Howdy. I was wondering if anyone has tried promoting their web site in the classified ads section of a major newspaper... I've noticed that many (20%) of the relatively few people that have found my site (restaurant equipment classifieds) through a search engine have typed in the make/model of one of the items listed. This is impressive to me considering the site has five listings on it. I figured if I advertised in a newspaper I could catch the eye of some sellers... (Of course, the more listings, the more search engine traffic, the more clicks, the more cash.) Thoughts?
I ve submitted my website url under a couple newspapers misc sections, one paper had like 50,000 subscribers plus newstand sales, the other paper had a subscription nearing 100,000 plus newstands. I lost my shirt, will I threw away my money, I noticed NO traffic increases at all. I was quite shocked since in the one paper my ad ran for 30 days !!!! And was the number 1 ad in that section a lot of the days. I even tried adding a couple different eye catching headlines or titles above the url, it had no change at all in getting more traffic either.
I actually purchased a front page OC Register ad for Coming Attractions (www.ovenbuns.com) and got almost zero return on investment. I had better experience with car-wash papers - you know the freebies they have in stacks at the car wash, at 7-11, etc., but at times they barely paid for themselves. Believe it or not, the best advertising investment I ever made was with overture and adwords. You can't beat targetted traffic on specific keywords. I think if you are doing offline advertising, you need to be able to justify it with other things aside from conversions - brand name recognition, inspiring discussion/word of mouth, etc. How often do you visit sites based off of a print media advertisement. Even if I'm really interested at the time I read, I usually forget by the time I get online. TV/Radio ads probably convert better, but they are much more expensive. I think I was looking at $1k+ to do a 60 second radio ad on a weekend cooking show, with a month of spots required in order to have them run. A lot of cash for a "maybe it will work" kind of ad. Other successful offline ads for me came from small market targetted print media - things that were distributed at retail locations or doctor's offices serving my target market, but not a big increase in web visitors, mainly phone calls. Another option that I ALMOST tried, was a weather page color ad in USA Today. I forget what it was but the cost was almost low enough to justify if I had a larger target market. Being a local Brick and Mortar, though, I'd end up paying for a national audience when I only wanted to target southern california. I'm pretty sure that page gets a lot of reads though. Walking through the airport you can see at least 100 people with USA open to that page on any given day.
In the Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, Journal, classified ads that include a domain name show up as links in the online version of the classifieds. I have a client that sells realestate and they have had great results running small classifieds that include the link to their website. It works because people who are thinking of moving here will typically start looking at the paper for information. What's funny is the number of realtors who have a website they include in their ads but who never figure out that without the www its not a link (in this paper).
I have purchased a 1/8th page advert in a webdesign/computer magazine called .Net in england and web builder in the states. It cost about $1200 for the 3 month campaign and wasn't as succesful as I would have liked.
A year or so ago, I had a site that sold advertising to used car dealers. The website was database driven which listed all of the cars on their lots. I advertised it using Flyers, Car magnets, business cards, newspapers, radio (this was expensive) and trade related magazines such as AutoSeller... and there was another one I can't think of the name.... Advertising in trade related publications out-pulled all of the rest including radio and the cost versus ROI was very good. Regards, Steve MacLellan
Thanks for the thoughts. I'm in desperate need for content (ads) and I've decided against classifieds for the moment. I think I might try direct mail (postcards) to a few local companies...
I was also thinking about doing this. What about the cheap classified spots? Im talking like $12.00 per week in some papers depending on the size. Would it be ok to do that for branding purposes?
Yeah, I thought about the cheap papers, but there is no "restaurant equipment" section in any of the small local papers. The section in the Post-Dispatch has a good number of ads in it each week but commercial rates would run me about $60... figured for that I could mail all the companies in the phone book and have enough left over for a beer... or a gallon of gas...
Drink the beer and cyphen the gas. j/k Mailing may be the better way to go. Honestly I cant see the paper doing much unless you have a budget like Travelocity and can buy a full page ad in the USA Today. I would just be interested in doing the paper for branding purposes. Kind of plant the seed you know what I mean?
I know what you mean. I'm going to try direct mail this weekend and I'll post the results... Also, not sure what type of site you're marketing, but if its geared towards the general public then valuepak or money mailer may be a good option. A friend of mine has a carpet cleaning biz and he pays $200 or so for 10,000 circulation (b/w front only). I think he said he got 4-5 responses
Well web design and content management is what I am currently getting a lot of clients for. I just picked up a contract for a school here in Nevada so that is helping business quite a bit and I want to start targeting the area more because I know there is a lot more work like this out there. I just need to find it and help it find me. Im also going to be advertsing on TV beginning in January but that is for another thread.
Sort of related to that. I posted ads on craigslist for my artistic services and I got a few projects from them and more than a dozen leads over the years. It wouldnt be my primary form of marketing, but it's worth the time to post it. Have you considered free classified ad sites?