Local Business Publication, To ad or not to ad? Options

[Gilgul]

I've recently moved to a new city / market, and trying to build some local clientele.

While researching the local market, I've found a local business publication that looks as if it of high quality and which claims to have a circulation of 30,000 business people / month, and an ad in that publication costs around $1000 for 1/4 a page (A4) per month.
I've searched in back issues and there hasn't been any web-design / seo ads in the past 1.5 years (which is as far as I've gone).

My question is:
Does anyone have any experience with this form of advertising? Any success / pointers?

Thanks in advance,

[meta]

Keep in mind that it takes repeated impressions (times that your audience members must hear of you) for your prospects even to become aware that you exist. Many marketers will say 10 impressions, and though it is only a guideline, it is a good starting point to think about.

How would that affect you? If the only way that your prospects will hear of you is through the ad, then you might expect to run the ad monthly through the year to build awareness - that's 12 months times $1000 for a total of $12,000 (though you can certainly get a lower price if you commit to a full year). Can you afford that much to build awareness among that group of people?

There are many alternatives that you might consider. Who are these people? Are there other ways that you might reach them? For example, the same publication might have classified advertising at much lower cost. You may be able to rent their mailing list (although even a postcard mailing to a list that long is pretty expensive - but you could test on a sample, perhaps only 1,000 names).

Are they members of an association, or perhaps the local chamber of commerce? If so, you might volunteer to speak at one of their events - if you have something really interesting to tell them, they will be glad to have you. You can also attend events and mingle. You could join a networking group, stop by the businesses (at quiet times) and introduce yourself to the owners, cultivate some local press attention, sponsor the local little league - there are so many ways to get your name in front of them. This forum has many threads on self promotion, especially through original articles. Use these approaches to add value to your advertising effort - or in place of it.

[OldWelshGuy]

As Meta pointed out, very rightly IMO, publication advertising works best when you get a little and often. at the very least you should consider 1/8 twice rather than 1/4 once.

Personally I would be concerned about there not being any web designers in the publication, as it 'appears' to be the perfect media for them. So why are there none there? Possibly because it does not offer a return on investment.

Does this publication publish articles? I would suggest you approach them, offer to write a clear article about web design and the effect of the elements on conversion (as this will drive right into the heart of business people and assumes success already with a website, as your talking about more success), then offer to take those two 1/8 pages providing the article is published on the same page (tell them you want a right hand page as well (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) ) Suggest that maybe they could run a feature on local web design companies, as this will increase the possibility of your article running, and if yours is the article being used, then readers will assume your the expert.

There are many other elements to consider when buying print ads, but some of them are:-

Position - ideally you want to be on front, page 3 or back pages. A right hand page at the least, away from the gutter preferably at the top corner of a right hand page.

Ad/editorial mix - this should be no more than 60/40 if it is then the throw away ratio will be too high.

Page properties - is your advert on a completely advert only page? if it is then this is going to drop the conversion rate again.

Those are the basics, but personally if I had $1000 to spend, I would look at having some flyers printed, and deliver them out to businesses. Make a special limited amount offer on a first come first served basis. Include examples of your work, and plaster your url over them. Have a word with some of your clients and tell them what you are doing. If they are B2B businesses, then they can chip in to the cost and co-market with you, as your going to be driving traffic to them with their Testimonials from the flyer. Perfect symbiotic marketing for you and your clients. Write the article, and place the url on the flyer call it FREE TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE . That will drive traffic to the page, so advertise the offer on that page as well.

Time to stop now before I have you forming your own business publication (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Gilgul]

Thanks, great ideas, got me thinking a bit...

My main approach was that I keep seeing over and over again people who get burnt out by weddesign / seo firms on a local level, therefore, I was trying to find a way to put my name in front of these people.
However, I never got into the thought building a brand by repetitive advertising (still trying to get the whole operation going...).

I am not sure why firms choose not to advertise on any of these publication, although I did notice that the whole 'web' topic is generally neglected.

Articles may work very well, it might even work better than a simple ad (in my case), since the whole purpose is to get people to consider me as a better option than the one they had before.

Thanks again

[Betty]

In addition to the other very good points to think about, I'd like to add:

How is the publication distributed? Direct Mail? Subscription? In a stack of freebies at the grocery store? If it's direct mail, how do they select who get's it? Based on income? Home owner? Business owner? What kind of businesses - or how large of businesses? Is that your target demographic?

Is the $1000 per 1/4 page the listed price? You can usually get a percentage off the list price if you ask - especially if you can commit to listing multiple times.

Are the articles real or are they "advertorials". If it's just full of advertorials (articles written by the advertisers) it's not going to stick around nearly as long as a publication with real articles.

Call some businesses that have advertised and ask them how well they think it's doing for them.

Can the ad. rep provide you with references of people that have done well? Ask them also about people that haven't done well and why they think that is.

Are they going to do the artwork for you? If so, does that add to the cost. What if you want to change it after a few months?

If you are doing the artwork, do you have the skills needed to produce a good printed ad?

You HAVE to go several months in any ad venue to get results. HAVE TO. Repetition is a key factor.

[Michael Martinez]

In my experience, a good publicist would advise you to pitch an article to the publication before you try advertising. In my opinion, one of the most undertapped markets for SEOs is the local business sector, because I find that maybe only 40% (no, no hard statistics -- this is based on my daily work) of businesses even have Web sites, and most of those are hard to find.

A lot of small mom-and-pop businesses could benefit from a basic tutorial on how to create a quick, free Web site that is clean and easy to use, and how to get it listed in the free business and telephone directory sites.

Give away that kind of info in a local business publication, and you may win instant credibility and name recognition.

[torka]

Not to mention, usually they'll run an informative article for free (some publications may even pay you as a writer (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/thumbup1.gif) ). And at least some of the local business publications (the ones around here, anyway) will include a brief bio with contact information at the end of the article.

It's got to be an informative article and not just a sales pitch, though. Editors are likely to decline to publish an article that is really nothing more than an advertising wolf dressed up in so-called-informational sheep's clothing. Waste of your time and theirs. And editors hate to have their time wasted.

Compare and contrast with paying them $1,000 for a single ad. (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

--Torka (IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/mf_prop.gif)

[Michael Martinez]

I agree with Torka 100%. This is not a market for a press release (unless they just happen to publish press releases as "content"). You want to write an informative article. You tell people about yourself in a 1-2 sentence tag line at the end of the article. Usually, you can include a URL.

[Arctrust]

I would like to add and agree that there are certainly better ways to spend $1000 per month....

With that money - you can host a breakfast at your local Chamber of Commerce... Maybe even offer to speak about "Mistakes Companies Make With Their Websites.

If you approach it as what not to do - the audience will assume that you are the authority on what to do right....

If you do this fairly often... host a breakfast or two and a couple of speaking engagements.... you will be further ahead of the game.

Just remember the golden rule of doing business...

(IMG:http://www.highrankings.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/appl.gif) "People do business with other people whom they know and like"

Start shaking some hands....

Good luck!!