Local newpaper advertising

[Amberpaving.com]

Hello Eveyone

First post for me!

Just wanted to say as the office based person in Amber Paving this website has been a great help to me in understanding the ins & outs & technical info & basically keep up to speed on what the guys are talking about. Thanks Tony.

Just wondering what others experiences of local newspaper advertising has been? Its something we are kicking around at the moment but just wondered what effect (if any) it has had on other people & generating work or a waste of time? Just wanted some general feedback & experiences.

Thanks
Mel

[Dave_L]

In my experience, a waste of time and money.

But each business is different, so there may be some success stories out there.

[enigmaenigma]

Off topic


Purely curiosity, but was your website created / something to do with Yellow Pages?

It looks nice but has a local authority / government agency / large corporation feel about it, and doesn’t feel or look like something you expect from a small business website…and I don’t mean that in a wonderful content way.

There are a few things, that created an itch that needed scratching, and after the scratch it left me wondering why would a small business have / use that for their shop window website and how can they afford it.

As such, it makes me think the itch was less about it being you and a website you have had created, and more a case of remnants / requirements of an organisation such a Yellow Pages or the like, that are managing the website or responsible for its creation.


Please don’t take this as an insult, as the actual website is good, clean and well presented…it’s just that their requirements as a big corporation providing this, well, it seems to be tainting or putting their toxic baggage onto the small business they are promoting or providing this service for.


I might be way out of the Ball Park and plagiarism has resulted in plagiarising the bad or toxic elements as well…but there still seems to be an expensive content management system sat behind your website.

[higgness]

Just in the middle of trying to sort out ads for the next 6 months.
I have found it useful to move a specific stock item. Ad needs to concentrate on one item, both also try to mention all of your offerings.
Alot can depend on what you expect from the ad.
Will people see the ad?
Give a special offer, ie 12.68748% of on production of this ad until the end of March.
You could count or keep track this way.

[lutonlagerlout]

I have seen your crew about mel for the last 10 years or so
the biggest problem at the minute especially in luton is that no one wants to pay any money
the crowd from leighton hit south luton recently and were doing drives for £50 a metre or less, no point trying to compete against that

my personal experience is do the best job you are able to then the work sells its self,
cheers LLL

[Amberpaving.com]

Thanks Dave & Higgness

Hi enigmaenigma

(hope i'm getting this reply right as it's the first one I have done)

Thanks for taking the time to check out our website

Our website is hosted by yell (as it says on the bottom) & created between the pair of us. Most of the page content comes from me.

"It looks nice but has a local authority / government agency / large corporation feel about it, and doesn’t feel or look like something you expect from a small business website…and I don’t mean that in a wonderful content way."

That would probably be down to me and having worked for Luton Borough Council for over 10 years perhaps I have more local authority left in the system than I thought. Do you think our website is a bit to "corporate" then and not personal enough? Fair point & something I have thought about a lot. Any hints/tips/recommendations of how to improve?

As for cost and why we would use it.. we have only been on the web a few years and this was one of easiest options for us to get our business on the web. I'm pleased that you feel our website has an expensive feel about it & I know it has its faults and as I say it's not been running that long and is defiantly a work in progress

Any feedback or constructive criticism very welcome. Hope I was able to scratch those itches.

Hi LLL

Good point, but just trying to spend the ad budget wisely!

Glad you know of us, seems to be an awful lot of door knocking about at the minute.

Thanks
Mel

[dig dug dan]

Are you the crew who did a drive extension for a mr smith in potten end?

[msh paving]

Up till last summer, i advertised in my local free paper for 14 years solid, usually would come home to 3 /4 phone calls on a wednesday, but then they changed format and the delivery went down hill so i withdrew advert,had 3 calls this week for me to re advertise with them MSH

[Carberry]

Up till last summer, i advertised in my local free paper for 14 years solid, usually would come home to 3 /4 phone calls on a wednesday, but then they changed format and the delivery went down hill so i withdrew advert,had 3 calls this week for me to re advertise with them MSH

That was my experience with local paper. Now all my business is word of mouth and chatting to all the people I sell gas to.

[local patios and driveway]

Getting your name out there so people begin to recognise the business is very uesful as a marketing tool. Try the papers for 6 months see what leads you get

[lutonlagerlout]

amber paving is a recognisable brand,i see them a fair bit in butterfields
when we advertised in the yellow pages I was busy pricing 7 nights a week doing comparison quotes for people (waste of time and effort)

when you work on word of mouth ,8 times out of 10 the people want the work doing
just your web address on the van is enough,most people google company names on their smart phones now
when i flick through the luton news and herald i see the same adverts that have been in their for years
cheers LLL

[enigmaenigma]

@ Amberpaving.com


If I had gone to Specsavers I would have seen the “© Yell Limited 2013� In the footer…D’oh

Although, and even if it didn’t have that, then it would still have had that large corporate feel about it. And it’s hard to put in words but the first thing that set the alarm bells ringing was the Cookie Policy prompt, and after which, and subsequently reading the various policy documents it seemed to scream large corporation and large over heads etc…whilst the actual content was giving the impression of local business, and all the usual positives that a customer would associate with that type of business.


Please don’t get me wrong, as it’s a nice website content wise, but elements such as those mentioned seem to be at loggerheads with what I would expect or the general image it creates of the company…at worst it could be mistaken for being a large faceless corporate trying to appear like the local business.

Hard to put into words and not suggesting that people should dumb websites down, and in your case it might be as much about Yell and them requiring these items to cover them as a provider…thereby adding toxic elements of big business that could create doubt or mistrust in a potential customer.



EDIT:

It might be worth looking at whether Yell provide an email address via the domain name, as the @ntlworld.com email address adds another contradiction of sorts.

And unlike the stuff about certain content looking a bit corporate, its one that most users / potential customers might pick up…why there isn’t a business based email assigned to the domain such as info@amberpaving.com and it has a personal / internet provider email instead.

Off topic and on a personal level, and apologies in advance…but I have always hated the use of yahoo, GMail or other personal emails, as opposed to setting up / assigning an email service to the actual domain name.


/me makes a run for it before I get lynched by any of the brew cabin irregulars that use them

[lutonlagerlout]

run forrest run :;):

what on earth are you blathering on about enigma?

would you prefer a webby like this one

Personally with small business's i prefer a bit of history and a personal touch but I dont want to buy a carriage clock from a paver site :;):

our website serves it purpose for us as people see the name then google it

we do get a fair few inquiries from it ,but sadly a lot are miles away

anyway i still dont rate newspaper adverts per se

LLL

[London Stone Paving]

Times have changed. People search for stuff on line or through reccomendations. I know a lot of hard landscapers who swear by these breakfast meetings, worth a try. Also its worth investing in really smart vehicle livery and signs for outside jobs.

Also if your on a job in a street, knock on all the doors in the street and give them a leaflet When I used to scape it was very common to get 2 or 3 jobs in the same street

[ilovesettsonmondays]

Thing is with knocking on doors Steve . "Hi I'm doing a job up the road " .ring any bells