[ACS GROUP]

Hi there people we have recieved a call from derby telegraph for a add in there paper has anyone advertised in this before if so isit any good


Regards
Staff

[mxg]

I have no knowledge or experience with this paper but in the last 12 months or so I have learned a little bit about local newspapers & freebie paper advertising.

From startup, we had a period of 6+ months before our ads appeared in Yellow Pages, Thomson Local and BT Phonebook respectively. So to try and get some work in I tried various forms of advertising.

What did I learn ?

- They don't care whether your add succeeds or not. All they want to do is fill space on a page

- They only ring if they have unsold space and if you say no, they will just go to the next person on their list

- a single ad will be doing "well" if it generates revenues  of double the cost of placing the ad

- if you just want to place the occasional add, make them an offer ie 50% of what they say they will give it to you for. Depending on how close to deadline they are, you can sometimes get a result. If they say no, you haven't lost anything because it was them that rang you in the first place

I would now only place an ad if it was something I decided to do rather than just react to their gaps ie as part of a planned and targeted campaign over a period - people need to see these ads a few times before it sinks in to their conscious mind - otherwise your ad is likely to end up as chip-wrappers! if such a thing were still allowed.

Advertorials with a picture and some text work a lot better than a straight forward ad - we have just been asked to quote for some work by a relatively big construction company because their MD saw our advertorial and noticed we are based near one of their jobs! This was a company that I was aware of and anxious to break in to but didn't really have a good inroad other than an unsolicited mailing which probably wouldn't have got us anywhere.

Not very scientific. Just our experience.

Mick

[dustdees]

Mick,

I totally agree with this one, they are a total waste of money.

He would be better off getting some flyers designed  and door knock on companies.

Cheers

Denise

[ACS GROUP]

Thanks people for your replies much appreciated

Regards
Staff