StompingGrounds
True Grumbler
We're a new shop and trying to grow our client base. What have you all found to be the best place to advertise for framing work?
Thanks in advance!
Thanks in advance!
Question Advertising
- Thread starter StompingGrounds
- Start date
It really depends on multiple things such as your demographic that you are searching for, what others do in your area, what is available in your area, what your budget is, and what your message/ad says and looks like.
Me, Television and direct mail works great but, someone will say that they tried TV and it sucked and someone will say that they did Valpak and it was the biggest waste of money ever.
Overall the best form of advertising is word of mouth / referrals, but if you don't have a client base then that will be hard to do at first.
Good Luck
Me, Television and direct mail works great but, someone will say that they tried TV and it sucked and someone will say that they did Valpak and it was the biggest waste of money ever.
Overall the best form of advertising is word of mouth / referrals, but if you don't have a client base then that will be hard to do at first.
Good Luck
StompingGrounds
True Grumbler
Thanks.
Budget is low since we're just starting and tackling a bunch of things at the same time. TV is definitely WAY out of our budget. Not to mention our area isn't big enough to have it's own local channels, so the nearest channels are big city places. Does anyone find the yellow pages to be effective still, or is that waning?
Budget is low since we're just starting and tackling a bunch of things at the same time. TV is definitely WAY out of our budget. Not to mention our area isn't big enough to have it's own local channels, so the nearest channels are big city places. Does anyone find the yellow pages to be effective still, or is that waning?
Growing up I spent my summers in Rochester but never made it down to your area. So take what I say with the understanding that I don't know much at all about where you are.
We abandoned Yellow Pages. A well designed web site with good SEO will do much more. But if your area or customer base are older folks it might still be good. We do still go in one book and it was published by the local Chamber of Commerce. They sold it off to a phone book company, but many older folks still use it and so we are still in it. If you can find a gem like that then go for it.
Cable TV advertising doesn't have to hit a metropolitan area. You can pick which channels you want to be on and they can run them in a more localized area. The rep will have data to help with channel selection and they will also help you get one produced. But you can have a budget that is much lower than you might think, probably under $1k a month though we spent more. It has to run consistently for quite a while to be effective. We ran ours daily for nearly two years. Our best channel was Fox News, but we are in a really conservative area. We also were well established when we took the risk.
Print advertising might be the lowest bang for your buck with the exception of a well-read local paper. We are lucky to have one here. So if there is a small locally produced paper, they are usually issued weekly, and it's well read go with that. You can get a clue by looking at the quality of the other advertisers.
Most likely the best bang for your buck is direct mail. Keep in mind that most of your customers are going to come from within a 5 mile radius of your shop. Outside of that circle we usually include larger savings offers on the mailing to get them to drive. Look to pay about 60 cents per large post card including printing, mailing, and address selection.
We abandoned Yellow Pages. A well designed web site with good SEO will do much more. But if your area or customer base are older folks it might still be good. We do still go in one book and it was published by the local Chamber of Commerce. They sold it off to a phone book company, but many older folks still use it and so we are still in it. If you can find a gem like that then go for it.
Cable TV advertising doesn't have to hit a metropolitan area. You can pick which channels you want to be on and they can run them in a more localized area. The rep will have data to help with channel selection and they will also help you get one produced. But you can have a budget that is much lower than you might think, probably under $1k a month though we spent more. It has to run consistently for quite a while to be effective. We ran ours daily for nearly two years. Our best channel was Fox News, but we are in a really conservative area. We also were well established when we took the risk.
Print advertising might be the lowest bang for your buck with the exception of a well-read local paper. We are lucky to have one here. So if there is a small locally produced paper, they are usually issued weekly, and it's well read go with that. You can get a clue by looking at the quality of the other advertisers.
Most likely the best bang for your buck is direct mail. Keep in mind that most of your customers are going to come from within a 5 mile radius of your shop. Outside of that circle we usually include larger savings offers on the mailing to get them to drive. Look to pay about 60 cents per large post card including printing, mailing, and address selection.
Kirstie
PFG, Picture Framing God
We have foudn that most new business comes from our web site, and that going forward, this is where we will continue to put our energy. We have a small advertising budget for print ads and we rotate where we spend that money each year, but the results are never stellar.
I admire those who have put all the pieces together to do television ads!
I admire those who have put all the pieces together to do television ads!
Framar
WOW Framer
Here is what I would do - since the area you are in (including Ithaca) is chock full of colleges and students and therefore professors and teachers, I would get very active very quickly on social media sites such as Facebook. After you have your personal profile established, start a separate page for your business.
Its like a website only it is free and it is interactive.
And BTW, welcome to the Grumble!
Its like a website only it is free and it is interactive.
And BTW, welcome to the Grumble!
MaJa
SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Your area will definitively make a big difference in what will work, but also being new (and new to my area) I will tell you what has been working for us ...
The radio, wow, great response.
Letter or wrap your vehicle. The best bang for your buck in my opinion. If you do it bold it will get attention and it will last a good long time. Even if you spend $3,000 for a wrap, it should last at least 5 years ... that's $50 a month.
The chamber of commerce. Ours is great and we have made so many contacts. Ribbon cutting next Saturday!! That will get in the paper, free!
Leg work. Get out, meet people. Very hard if you are a one or two man shop, but it helps. Just came from the farmers market where I met an artist who not only wants to buy some of the jewelry I sell, but also want to print some of here photos on canvas. Great contact! I've got to get to each of the area galleries, it's on the list.
Hope that helps, and best of luck!!
The radio, wow, great response.
