Don't Think Too Small When Advertising

PATCHWORK PROMOTIONS

Most small business owners think too small when they are advertising. I learned one lesson the hard way. If you don't advertise, you won't make money. Statistically, a business needs to invest 20% of their profit into advertising. Or, to put it another way, your advertising budget will multiply x5.

When I owned a city based house cleaning company I would invest $20 - $25 000 a year in advertising, maxing 5 campaigns a year. This generated $100 000 - $130 000 in revenue.

We wasted our first three years (and a lot of money) working with ad companies that were designed to serve the big franchise type companies. We didn't realize that companies which focus on small business have a differnet approach.

When we started we advertised in newspapers at $900 a half page. We didn't realize the statistics behind advertising. For example, the average ad receives 10 views for every 100 000 readers - and a 2% decision to buy. This means that a newspaper with 500 000 subscribers could earn us 1 new client. Not good.

We changed to magazines with a higher 'retention' rate than television (higher on a single view) and had a 60% higher success rate than radio. But even this didn't give us the success needed. Here are some statistics that I pulled from Patchwork Promotions for you to compare.

For $500 I can purchase a 3x5 space on the New York Transit. This puts 333 posters infront of 70 000 visitors.

Local Morning Newspapers

• Costs: Cost of a small ad in back of well known, morning magazines can cost from $11,200 to $16,080 per 20 showings a month- base price for one ad is $1,462.
• Advantages: Large distribution of 310,000 to 500,000 issues per day. Targeted audience in the NY metro area. Commuters who are traveling to work in the morning.


Direct Mail Circulars and Coupon Packets

• Costs: Vary by company, but average around $350 per 10,000 mailing minimum for coupon circulars, and up to $1,000 for a small in-magazine advertisement reaching 150,000 homes.
• Advantages: Targeted audience able to be broken down into zip codes for mailings. Good view rate, able to target nearby demographic area.

Read More Ad Comparisons Here