Out of the Crisis.Org

Bud · Guest

Let's say for discussion we decided to advertise this website.

Let's also say we have a well-designed, tested and proven print ad that we know has worked well in the past.

So we get a good deal on ad space, and run the ad in Woman's Home Journal. It is a very fancy magazine, has full color ads and glossy paper.

Any ideas on why that won't work, and what the lesson might be for a small business running print ads?

swootton · Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 2 Location: Connecticut

Well, I'll take a stab at it

It most likely will fail primarily due to the fact that the target audience is not correct. How many readers of LHJ are auto shop owners? Do they really want to subscribe to an auto related website?

On the other hand, how many readers have husbands that work too many hours making too little money running an auto shop? You may have some interest but not enough to warrant running the ad in LHJ.

Bud · Guest

Exactly. The people we want to reach don't read that publication.

Implications for any small business are ads in newspapers, magazines, on bus stop signs, and anywhere else have to be where they will read by the target prospects.

For repair shops I've done best with direct mail.

A simple formula: The right message, to the right audience, delivered the right way.

Tom Ham · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 8:45 am Post subject:

Bud · Guest

By the way, print advertising for a site like this works poorly regardless of what print media you select.

Wow. That is quite an odd statement. Businesses of all types are effetively using print ads to lead people to their websites.

Please explain how you've arrived at your conclusion.

Tom Ham · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 8:39 pm Post subject:

Bud · Guest

It looks like you are referring to print ads you and other shop owners have used.

I wouldn't be suprised that you got lousy results, because print ads are brutal. If you can learn to write print ads, you can do any other type of ad as well.

You will be pleased to learn there is an entirely different world out there apart from car repair, and that those people have access to information you don't. Tons of info, years or research, thousands of studies, plus many findings, rules, principles and presepts, more than you'd ever care to read are at their disposal.

That is how this website is different from others that focus only on the car repair industry. This site is more academic. Here we are just trying to give small businesses a glimmer of what the big boys in advertising know.