Yellow Pages/ BT Phonebook

[Moglet]

... to get a link to our website put on the online version is even more...

[Roboframer]

How do Yellow Pages look after you?

Spirit FM - in return for our £6000+ pa regularly invite us to events they host, such as the Arundel Festival, where, last year, we sat next to the Duke of Norfolk in the VIP marquee (free beer and food) at the opening night - Spitfire mock dog fight followed by a Katherine Jenkins concert - guest tenor, who was better even, for me, than KJ - both backed by the London Symphony orchestra - then fireworks - fabulous!

Networked with Duke (Him wot lives in Arundel Castle) and his pals and we were the only people there (in the VIP area) that advertised on Spirit FM.

Every year we either get invited, or gatecrash Spirit FM's hospitality box at glorious Goodwood racecourse for the opening night of the Chichester festivities - they host it. Fantastic fireworks display.

But this year they got us the hospitality box next to them at half price - for our company party - 10 car park tickets, 20 entrance tickets, use of box complete with fridge, microwave, cutlery & crockery. They paid the other half in free advertising for the event organisers. What a night.

We've done a testimonial - a morning at the studio - guided tour, sitting with the presenters live, very interesting and then a recorded interview with us saying how radio advertising works for us - that got played a lot over a 4 month period - free advertising, in addition to a deal which really REALLY works for us.

We've had long discussions with their agents that compose (for want of a better word) their ads and have long forgotten about trying to say what we do - the list wouldn't fit into 30 seconds.

Instead - well - I'll give you the wording of our latest ad - bit of background first.

Once I wrote an ad (for them to edit and mess about with) saying we were the 'best' at something. They said that we could not say that - that's why Carlsberg lager is 'probably' the best ......

So - this is how our new ad goes ....

"RING RING"

"Spirit FM" (This is the girl that would actually answer the phone for real)

"Hello - ANGMERING FRAMING here - we want a radio ad - all we want to say is "Angmering Framing & Stitches - the BEST framer and craft shop in Sussex"

"Sorry - you can't say you're ... 'The Best'!"

"But if no-one else does all the things we do, we MUST be THE BEST"

"Sorry - still can't say you're ... The Best"

"Oh - allright then - say "Angmering Framing & Stitches - are we THE BEST framer and craft shop in Sussex? Come and find out for yourself"


We got round it - we said we are THE BEST - without saying we are - sort of - they had to go to OFSTED (?) to make sure it was all legal - and it was - to their surprise -

God, I'm good! (probably) I know the gist of my idea is stolen!

But you just can't do stuff like that in Yelluh Pajiz - or any other literature -stuff that sticks in peoples' minds.

Depending on the density of your local population - blanket radio advertising - sustained - not a few weeks here and there - really pays off.

[Grahame Case]

How do Yellow Pages look after you?

look after??? whaaa??? what is this of which you speak.. we only see our yeller pages rep around about this time of year BEGGING us to take an advert

[Moglet]

... we only see our yeller pages rep ...

You actually see your rep?!!

[Grahame Case]

yes i know its hard to believe.. i wish i saw one of our ex suppliers reps more often than the yellow pages rep but sadly we didn't,

yellow pages time is fun though. you have to watch for them miscalculating...

[Bill Henry]

I like to think of myself as a pretty good picture framer and a reasonably good businessman, but the thing I feel least comfortable with is marketing and advertising. I am horrible at it!

We’ve tried a lot of things:

Commercial bulk mailings (10,000 households) – less than a 1% response. After we deducted the cost of the mailing and the discount offered on the coupon, we actually lost money. Those kind of mailings are a boon to pizza joints and 15 minute car lube garages, but, as far as I can determine, very few others.

Direct Mail (I’m still amazed at how finely tuned you can make your target demographic). After selecting eight ZIP (postal area codes), income range, age range, and home owners (as opposed to renters), we mailed to about 5,200 homes. Again, a poor response – we barely broke even after deducting the cost of the labels, postage, and printing.

Another direct mailing to businesses: this time we targeted just professional offices (doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.) and light manufacturing. In many cases we were supplied with the names of the office managers, so it helped direct the brochure to whom we thought would be the most influential in updating their office decor. Again, pitiful. We lost a lot of money on that one.

Newspaper Ads – nothing!

Paper place mats for family restaurants. In hindsight, this is not a good vehicle to find people with picture framing needs. Our ad got lost with all the others, and, I’m sure, kids were supplied with Crayons to junk up the place mats.

We’ve toyed with the idea of placing ads on the back of supermarket cash register receipts. But with the number of ads already there, I would be surprised if they get printed on more than one in four. Unless, of course, someone has a weekly grocery expenditure of more than $300. But, after they have bought the requisite amount of laundry detergent, kumquats, diapers and the like, it’s not too likely they have a lot of discretionary income left for picture framing.

Although the price is right, the community bulletin boards which accept business cards tend to be so cluttered that after a day or two, I cannot even find my own card.

There was a clown in here last month who tried to sell us advertising space in a movie theater. They place thirty-second ads on screen before the previews roll. Gimme a break! When I go to a movie and plunk down $7.50 for a seat, I expect to see a movie, not some annoying ad that I can view for free on my television.

