Advertising

[rhys]

I thought about advertising today. How effective do you find the various methods?

I thought about putting a magnetic sticker on the side of my car that says "sagephotoworld.com" and underneath that, "photography". Would that be as effective as newspaper advertising?

[bestfromnw]

try craigslist first.

[rhys]

Thanks. I have just tried a craigslist advert: http://columbia.craigslist.org/evs/372632569.html

I'm trying for the budget weddings right now - just to build up experience and a portfolio.

I'm also going to try to find some economical way of getting magnetic signs for my vehicle.

[ssim]

I think that there are safer mediums for advertising. I have stayed away from putting anything "photo" on my vehicle. I personally think that it is just an advertisement for thieves and given the gear that I have I'm just not prepared to do that.

I have advertised in the local weekly papers and it has yielded good results. They generally cost less and they get read much more thoroughly than a daily. I wouldn't really call them a paper that reports news but is more of a medium to deliver more advertising to your house and cover local happenings.

[Photo-addict]

Hmm, Tried PPC Advertising yet?(Adwords or Overture). Use it to bid on keywords like Photography in and around Columbia etc.

[rhys]

I think that there are safer mediums for advertising. I have stayed away from putting anything "photo" on my vehicle. I personally think that it is just an advertisement for thieves and given the gear that I have I'm just not prepared to do that.

I have advertised in the local weekly papers and it has yielded good results. They generally cost less and they get read much more thoroughly than a daily. I wouldn't really call them a paper that reports news but is more of a medium to deliver more advertising to your house and cover local happenings.

That's a thought. On the other hand an Xterra is a magnet anyway.

[justisnmnz]

Look for local magazines, go to some doctors offices, banks etc. and find the most common local magazine on the tables. Call up the editor/publisher and see what their pricing is.

More prospective customers will be sitting in a waiting room and looking through a small magazine than will see a sticker on the side of your car. Plus it's alot more fun to design a full page ad for a magazine than a few lines of text in a newspaper. :D

[rhys]

Actually, I never found newspaper advertising very useful. I advertised for a month in Britain, had 3 phonecalls and one booking. That didn't even recoup the cost of the advert!

[XTshooter]

If it were me, I'd stay away from the newspapers. Their readership has been dwindling severely over the last few years (at least here in the States). I purchase ad space for some of my clients so I get the circulation figures for a few local papers each month. They're bleeding more than they'd have you believe. The exception here, in my area, would be the typical Sunday edition that's littered with ads. You'll have a really high readership and be able to reach lots of people, but you'll also be competing with a lot of other ads for the consumer's share of mind. I would try to do some research and figure out where your target market is getting their news/entertainment and then latch onto whatever media is delivering it to them.