In the UK and in Ireland, I've found that a lot of the businesses [esp. VA businesses!] survive by being 'in front' - including newspaper ads... I know that for my J-O-B the price of a large advertisement [that covers 1/8 of a page] costs £250 at the moment, and that'll rise to £300 once the VAT rate rises again from 15% to 17.5% in the new year - which is a lot of money.
In my local area we also have free magazines - Vine and SO. I think the prices are a little bit cheaper - but the companies have started from nothing and I have heard that sometimes you have to pay to have an article printed in them! The circulation of them both is around 60k with about 100k people looking at them. I'm just about to email them asking for quotes to run a small advert.
Even though I have allocated around £500 a month for advertising, I still feel that it may not be enough but I live in an expensive part of England so I think that those prices are the norm. Fortunately, I have found a FREE networking group so I'm going to go along there next week to have a peek!
I agree with what everyone else has said about newspaper advertising. If you want to try it for a much lower cost, look for a small local paper. There is an attorney who advertises a business card size ad in a very small local paper for $40.00. He has gotten some business from it. Another way to get exposure in newspapers is to write a press release and sent it to newspapers in your area. There are many reasons to write a press release, it isn't just for starting your business.
I also would question spending money on chamber memberships. I live in a urban/rural county and there are about 6 chamber meetings I can attend. Some of them are lunch meetings so I only pay for the cost of the lunch. So far, no one has pressured me to join and I've made some good contact there.
I agree with the rest of the VA's $229 is a bit much, I personally wouldn't do this, and like another poster mentioned newspaper subscriptions are declining.
I am in agreement about the newspaper ad. I live in a rural area and some of the local papers have sections online where you can post a small blurb for free. I plan on using that. I also fully agree on joining the Chamber and networking, getting out their face to face. Our membership is 140 per year.
I've been thinking about the same thing. I am having a hard time finding networking events in my area. The Chamber does have some events but the membership is about $475. here and I think you can attend only 2-3 events without joining. Maybe I'll try the free paper/magazines in the area. Has anyone tried an ad in a trade/niche specific magazine? I've also been thinking on going that route?
I don't have the results yet but I'm placing a business card ad in our local paper but instead of running it for a month (as they wanted) I'm just going to try it for two weeks, every other. Try and negotiate with the paper. They need the business.
I would suggest using free online ads like mentioned previously. A client of mine is marketing "expert", he said that usually it takes about 6 months of placing newspaper ads to get close to desire result. Thanks for all the feedback everyone...Much appreciated!!
Hi Tarah, I think you can invest that $229 in some other marketing material for your business, such as brochures, pens, vehicle decals, etc. Invest that money to set up at various networking mixers/events.
Best wishes
__________________ LaVida Harris The Moment is Yours
Re: Any luck with running newspaper ads?
Linear Mode
