Do you date advertisements?

[Larry B]

and alot of people hold on to them till spring too.

(from another thread)



How many of you put dates on advertisements you send out?

When we first started we mailed thousands of postcards with huge price cut offers to get started. Its been over 5 years and from time to time we still get people that call with the old postcards and they say "we have been holding this for awhile". If its a special deal we always include a cutoff date on fliers and postcards now.

Do you do this?

 

[Ken Snow]

It is always good to trigger a call to action by having a cut off date on specail offers.

 

[CapeCleaner]

Any special offer I advertise always has an end date. That said, I'm pretty flexible if I get a call within 30 days of that end date wanting to take advantage of the special.

 

[Ken Snow]

I agree with that David and we always honor them too, sometimes many months or even a year plus later. The goal is not to refuse people but to add a little urgency to those who are, or are almost, ready to buy.

 

[rhyde]

I have some % off cards dealers send out I send out with new rugs sales clearly they aren’t going to get their rugs cleaned in the next few months unless a spill happens so I’m willing to let it hand out there to get them in the door at some point.

The holiday ones to existing clients have a call to action expiration date.

 

[Ron Werner]

Be specific about your dates to. Last Christmas I sent a flyer out too late so I put a discount on it for Jan Feb, but I wrote Jan 08 to Feb 08. MANY people thought I meant Jan 8th to Feb 8th when I intended Jan-Feb 2008. Funny thing, that foopah generated the urgency, people were calling trying to get in on it before Feb 8th. I still had people call into Feb, and a couple held onto the ad till a couple months later. They didn't expect to get the discount but just wanted my service. I honoured it anyway.

 

[XTREME1]

over sized postcard no date and about 5-6 offers no real discount just my pricing

Small Postcards I usually send out with 10% given to a charity 3 months to act and I use the charities mailing list

Mailers 2 months if I am running the next month and 3 months if I am not

Good forever postcard is just that the deal is good forever. Mailed in a 5 mile radius of my shop.

 

[Brian R]

SHHHHH. Don't tell my customers but....I always except coupons that are outdated.

I have had some people use other company's crazy ass offers as well.
When they do that, I just give them a decent discount. I also tell them that the offer from the other company is a crazy ass offer and let them know what to expect if they tried that company.

 

[Larry B]

SHHHHH. Don't tell my customers but....I always except coupons that are outdated.

I have had some people use other company's crazy ass offers as well.
When they do that, I just give them a decent discount. I also tell them that the offer from the other company is a crazy ass offer and let them know what to expect if they tried that company.

What a crook

 

[Brian R]

Just stop it, you.

 

[Scott]

We have expiration dates on 100% of our ads, but like the others we'll honor them even if they're expired. On some campaigns we can't honor after the cutoff date, however (I.E. a current promotion where we're giving away a laptop, Ipod Nano, and $100 gift certificate) because the items will be given away on a certain date.

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