We’ve considered radio ads. John Turner has apparently had very good luck with that medium. In our area, though, there are not many from which to choose. Either we have a religious station (I’m Presbyterian, but Christians tend to be cheap), an obnoxious talk radio format (specializing in sports and very right wing), heavy metal rock music (not exactly our target audience), or Country and Western (I’m always suspicious of people who try to make a virtue out of using bad grammar and singing off key).

I’m at a loss. Other than yellow pages (maybe), our presence on the web (promising), and cable TV (very effective, but very expensive), there is precious little that has worked for us.

[Moglet]

Commercial bulk mailings (10,000 households) – less than a 1% response. After we deducted the cost of the mailing and the discount offered on the coupon, we actually lost money. Those kind of mailings are a boon to pizza joints and 15 minute car lube garages, but, as far as I can determine, very few others.

Very interesting post, Bill.

With regard to the bulk mailings, I was considering this option as a one-off 'Hello, I'm here!' publicity campaign: I just don't have the time to do flyer drops myself, especially as my potential customer base is spread over a relatively large geographical area (due to the low population density in rural Ireland). I was concerned about its potential efficacy, as the main businesses that I see advertising by this method in my area are supermarkets and DIY/home improvement stores. According to my sums, I should break even with a 1% response rate. Might still be be worth a punt as a one-off....

Incidentally, Bill, do you know whether you got any repeat or referral business from the responders to any of your direct mail campaigns?

[prospero]

One of my customers who has recently opened a gallery, had a complaint about a large painting of a naked man in his window. Before he knew it was all in the local papers (not a lot of news round here. ) and even the local TV news. I don't know if he did it deliberately, but the escapade certainly went a long way to putting him on the map.

So stuff the Y*llow Pages, just stick a rude picture in the window.


(He sold the painting shortly afterwards btw.)

[Bill Henry]

With regard to the bulk mailings, I was considering this option as a one-off 'Hello, I'm here!' publicity campaign:

It probably wouldn’t hurt. If you simply wish to say, “Hello!”, make sure that the logo on the mailing is consistent with your other forms of advertising to make you more recognizable.

The other alternative would be to offer some discount or another incentive to get the recipients into you shop the first time. Most people who claim to be experts say that success in advertising is repetition. You might consider blitzing the same mailing once a month for three months or so to get name recognition.

After we had been open for a year or two, I contact a professional marketer with the hopes that he would be able to put together an advertising campaign. This was back in the ‘80s. At that time, he wouldn’t even consider me as a client unless I had a six month advertising budget of $12,000. Way out of my league!

He directed me to a traveling seminar on marketing, though. I attended and got some useful (and a lot of useless) information. One thing this guy mentioned is that with direct mail, there are two kinds of mailings – a “cold” mailing and a “warm” one. In a cold mailing, you are sending offers to people that may or may not have ever used or seen a need for picture framing. I remember that he said that with a cold mailing, a 2% response is considered exceptionally good.

In a “warm” mailing, you are using a database of your current customers. A good response can be considered in the 5 – 6% range. For several years we had a “warm” mailing about every six months. We had post cards printed in black and white (cheaper and our logo is black and white, too), generated our own labels and spent more time pasting postage on the stupid things that I care to think about. We averaged a little over 5% response on all of the mailings each offering a 15% discount. The nagging thing in the back of my mind was how many of these folks would have come in anyway without the post card? In those cases, did we give them 15% off when we really didn’t need to?

And, after we determined that these mailings were barely paying for themselves, there were two women who called repeated asking, “When are you having your next sale?” Those were discouraging when we thought they considered our services not worth the normal cost.

On our web site, we have a “special offer” link to a page which gives a discount to one or more services we offer. Although we only get between six and ten people a month bringing the ad in, it doesn’t cost us anything to update it over and above our monthly ISP fee. (I maintain the site myself). I remember one of those women getting angry because, “It isn’t fair! I don’t have a computer.” Life is tough, lady, pick up the shattered pieces of your life and move on!

Incidentally, Bill, do you know whether you got any repeat or referral business from the responders to any of your direct mail campaigns?

Unfortunately, I didn’t think to track that. I naively assumed that anyone coming in once would automatically become a loyal, repeat customer.

[Moglet]

... anyone coming in once would automatically become a loyal, repeat customer....

Mais oui, mon vieux!

Have you noticed any difference in response to "warm" mailshots at different times of year?

[Bill Henry]

Have you noticed any difference in response to "warm" mailshots at different times of year?

No, we consistently got between a 5.25 and 5.4% response regardless when we did the mailing – no statistical difference between the seasons. We mailed to roughly 1800 customers twice a year.

We timed our mailings to go out at the end of January (when its traditionally slow here) and the end of August. The “offer good until …” date ran exactly eight weeks, although we generally honored late bringer inners.

For the September through October time period, we wanted to make sure that the discount period ended well before the holiday season began.

The added advantage of snail-mailings is that the post office returns the undeliverable post cards, so we were able to keep our customer database current. Now that we have discontinued the mailings, it is probably woefully out of date.

[Moglet]

Thanks again for the feedback, Bill. It'll be a great help with my costing and planning!