Getting the Best Deal For Your Small Business Advertising Dollar
It was raining here yesterday - something that is usually quite common here on the coast in sub-tropical Queensland but it got me thinking about whether or not we think enough about advertising before we jump in and spend it.
Here in the town where we live there are four newspapers. One somes out six days a week and has a limited circulation because you have to buy it. The other three come out once a week - one on Wednesday, one Thursday and one on Friday.
Those papers are delivered to every house in town and they are free. Delivery is performed by a van driver tossing the paper over your front fence around 6am in the morning.
Now those freebies offer advertising at a lesser rate than the daily paper and, because of their wider circulation they seem to offer a better deal for your advertising dollar. But do they really and do you stop to think about what happens to your advertising dollar after it you have spent it?
Now remember I said earlier that it often rains here so if you lived in this town you might be wise to think of the rain when you spend your advertising dollar. Why is the rain an important factor?
Well two of those freebies are delivered wrapped in plastic. Regardless of the weather each paper comes protected from the rain. The third comes without any protection from the weather.
That means that quite frequently the unprotected paper gets delivered while it’s raining and by the time a householder has retrieved it from the front lawn the paper is a sodden mess. In that state the paper goes straight into the garbage and so does your advertising dollar if you happened to advertise in that paper.
So sometimes it pays to look at other factors besides circulation and advertising costs before you commit your valuable advertising dollars to the garbage.
