Best advertising for the money - Where should the money be spent ?

[scoffsred]

Alright all, where do you spend your money advertising and why. Any ideas welcome, tried and trusted or fresh & innovative. Easy peasy

[lutonlagerlout]

local hospital and football magazines,thomson local and thats it,anything like yelow pages you tend to get a lot of people ringing you for comparison quotes from miles away.
recommendation is the best advertising,cos its free and it works!!
LLL

[Rich H]

When I need it I use Parish magazines and leaflets.

[Tony McC]

A-board outside every job, decent vans with clear LANDLINE number, local mags and papers. As ever, LL is spot on: you just cannot beat word of mouth. The jobs you have just finished are your best adverts.

[scoffsred]

Thank you my learned friends, does advertising in a local newspaper actually work?, there are tons of ads for similar trades and it aint cheap. Has any1 ever sponsored there local rugby or football team and had results or perhaps used local radio, probably very dear, but played over and over will sureley work shirley.

[lutonlagerlout]

in our local paper the herald and post,there are the same cowboys advertising week in week out
"due to shortage of work all jobs 20 % off"
"b/paving ,tarmac any colour any style ring 0800 -BODGEIT for a free no obligation (apart from 3 large men trying to intimidate you ) quote"
and my favourite
"all surplus materials and rubbish taken away"
well thats going to put your mind at rest, NOT
try and get on your local council list of approved contractors scoffs we get a fair bit from that,also a decent sign board (cost about £45 for an ally one) with the phone number BIG
and use your home address on business cards and correspondence
ppl dont like dealing with mobiles
paper i dont think works for building work,radio i just switch off when i hear adverts so sign boards and recommendation is the way forward
cheers LLL

[matt h]

local rag advertising is an expensive waste of time ,yellow pages does not produce results, recognised fair trading schemes and council approved traders' lists do. word of mouth is the best advsrtising you'ii ever get, and as LLL says it costs you nowt

[Tony McC]

The only way newspaper ads work is to have a high-impact ad away from the small ads at the back of the paper. It needs to screeam "Quality" with a capital Q, and it needs to be a long-term investment. It's more about brand awareness than immediate results.

Sponsorship of local sports teams is costly and has limited returns. Much better to offer some sort of sponsorship or support to the local school, as the parents tend to notice this, and while not everyone's little darling plays in the under 13s footie team, they *all* notice the car park and main entrance.

Nearly 20 years ago when I moved to this village, I noticed that the path linking the main road to the front gate of my kids' school was little more than a quagmire. Children and parents were taking a short cut across grass, with inevitable results. I offered to put in a bit of paving at no cost, so me and two lads turned up one saturday afternoon and dropped in 8-10m² of left-over block pavers, replacing the mud that had been there and creating a simple but effective 1.8m wide path.

I reckon that job, which took us a couple of hours in total, paid for itself at least a hundred time over during the next few years.

[Dave_L]

We did the same for the local Church, the lads turned out one Saturday morning for free and we machine laid 30t of basecourse on the 'roadway' around the Church. For very little actual outlay, we got a lot of work off the back of it.

[lutonlagerlout]

feel the love....
LLL

[scoffsred]

Now were talking, some goodwill scheme like that with some kind of advertising board fixed in the area, i like it, i like it a lot