direct mail piece. You're not selling software utilities for $15. The nature of detailing is sufficiently broad that what you want to do is get a face to face meeting with a customer. You know, look at the vehicle, show the customer your magic, tell them of your guarantee and why they need you. Then tell them why you're worth the price you are asking, shake their hand and make an appointment.

Now when you introduce the Internet and start using email the odds can dramatically turn in your favor. Cost to send an email is virtually zero though you will likely have to buy a list of potential customers. You can tailor your ads specifically to a given audience and then use minor tweaks as the audience changes, change discounts or offers depending on the audience etc. If you attend trade shows or use other such methods to garner the qualified list of potential customers yourself your odds go way up. You have a person (likely an email address) who is interested in your product/brand/price/etc., that has told you they are willing to receive your email/communication and they will likely read what you put in front of them. If you can get the person to do this and the price/timing is right you stand a good chance to sell something. The down side here is SPAM and you have to be very careful in how you use the information you have or you can be black balled in a heartbeat. Though this may seem like a knock off of the original hard card mailer they do indeed havr very different results. My experience has shown me that most often direct mail is one of the more expensive ways to spend marketing dollars. Unless someone has found a way to dramatically improve hard card marketing I would tell you to hold on to your marketing dollars. I hope this doesn't come off sounding like some know it all, if so I'm sorry that wasn't my intent.
 
OK forget the post card idea. I know there are coupon mailers that target specific areas of the community. You could try one of those.
 
In our area we get several mailers that includes maybe 25 to 50 post cards or inserts for various services and restaurants. The services tend to be handy man, cabinet refinishing, countertop sales offers. Most have some promotion (10% of the inflated price). I have never seen a professional detailing related card but there may have been for a car wash once in many years.
 
I tried the phonebook almost 2 years ago. waste of 2 grand. Nothing but price shoppers. I was at the top of the page, with a full color, dollar bill size ad. I did not even get a fraction of cost back. I will never ever do it again. Word of mouth and the internet are my biggest and best forms of advertisement, and they are free.....
 
I like well designed postcards. I've used them with good results in two previous businesses... home improvement, somewhat similar to detailing as far as the target market goes.

Several companies on the web, e.g. InfoUSA and PostcardMania that Troy mentioned, can do searches on various criteria to allow you to sharpen your focus.

For example, I have searched two affluent zip codes within ten miles of my home. As I recall the criteria were: home value >$600K, owner's age >40, minimum of two cars registered, income >$200K. I ran a free test query and found about 1,000 addresses. I got a price for mailing labels, then decided to eliminate the income data, which reduced the cost considerably.

I ended up with ~ 1,250 addresses. And we have more bass boats than Bimmers in these here parts! :cool:

Now don't get too excited. Even a well-targetted direct mail campaign will generate only a 2-3% return, if you're lucky. But think about getting 25 good prospects, with two high end cars in the garage, and lots of wealthy neighbors and friends. How many could you convert to monthly regulars? Eight? Twelve? How much word-of-mouth business would they generate?

A smart direct-mail campaign might be worth the $1,000 to $1,200 investment. Couple lessons I learned... you have to stay with it. I would budget three or four repeat mailings to your very best prospects throughout the year, rather than to blow the whole wad on one mass mailing to more addresses. Oh, and start small.

Good luck!
 
JohnHenry said:
I like well designed postcards. I've used them with good results in two previous businesses... home improvement, somewhat similar to detailing as far as the target market goes.

Several companies on the web, e.g. InfoUSA and PostcardMania that Troy mentioned, can do searches on various criteria to allow you to sharpen your focus.

For example, I have searched two affluent zip codes within ten miles of my home. As I recall the criteria were: home value >$600K, owner's age >40, minimum of two cars registered, income >$200K. I ran a free test query and found about 1,000 addresses. I got a price for mailing labels, then decided to eliminate the income data, which reduced the cost considerably.

I ended up with ~ 1,250 addresses. And we have more bass boats than Bimmers in these here parts! :cool:

Now don't get too excited. Even a well-targetted direct mail campaign will generate only a 2-3% return, if you're lucky. But think about getting 25 good prospects, with two high end cars in the garage, and lots of wealthy neighbors and friends. How many could you convert to monthly regulars? Eight? Twelve? How much word-of-mouth business would they generate?

A smart direct-mail campaign might be worth the $1,000 to $1,200 investment. Couple lessons I learned... you have to stay with it. I would budget three or four repeat mailings to your very best prospects throughout the year, rather than to blow the whole wad on one mass mailing to more addresses. Oh, and start small.

Good luck!
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Good info J.H. :bigups
 
I thought I'd chime in here. Even though my side biz is a bit different than detailing, I think post cards work well. For me, I order around 1000-1500 post cards and I have a mailing list already created that I continually add to. Now being a graphic designer, I design the cards myself, so that saves me money ;) so all I spend is a couple hundred bucks or so for the post cards and another few hundred on stamps...once a year...sometimes twice. I only need to land 2 or 3 jobs to hopefully break even and the bigger thing for me is name recognition. If I keep drilling my logo and cards into their brains, someday, they will hopefully think of me when they need my services.

As for a 'detailing' biz...you most likely would not 'mail' out to random people. You'd most likely hand them out or stick them under the wipers on various cars, so no expense on stamps. All you pay for is the post card design and the printing. Then anytime you're out shopping or anything, take them with you and stick them on some cars/trucks. Even better, hook up with some car clubs and ask them if you can put your cards in their goody bags. Car clubs always like to 'give-away' stuff in the goody bags.

Then as you build up more clients, be sure to get their addresses and you can mail out a post card to them once in a while and offer them a discount to come back to you for a fresh detailing.

Unfortunately, the way this economy is, many people are spending less on their cars it seems...detailing and otherwise. A friend of mine works for a body shop and he said they are so slow because most people are so hard up for money nowadays that they won't even fix their cars if they're still drivable...they're cashing the insurance check and using it to pay bills and driving a wrecked car.:wall

Anyway...good luck to you Tony! However you decide to market yourself.
 
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