Best form of advertising?

[nick channer]

I5k a year? Most advertising experts will tell you that 5% of income is the most you should ever be spending on advertising, 1% would be ideal. But if we go with the 5% rule, that means you get 300,000K (yes, .3million) return from that advertising, does that sound right?

 

If not then the people you are advertising with are doing better than you are.

 

All I got with advertising was more time spent doing free quotations, so the jobs you actually do get have to pay for the ones you dont get which is pointless and lowers your overall proffit %. Especially if the ones you do get are from word of mouth, no point in them subsidising your advertising budget!

 

turnt over exess of 160k last year.. without any of the foldin stuff that you cant help to accumulate in this job.. so around 10% i guess..i'm more than happy with thaty return..

[Rupe]

You said that the advertising was to fill in the gaps from the recomendations that give you most of your income.

 

Lets say that 50% of your work is from recomendations (ideally it should be 80%min but I'm trying to help you out here) so that means you pay 15K advertising in order to get 80K worth of work!!! Sh1t thats 12%!!

 

Your refferal work is definatly paying for your advertising work. No wonder folk in advertising drive nice cars!! Imagine having hundreds of clients like you that have 15K a year to spend and don't mind if they are not getting 300+K in return!

[tothby1]

reputation

a good reputation crawls in

but can run out

[nick channer]

i look at what i spend a week and what i earn a week.. [turn over] like i said before i only need one smaall job for 300 in a week which covers advertisin costs.. do lot work for excistin customers and recommendations and hell of lot new customers.. since friday nite i've had 7 jobs come in to price.. there all new customers.. and i got job tomorrow mornin for 550 for previous clients neighbour.. the statistics dont really worry me.. i pay out 300 and get min 10 times that back in week [without weekend work].. job i do on a sat pays my 2 groundsmen for week and diesel bill and any foldin i get pays climber for week.. mog and chipper are payed for so long as i can find work i'm happy... very happy.. but your prob right about the %'s..

[Rupe]

I'm not havign a dig, and I hate it when freinds start telling me how to run my business but this is a thread about advertising.

 

You spend £288 a week on advertising. So one £300 job a week from advertising does not cover it at all. In an ideal world only 5% should be spent on advertising. So from your £300 job £15 can go towards your £288 advertising budget, the rest is needed for costs and profit etc. But from your one £300 job, 96% of that goes towards the advertising costs!!!!! That doesn't leave enough to buy fuel to get to the job??

 

Your getting all your work from recomendations, which is great and how it should be. You not getting £3k a week from advertising, your recomendations work is subsidising your advertising, so whoever you advertise with is doing better out of it than you. It looks as though you could cut your advertising by 12K easily and maybe your gross income would go down by 15K or so no more than that, and your profits would be hardly effected at all.

 

 

I'm rubbish at doing the right thing, so I am probably better at criticising. My advertising budget consists of signwriting which is a one off charge, and having business cards etc. I have no monthly or annual recurring charges. 100% of my work is referal or recomendations or "we saw you working the other day" and so less than 1% of turnover goes on advertising. My turnover is way less than yours (I'm below vat threshold) but I wouldn't be surprised if my taxable income (net profit) was very similar.

 

I understand that companies need higher turnover in order to run mogs etc. and that is choice to be made. That kit allows you to do more on a day than the little firms, and so you need more work coming in to keep you fully busy and I should think there is a greater worry of not having enough work, and so more stressful. But 15k on advertising, thats some nice holidays you are missing out on IMO.

[Nick Perks]

Hi,

My Company has been going just shy of three years so I’ll give you a brief insight to what happened for us..... And how my opinions changed somewhat.

Started out with flyers, parish mags, friends of friends of friend, website and arranged face to face (i.e. find a large landscaper who wants to sub all tree work out). Had a small yell advert that gave a mega return (£850.00 for advert, return turnover 10800, net 30-45%)

As things progressed got involved in trying a few things such as local and regional papers, advertisers, also looked at radio too. Nil return, not a call. Went for big Yell advert too, not cheap, got plenty of action from it. If you go in such places as Yell or Phone book the phone rings, a lot. However every other company’s phone is ringing too, with the same people! If you go big and generic (if that is the word to describe it) you place yourself shoulder to shoulder with everyone else and from a customers point of view if they have a page open with plenty of contractors, same sort of wording etc they will ring a few. No worries quoting against 1 or 2 but I was turning up to quote against 4, 5, 6 and knowing that I would never be cheapest, lost interest.

Currently use yell online and book (smaller ad in book) but I ask a few questions before even bothering to write down client details. It gives me the option, work quiet, go do quote, may get a few days work. Plenty booked up take it or leave it depending where they are located, how many quotes they are getting, what the tree/s is/are..... and weather I like the sound of them.

From what I have learnt if you go with Newspaper for a day or so, radio, weekly publications and such like you'll be targeting chance customers. Someone who right at that time may be looking for a tree surgeon, but there may not be any persons reading who are in need! Go down the Yell, phonebook, web or classifieds route, people know where you are, so when they need a contractor you are always there in the mixer. Some county council trading standards dept do a guide that is sent out. You apply, send company details, insurances etc and you get listed. That has been a good one for us, plus not rammed with every other contractor.

Money wise, have never spent more than 10% of turnover and currently spending 6%.

Best form of advertising in my eyes, be out working, look smart, truck and chipper clean, do good job, have plenty of glossy business cards then I think you'll be laughing all the way from the shores of California to the slopes of the alps and most importantly to the cashier desk at the honourable bank of your choice.

[Ian Flatters]

Tbh my best return has been from flyers through the doors not cheap ones but good quality types. Then local glossy mags in my local area are a close second. Word of mouth is good but will only get you so much work in.

[Rupe]

Nick Perks makes a good point there. The jobs that come from advertising are the ones where you are quoting against others, wheras referals/recomendations etc. often you are the only person quoting.

 

So spending money to get the cheapest jobs means even less return on your advertising.

[ad15]

doesn't matter wether it's tree work, or a multimillion $ snowboard brand,,, 5%.. not a penny more,,,

[wildwood-dwt]

i look at what i spend a week and what i earn a week.. [turn over] like i said before i only need one smaall job for 300 in a week which covers advertisin costs.. do lot work for excistin customers and recommendations and hell of lot new customers.. since friday nite i've had 7 jobs come in to price.. there all new customers.. and i got job tomorrow mornin for 550 for previous clients neighbour.. the statistics dont really worry me.. i pay out 300 and get min 10 times that back in week [without weekend work].. job i do on a sat pays my 2 groundsmen for week and diesel bill and any foldin i get pays climber for week.. mog and chipper are payed for so long as i can find work i'm happy... very happy.. but your prob right about the %'s..

 

Every company is different, and the amount they need to spend on advertising will therefore be different if your happy that your making enough money from your advertising then obviously your doing something right