Town Planner

[NobleCarpetCleaners]

http://www.townplanner.com/info/member-benefits

I guess they're a national franchised marketing source for local businesses. Anyone here dove in one yet? Seems to me like a long term pay off kind of thing. I see the printed product (their main product) in many homes. Next to the phone and especially stapled to the fridge. Mostly I've seen them in active traditional single family homes. My local franchise owner is a super nice lady, very good at selling her product. Told me yesterday about the online thing they have. Found a few quirks on it but nothing to serious. I see some other business friends in it, going to contact them.

Hadn't spoken with her since before the recession began. Compared some notes with her yesterday. Consumer spending among middle class and lower has seriously changed. Most significant change is folks are buying on a "need" basis, and in all industries she has encountered. More and more they need to be sold on "why you", vs the other guy.

My community is changing rapidly on average income. As in lower. I see a growing number of children living with parents. Personally I'm being price shopped on an increasing basis. Yelp stopped working over 2 years ago. Now people are still drawn to my reviews and then my web site, and still I'm having to drag them up the trail away from just price.

Tossed out some fresh marketing to my existing clients and its working but dang not nearly fast enough. Gonna have to get crafty and stack some fresh custies into my database so I can get them to the end goal of repeat $$$.

But back to the Town Planner, anyone?

 

[Chris A]

Yes we did two cities this year and it helped us close a nice two location restaurant account. I was seeing them in a lot of my clients homes hung up so I figured it couldn't be a bad thing

 

[TomKing]

Failed for us!

I did this with their calendar product. This product has coupons at the bottom of every months page and on individual months the blank boxes where a date would be can have a text ad.

I ran in the 7th wealthiest county in America and my own community 2 years straight.

We ran a $50 off gift card. Trip min applied.

We did not even make back what we spent in advertising.

If you are already a coupon offer company or your model is to promote price first you might do ok. I would not recommend it if you are trying to target high end homes.

My wife had for years used the calendar in our back mud room to post the kids events. I saw it at many of our friends homes also. The premise is great I think what it proved to me is that print advertising that is not price driven is not as effective as what I can do in other places.

Just my experience.

 

[NobleCarpetCleaners]

Thanks for the input Tom. When I meet with here this week I'm more interested in the mailing lists she uses and picking her brain about that whole subject matter. She's a real cool player and will share with me just about anything. Mailing lists have always been a mystery to me, ie, just who the hell comes up with them? and how accurate is their income data? The thought of displaying myself as "just another coupon advertiser" doesn't appeal to me. In the end I'm prob going to rely on my own ad copy and get it back out there. I've pulled some crafty stuff out of my hat and did just the last to weeks with my own data base. Took me many campaigns to figure out the balance between sincerity and flair. Didn't think I would need it again but this recession has left a trail of uncertainty that I'm having to negotiate around.

 

[Moser Brothers]

Were in the wrong business the ad agency's are the only ones get the best ROI on advertising, and if we loses thousands, they still get their money, I got $300 in work from a $1,400 clipper ad years ago, so far no calls from a trade with SN&R that will be a few grand, several thousand on a direct mail piece when I was a loan officer, I've found lots of ways to lose money, maybe I'll find something that works. I about to try 5000 EDDM piece, facebook marketing and networking more, don't be a sucker to ad agencies, you can spend that money to get a booth at a home show


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