Tuesday evening, while out walking Rocco, the Wonder Dog, I occasioned to chat with a neighbor. His family had moved in to the sub quite recently, but well before I drove around and deposited advertising fliers. He recognized my name, and hired me to retrieve his data from an old hard drive. How cool is that?
Wednesday, I burned a DVD for him after I returned from the Ann Arbor Chamber's Morning Edition at Weber's. Today's ME featured a live performance of Radio Free Bacon. I must confess that I had no bloody idea what that meant, but it was quite enjoyable live radio theatre.
Anyway, the topic of this post was really about flier advertising. I really, really didn't think it would be effective; but, of course, if it wasn't, why would I receive so many fliers every week? My completely unscientific polling leads me to conclude that the best one can hope to achieve from fliers is about a 1% response. In my case, I would then expect about 6 new clients from the 600 fliers I distributed. On the one hand that sounds like a horrible waste of time, but on the other, six satisfied clients could recommend their friends, and lead to increased sales.
I also have considered print and radio ads. Can one expect a response ratio of 1% from print or radio; can anyone even try to capture that metric? What about cost per client?
If I put out 600 fliers, printed at Pack n Mail for about $286, and get 4 clients (response = 0.67%, at a cost per client of $71.50) is that more or less economical than a print/online ad at Saline Reporter, Ann Arbor News, or on Ann Arbor Radio? I've spoken to representatives of these fine institutions, and they can't give a definite yes/no. I don't think anyone can.
O, and I've done the Craigslist thing. I put a new ad in there every week or two. So far, I've received only one qualified lead, and that was for a small ticket service call. Pure profit, yes, really effective... no, I don't think so.
I suppose all this begs the question - Whats the best way to reach interested potential clients, and how does a social networking paradigm fit in?
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