[Nathan]

After a good conversation about yellow page advertising I thought I would start a new thread about Newspaper Advertising.

* What papers do you advertise in (big city or local)
* How much do you pay
* What ads have worked the best (wording, color?, placement)
* Do coupons work better than straight ads?
* Do you get more business out of the yellow pages or the newspaper?

 

[Grumpy]

If you cover a service area as large as the big city paper then go right for the big city. I suspect you may have a better response. We advertise locally. The last thing I want is to pay for my add to be seen 100 miles away where I don't service. Heck! The chicago tribune has subscribers all the way in Michigan.

 

[Nathan]

So what do you think works better? Newspaper or Yellow Pages?

 

[Floorwizard]

For us, I would say our customer base reads the front section of the newspaper pretty often, so I would say newspaper.

 

[Teetorbilt]

We only have one paper so that pretty much answers that question.
A 2 X 3 (two columns X 3 ins., a 'square' ad) runs $75.00 a month, add $10.00 for one color.
I advertized for 2 yrs. and garnered about 3 hits, none substantial and certainly not enough to pay for the ads.
My feeling is that coupons are for grocery stores. How much money do I have to give away to get work? Answer; none.
I have many friends that say that being in the YellowPages really kicked business in gear. I may try it if there looks like an impending slowdown. That's certainly not in sight for the next few years.

 

[Grumpy]

Nate, newspapers have a better response than yellow pages for your buck (ROI). Remember newspaper classifieds and newspaper adds are something totaly different. We pretty much have only done the classifieds.

One cool thing about the newspaper is you can sign a 9 month contract, instead of 12. For us there is no reason to advertise roofing in December through February in the Chicago climate. The newspaper doesnt run our adds those months.

 

[Nathan]

You run ads in the classifieds instead of just a block ad in the news section?

 

[Floorwizard]

I have a friend in Oregon who runs in the classifieds only too, and he gets very good results.

 

[Grumpy]

Yup Yup classifieds. They have a section just for roofing. People open up the paper and say I need a roofer, I will check the classifieds. A block add as you put it is good for branding, and not much else IMO.

I wouldn't runa block add unless I had accompanyed it with a classified add. Also will your block add be rotating or fixed position? I mean will it be on page 10 in the lowe right hand corner this week and pade 4 in the upper left next week or will it be on page 4 in the left corner every week?

My karate teacher runs newspaper adds. He runs the block adds. He has one fixed and one that rotates where ever they have room. This works out pretty well for him.

 

[Tom R]

I don't have the need to advertise anymore, but the 'classified' ads were always the way to go. Ran me about 200/month, but kept me in 'steady' work.

 

[Grumpy]

When guys say they don't need to advertise, I am both skeptical and jealous at the same time. Then again I am a work whore and will take all the qualified leads I can get my hands on.

Also I think you are a builder and I am a roofer, so I go through 1 job in a day and you might do 5 in a year. You need less leads than I need to keep the machine running.

 

[Tom R]

You also get to a point after 25 years in business, your 'regular' (preferred) customers keep you busy just about all the time. It's like a never-ending circle.

 

[Cubevan]

In the small paper I used to advertise in, I recently counted 75 ads of people/companies who do similar work.

 

[Grumpy]

You also get to a point after 25 years in business, your 'regular' (preferred) customers keep you busy just about all the time. It's like a never-ending circle.

Depends what business you are in. Most people only change their roof once in their life.

 

[MinConst]

I've been doing the small local papers. Have had good results. I have stock to what is called the business services directory sections. It runs me around $300 for 8 weeks.

 

[Cubevan]

I've been doing the small local papers. Have had good results. I have stock to what is called the business services directory sections. It runs me around $300 for 8 weeks.

Do you have a lot of competition from other guys doing similar work who advertise in the same paper?

 

[MinConst]

Cubevan,
Nothing like 75 others. There are possibly 8 or 10 others in the same section of one paper, and in a second paper I advertize there is a 6 or 7.