price for ads

[steve_64]

i just agreed to an ad for the cross country regionals at the school my kids went to. my youngest graduated this year. its an 8x11 book not sure how many pages but has all the info for the meet. i have the whole back page, they print 750 copies and im paying $475. it seemed high but i promised myself to do more advertising this year. i also have till the end of the year to pay.
my dauhter also ran cross country so i figure its a way of giving back.

there are about a dozen of the local schools involved. these get saved by a lot of people so i think its a good investment. i reallly dont expect calls from this, just a way to keep my business name out there.

any opinions are welcome.

 

[Ken Snow]

I think it is a great way to give back Steve, but would suggest you count it more as a donation than advertising. You may get some response and it is great to do some of this community stuff but the math doesn't work as pure advertising. 15-50$ per thousand (the 50$ for premium position) is a fairly reasonable way to price print advertising vehicles (marriage mail much much less). Your rate of $633.33 per thousand is okay for this but don't look at traditional media for those #'s.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Its a donation and as long as you don't expect much you'll be pleased when CC supporters use you.

Never a bad deal to do those things as long as you know that is mainly a donation, which it sounds like you do.

 

[steve_64]

thanks ken.

i have only done yellow pages and newspapers for true advertising. i knew the price was high per person but was thinking like you said about more of a donation but with a little bonus. i have done other stuff like this for the schools in the past but hadnt done any recently. i never get calls on this stuff but hear a lot of comments about people seeing it.


i need to take another look at direct mailing. it may be time to start going after specific customers instead of the broad approach ive been taking. thanks for the numbers.

i guess i have done some other things like the grocery store display case but i dont expect much from that either. just another way to keep my name out there.

 

[steve_64]

Its a donation and as long as you don't expect much you'll be pleased when CC supporters use you.

Never a bad deal to do those things as long as you know that is mainly a donation, which it sounds like you do.

yeah, i feel good about doing it, and giving me time to pay was hard to pass up.

 

[Ken Snow]

Some type of valpak or other marriage mail product may be a good place to start Steve. You can really target a specific area at an affordable price. The only thing is most areas have many carpet cleaners (as well as lots of other things) so to stand out from the crowd it helps to find something unique, especially if you are not the cheapest. Another thing is specialty magazines like Metro Woman, Metro Parent if they are in your area. It is tabloid newsprint style rather than glossy magazine and they are very affordable.