While I was out today collecting yet another storage unit, eldest daughter happened to be home and took a message for me from somebody offering advertising.
All my daughters have been advised to take details and telephone numbers for me if I'm not available to answer the phone and have taken this to the ultimate by writing down everything!
So, after gallavanting down the motorway for an hour and a half, I then had to drop off a 3 tier nappy cake. I had offered to deliver it personally rather than via courier as I knew I could come back via their direction. I had to laugh though when I turned up and advised the gentleman that answered the door that I had brought two with me and would he like to choose one. He looked at me and told me not to make him choose as he would undoubtedly get the wrong one! Anyway, I took pity on him and gave him my favourite but told him if his other half wasn't happy to let me know. Well, I haven't heard anything so I guess it was ok.
I also had another order when I got home so I'll be waiting in for the courier again tomorrow as this one has to go further afield.
Anyway, back to the advertising - I duly phoned the lady back and she said she had been given one of my leaflets and would love for my nappy cakes to appear in her magazine which goes out to over 15,000 school children quarterly. She is going to send me some information to look at (I never agree to anything over the phone) and I'm going to see what I think.
However, I have paid for advertising in another magazine which goes out nationally 4 times a year and have never had any orders from it. It got me wondering how much use advertising actually is and whether people are now so reliant on the world wide web that they don't really bother to read anything that drops through their letterbox (or in this case comes home in their child's book bag).
I don't mind paying out for things that will (hopefully) get me some business but sometimes it feels a bit like throwing money into the wind. I'm determined to get my nappy cake business up and running and making a profit and know I will have to put a lot of effort into it, but just wish sometimes things were a little bit easier!
Look at things in the old light: you have to speculate to accumulate!
ReplyDeleteYou are your own best advertising tool. Anything else should just be an add on, or if you will excuse the pun, the icing on the cake. If it if free, nothing to lose. If it ain't then don't bother. I believe that word of mouth is a thousand times a better seller than a leaflet (though maybe you want to hand those out with each order you fulfil ;) )
I agree with Kat. I don't pay for advertising - I don't think people take much notice of it these days. I'm happy to accept freebies though!
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot to be said for the "free" forms of advertising: Twitter, Facebook (not ads!), blogging and good old craft fairs (which aren't free but at least pay for themselves!). These may be more time-consuming than traditional ads but they do work if you put enough effort into them.
Good luck!