Advertising

[Bwell86]

What kind of advertising do you do?

When I first started, I advertised in a local business journal and a local senior magazine. I never had a call in from it, but people I already knew would say they saw my ad. They would often claim to see it in much larger publications than I ever used.

"You must be doing great, I see your ad in _____ all the time!" This would give me warm fuzzies so I kept advertising.

I have never been able to quantify how effective an ad has been. I don't like the idea of throwing money at something that's not yielding results, but I don't want to stop a good thing either.

The only ad that has consistently had a great return was a free Google listing.

 

[Stephen]

I use letters, the phone, email, and seminars.

 

[indienoise]

So far, I've had negative ROI on any "passive" advertising I've done, i.e. periodical ads, signs, etc. I still do them anyway hoping for name recognition to help push undecided prospects over the hump. I work hard to promote my referral program, it's not enough to keep me busy, but I do have a handful of clients who consistently refer new business to me. It's the best marketing money I've spent. I would focus my efforts on developing relationships with COI's and if you're spending marketing dollars may as well do it buying quality leads or warm transfers.