[Richard Cole]

 have been approached by a company that does an annual directory of local businesses. Its a little bit different in that it does a full page editorial type advert (a5 size) and costs about £500 for the year inc. Vat and is delivered to about 40,000 homes.

Anyone else tried this type of advertising, did it generate much work?.

My fear is that the directory will be lost over the course of a couple of months, binned straight away etc.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

[John Kelly]

Complete waste of money. Stick to the tried and trusted methods.

[Simon Moat]

Hi Richard,

Have you checked the company out?

I smell a scam i'm afraid.

Simon.

[Richard Cole]

Hi Simon

I was recommended by someone I know and I have also got this years copy of neighbouring mag, looks good quality, I'm 100% sure it is not a scam as I also have had dealings with same guy before with another local mag.

Just not sure if an annual mag would be any better than advertising monthly, the main difference being is that you get a whole page advert, a5 size, and a bio about you and the company, so a quite a bit more than a basic box advert.

[derek west]

if in doubt, leave it out. like you said your self, no ones gonna keep that for a year and the monthly ad mags are around £100, get 5 months from them in stead if you wanna use this form of marketting.

[Simon Moat]

Hi Richard,

Glad to read it's not a scam.

I'm with d on this, I use several monthy mags, local link/on your doorstep etc and generally get a good responce.

I always take a quarter page in full colour and insist on being top right hand corner of page 3, 5, 7 or 9.

Simon.

[Richard Cole]

Cheers for the advice guys.

What sort of response do you get in the monthly mags Simon.  I've just started to advertise in one, gets sent to about 20,000 plus home a month, about credit card size, costs about £50 plus vat, so far only one reply but it is my first month with this mag.  Bit disappointed as I got 4 jobs in another mag in my first month which brought in about £500 worth of work.

[Simon Moat]

Hi Richard,

I advertise in 5 monthly mags and 1 bi monthly.

The top performer brings in on average £650 in jobs a month, the add costs £63.00 plus vat.

I once took a quarter page, full colour ad in my local paper at a cost of £220 plus vat and got zero responce.

Monthly mag ads and really good quality leaflets are my big winners.

Simon.

[Phillip Mold]

tried these.

touch again wouldn't barge pole are words that come to mind

[John Kelly]

You have to remember carpet cleaning isn't an impulse buy. People will use your services when they need them. Your message has to be in front of them at that time. One off large adverts are a waste of time in my opinion. Far better spread the cost over a longer campaign and you'll catch more fish.

[Neil Williams]

You have to remember carpet cleaning isn't an impulse buy. People will use your services when they need them. Your message has to be in front of them at that time.

And that's the principle behind leafletting the same streets time after time after time, because you just need to leave that leaflet at the exact time the householder has the thoughts about 'carpet cleaning.'
We tried a local 'trade directory' which went out with the local paper, infact it was produced by the same local paper. Net result in 6 months since it went out....Zero
Actually I don't even know where my copy is come to think about it.

[Helen]

have been approached by a company that does an annual directory of local businesses. Its a little bit different in that it does a full page editorial type advert (a5 size) and costs about £500 for the year inc. Vat and is delivered to about 40,000 homes.

Anyone else tried this type of advertising, did it generate much work?.

My fear is that the directory will be lost over the course of a couple of months, binned straight away etc.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Be very careful with these sort of "promotions" that advertise "annual". Read the small print! It could be that you will sign up to 12 months of advertsing at £500 per each annual send out.  It could then be sent out Jan (covering 12 months) Feb, (covering 12 months) Mar (covering 12 months) and so on! Hope you can see where I am coming from
It's just that the advertsing business isn't going to make much money by just ONE distribution per year.