Newspaper Ad

[NWInsurance]

Ok I have a question for those of you that do ads in Newspapers. I have done a few here and there but I know that you need to be consistant.

2008 is not the best year to start a new campaing of this sort because of the market, but I lucked upon a great deal that I won at an Auction for my local paper.

Here is the question. I will have a budget of about 5K next year for this paper. I used to just put a big ad in here and there but never got a return. I am looking at putting a small ad in, and having it run every week for the year.

My question is:

Would it make sense to be in more issues: ie. 2X per week every week, or tune it down a bit and say have my ad run 1X per week, and then now and then run a larger ad to switch things up.

I have already put together what I think I will do, but I was just looking for any feedback for those that are more expierenced in this.

I am also debating the content as I can have 1/2 of the amount I need to paid taken care of by the carrier, but I am not too sure if I like their ads.

I have been studying more lately about customer segments, and which use what media. It would seem that with the internet and all the other ways of getting news that the newspaper really reaches the older demographic and retired segmet. If that is the case then ad's that fit that demographic would return a better ROI.

I am going to track as I go, and can make changes along the way, but if anyone had any success in this area, and wan't to share their story I would love to hear it.

NWInsurance.

PS,

I am a captive P&C Agent. I am also Var. Life, but we really cant really advertize that because of fed rules. I am also not looking to put ad's in about low rates, etc. as I am looking for clients who really need an Agent, not a website.

 

[Mr. Bill]

Free Report.

 

[Newby]

Ok I have a question for those of you that do ads in Newspapers. I have done a few here and there but I know that you need to be consistant.

2008 is not the best year to start a new campaing of this sort because of the market, but I lucked upon a great deal that I won at an Auction for my local paper.

Here is the question. I will have a budget of about 5K next year for this paper. I used to just put a big ad in here and there but never got a return. I am looking at putting a small ad in, and having it run every week for the year.

My question is:

Would it make sense to be in more issues: ie. 2X per week every week, or tune it down a bit and say have my ad run 1X per week, and then now and then run a larger ad to switch things up.

I have already put together what I think I will do, but I was just looking for any feedback for those that are more expierenced in this.

I am also debating the content as I can have 1/2 of the amount I need to paid taken care of by the carrier, but I am not too sure if I like their ads.

I have been studying more lately about customer segments, and which use what media. It would seem that with the internet and all the other ways of getting news that the newspaper really reaches the older demographic and retired segmet. If that is the case then ad's that fit that demographic would return a better ROI.

I am going to track as I go, and can make changes along the way, but if anyone had any success in this area, and wan't to share their story I would love to hear it.

NWInsurance.

PS,

I am a captive P&C Agent. I am also Var. Life, but we really cant really advertize that because of fed rules. I am also not looking to put ad's in about low rates, etc. as I am looking for clients who really need an Agent, not a website.

I would run a small ad in the same section of the paper as many times as you can. It should be a "hey I exist" type of ad. This will build some name recognition for your business name, logo, etc.

If this is all you do it will be money wasted. These ads get no response. They just compliment your other marketing activity. What they do accomplish, is when you call them from your other marketing efforts, many more people will have heard of you somewhere. You will be more legit in their minds. They won't even remember where or why they know of you.

That's my 2-cents.

 

[NWInsurance]

Oh believe me, we do much more than this, but we were able to get the advertizing at 1/10 it's normal cost due to a holiday auction.

NWInsurance

 

[hpfrench]

Are you with Nationwide? If so, where?

 

[NWInsurance]

Are you with Nationwide? If so, where?

No I am with American Family in the Great NorthWest!

 

[TXINSURANCE]

There is no right answer. 6 on one side , half a dozen on another until you measure the results.

Personally I would run the bigger ad - since running a small ad no one views yields little result - so you will have little result times two perhaps??? Close call though...

You should check out GOOGLE PRINT ADS - you can get some GREAT print rates if this is your thing... I don't run much print, but our local big city paper wanted around $6000 for a small ad (Houston), and on Google Print (part of Google pay per click account) I had it down to around $500 which blew my mind...

I was really just playing around, I submitted for $300 offer - they rejected it and said "bid around $500" - for the circulation of the Houston paper that is a steal.

Something to think about anyhow...

 

[NWInsurance]

Hum that is something.

This was a little different as I normally do not use the Newspaper that much. I bid on this package in a Holiday Auction and got 3,800 of ad's for 375.

I will look into the Google though for 2008 if I want to continue in the paper.

NWInsurance

 

[Mr. Bill]

I know in my market, the throwaway papers with a circulation of 40,000 are charging $300+ for pretty much anything larger than the size of a business card. That print ad feature sure sounds like a winner!

I would still go for the free report.