sally_in_wales
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Advertising budgetsDoes anyone have any suggestions on how to set a realistic advertising budget for a business you are trying to grow?
I know there are many way to advertise, some costing nothing but a bit of time, others costing quite a lot but with a wider potential coverage. I want to plan my advertising into my financial planning for the year and I'm not sure if I should be setting a percentage of expected turnover based on some arcane formula, or just working out a range of possible advertising scenarios and picking a handful to try out. Would welcome any insights.
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Penny Outskirts
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Such a difficult area but I would put specific amounts in your plan, for specific ways you will be advertising. Cost out anything you are likely to do thoroughly. A plan is just that, a plan. You may not do those things as you try them out, but putting them in your plan, and costing them accurately is vital.
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sean
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It's incredibly difficult to work out the cost effectiveness of advertising.
I reckon that for your plague rats a few youTube videos of cats going doolally would probably work as well as anything.
Part of the trouble with niche products is that reaching any significant percentage of your target market is very hard.
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sally_in_wales
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I'm wondering whether that extra pre-Christmas show I'm dithering about might be valuable as advertising even if its not totally cost effective as a direct sales opportunity. Maybe do one of those things where people sign up for a competition or a special offer update or something and focus on getting as many people at the show to take note of our existance as possible and treat the sales on the day almost as secondary in focus.
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Fee
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sally_in_wales wrote: | Maybe do one of those things where people sign up for a competition or a special offer update or something and focus on getting as many people at the show to take note of our existance as possible and treat the sales on the day almost as secondary in focus. |
I know people this works very well for, two in particular, they take names and email addresses in exchange for a chance to win a prize. My sister offers a bottle of bubbly at wedding fairs, she does it every time and finds it works extremely well, tailor the prize to the audience and it should work a treat.
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jema
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I figure a lot depends on the other overheads.
Think of the things with big advertising budgets, and it is generally things that cost just about nowt to produce relative to what they sell for.
Cosmetics, cleaning products, insurance..... they are all prepared to pay a lot for market share.
Craft products are very different!
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vegplot
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Your biggest expenditure in marketing/advertising will be your time given the prevalence of on-line social network tools. I really don't see a need for traditional advertising if the sectors you're advertising to are for the large part off line consumers.
I would, without doubt, invest time rather than using precious cash reserves especially when staring up a business and until you know where advertising will be cost effective.
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nettie
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Penny wrote: | Such a difficult area but I would put specific amounts in your plan, for specific ways you will be advertising. Cost out anything you are likely to do thoroughly. A plan is just that, a plan. You may not do those things as you try them out, but putting them in your plan, and costing them accurately is vital. |
I am in complete agreement with this. I would add that even if things take time but are not actually expensive, that you should consider factoring in your time per hour as part of the overall budget.
And...this is just a budget, an allowance...not an actual spend. As in, money allocated just in case you need it. What makes things difficult as far as budgeting goes, is the fact that advertising has changed so much in the last 5 years, so it really is hard to make any kind of projection on spend. Models based on traditional media that I've seen in the past suggest an advertising budget of 3-5% of projected turnover - it might be a starting point for now, to include stall costs, leaflets, posters etc. Online spend is likely to be less than traditional print - and if you don't end up spending the money, you could always allocate it to something else next year. You don't have to spend it, but it's nice to know there's something there if you need it.
HTH xx
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Vanessa
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Have you looked at Vistaprint for their "free apart from postage" stuff?
car door signs (magnetic) might work well for you, Sally ... as might their postcards (put on your stall for people to help themselves to ... more "noticeable" than business cards).
Free apart from postage is a great offer that they do SO often. We're using them lots at the moment!!
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earthyvirgo
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We (not me as an artist, the web business with vegplot) found almost without exception that paper based advertising, whether an ad in a newspaper, flyer, or advertorial is a waste of money. I can't actually think of an instance where we've had a useful response.
With your work Sally, it's so visual, the amazing knitting in particular, I'd say that investing in the best quality images you possibly can, would be the best thing.
Whether this is getting a good camera and doing it yourself, or hiring a professional once in a while, would be up to you but I think perfect pic quality is essential and speaks volumes.
EV
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lettucewoman
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vanessa wrote: | Have you looked at Vistaprint for their "free apart from postage" stuff?
car door signs (magnetic) might work well for you, Sally ... as might their postcards (put on your stall for people to help themselves to ... more "noticeable" than business cards).
Free apart from postage is a great offer that they do SO often. We're using them lots at the moment!! |
I have the magnetic signs from vistaprint for the jewellery..no idea if they are working but I do like driving about with them on!!
Googleads, facebook ads et al would be a way to go...one thing I would never do again is send out unsolicited stuff...we sent out 2000 post cards to businesses with details of our presentaton skills courses and more about us..we didn't get a single enquiry, i think all the cards went straight into the bin!!
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Katieowl
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I've been playing about with the Vista print stuff It's such fun to play with
For the B&B I'm going to get their oblong flyer cards to dot about locally, and some business cards, we got a couple of 'lawn signs' to prop in the windows too...but I'm trying to be economic with what I spend as I have to justify it against the income we are likely to get from letting one room.
With OH's business (Cabinet making and joinery) we never ever had a good return from advertising. Most of his decent jobs were recommendations from existing customers, and more work for his existing.
Kate
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mochyn
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Sally: are you doing the Royal Welsh Winter Fair?
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