Letter or wrap your vehicle. The best bang for your buck in my opinion. If you do it bold it will get attention and it will last a good long time. Even if you spend $3,000 for a wrap, it should last at least 5 years ... that's $50 a month.
The chamber of commerce. Ours is great and we have made so many contacts. Ribbon cutting next Saturday!! That will get in the paper, free!
Leg work. Get out, meet people. Very hard if you are a one or two man shop, but it helps. Just came from the farmers market where I met an artist who not only wants to buy some of the jewelry I sell, but also want to print some of here photos on canvas. Great contact! I've got to get to each of the area galleries, it's on the list.
Hope that helps, and best of luck!!
Bill Henry-
Brussel Sprout Connoisseur
I don't know who first said it, "Fifty percent of my advertising budget is wasted, but I don't know which fifty percent."
I think that underscores the problems for many of us. We all have anecdotal impressions, but precious little hard evidence.
For us, the hands down best campaign has been cable TV, but as you point out it can be frightfully expensive. Production costs can run into the thousands, and even in our small market, another few grand. But, after a six week blitz, our sales increased by 23%. After that, sales returned to the previous old level.
Our web page still brings in customers as long as they can find us in search engines.
Newspapers and coupon ads like Val-Pac have been abysmal failures. Direct mail increased sales, but after we deducted printing costs and postage, we just about broke even.
We're tempted to try an e-mail marketing plan, but we're not sure how to target just those folks in our immediate area. Plus, there is so much spam out there we're afraid that our message would end up in most people's junk folder.
We haven't tried radio since none of our local stations seem like a particularly good fit for our customer demographic. "All sports all the time" - not likely. "Speed metal" - not a chance.
Even though many are dropping land lines for cell phones we are reluctant to drop our presence in the yellow pages altogether. We have, however, dropped our display ads from 1/6 to 1/12.
I think that underscores the problems for many of us. We all have anecdotal impressions, but precious little hard evidence.
For us, the hands down best campaign has been cable TV, but as you point out it can be frightfully expensive. Production costs can run into the thousands, and even in our small market, another few grand. But, after a six week blitz, our sales increased by 23%. After that, sales returned to the previous old level.
Our web page still brings in customers as long as they can find us in search engines.
Newspapers and coupon ads like Val-Pac have been abysmal failures. Direct mail increased sales, but after we deducted printing costs and postage, we just about broke even.
We're tempted to try an e-mail marketing plan, but we're not sure how to target just those folks in our immediate area. Plus, there is so much spam out there we're afraid that our message would end up in most people's junk folder.
We haven't tried radio since none of our local stations seem like a particularly good fit for our customer demographic. "All sports all the time" - not likely. "Speed metal" - not a chance.
Even though many are dropping land lines for cell phones we are reluctant to drop our presence in the yellow pages altogether. We have, however, dropped our display ads from 1/6 to 1/12.
StompingGrounds
True Grumbler
Thanks for all the advice, everyone!
I look forward to the day where our monthly budget for advertising could facilitate TV ads. Until then, we are already pushing FB quite a bit and finding a good response from it. Perhaps we'll look into radio more. There are a couple stations nearby that DO have our demographic as listeners.
Also it looks like Google+ is not for biz, but Google is working on a targeted similar tool for businesses. Looking forward to that.
I look forward to the day where our monthly budget for advertising could facilitate TV ads. Until then, we are already pushing FB quite a bit and finding a good response from it. Perhaps we'll look into radio more. There are a couple stations nearby that DO have our demographic as listeners.
Also it looks like Google+ is not for biz, but Google is working on a targeted similar tool for businesses. Looking forward to that.
JWB9999999
SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
As has been said, different areas respond to various media differently.
Here where I am, a small rural town, the phonebook is our best advertising media. So much so that I added a second phonebook ad a couple of years ago.
Most areas are moving away from the yellowpages to online advertising, but that hasn't happened here. But if you are in a college area, I would definitely focus on online media as that market is hyper aware of the internet and rapidly casting off the "old" like paper phonebooks.
Direct mail has also been very successful for me, but I only use it once a year.
TV has not really done much for me. Nor has radio. When I run "regular" radio ads, I get no response, but when I run "congratulation" type ads in May and "happy holidays" ads in December, I get a decent response.
Which leads to the point that different media can have better or worse response rates depending on what's going on in your area and the message that you are presenting. It's not just the media, it's how and when you use it.
Looking at your website; it seems the framing part is very understated. Is that intentional or not?
I have no budget for advertising either (or not much).
New customers find me through search engines/my website or word of mouth.
I have been doing facebook, which is a great way to get your name out of course, but it hasn't lead to any new customers so far. Still, it is important to reach those 20-30 somethings!
I have just started sending out cards to new home buyers; I wait about 6 months after the home is bought. So far, no new walk ins, but again, I just started doing this.
We have a great local blog; I make sure to comment once in a while to keep my name out there and to see what's going on in the community.
I have no budget for advertising either (or not much).
New customers find me through search engines/my website or word of mouth.
I have been doing facebook, which is a great way to get your name out of course, but it hasn't lead to any new customers so far. Still, it is important to reach those 20-30 somethings!
I have just started sending out cards to new home buyers; I wait about 6 months after the home is bought. So far, no new walk ins, but again, I just started doing this.
We have a great local blog; I make sure to comment once in a while to keep my name out there and to see what's going on in the community.
Kirstie
PFG, Picture Framing God
How is everyone doing soliciting corporate framing accounts? Any tips?
Probably going to need to grab a WCAF class form and mark-off the appropriate ones.