Do I do it for free? $$$

[pipedream2017]

hey everyone, so I’m looking for some advice, I am starting a local advertising business it will reach 10,000 homes for the price of £69 full advert. Now I’m stuck I don’t know if it is best to call businesses and give them a free month or whether to call businesses and charge £69? Suggestions?

Free or charge ?

 

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[minivanman]

There are several ways to go with this so I will stay 100% on your point. How about choose 5 popular businesses in your town and give it to them for free. No time limit for them.... free! Now you can use that as leverage when selling to other businesses. Work it in to your pitch that Billy Bob's Bow Ties and Pattie's Pillows are customers of yours. blah blah blah Yes, Mike's Monkey Museum has been very happy with what we do for him. Just a thought.....

 

[GoGetter24]

Charge of course

If you want to test it for free, do it for charities; they're used to it.

 

[Santi M]

hey everyone, so I’m looking for some advice, I am starting a local advertising business it will reach 10,000 homes for the price of £69 full advert. Now I’m stuck I don’t know if it is best to call businesses and give them a free month or whether to call businesses and charge £69? Suggestions?

Free or charge ?

Hi I'm not an expert at all but I think you could give one or two bussines for free (it is a good idea to do it for charities like @GoGetter24 said) and then increase the price little by little to new bussines and when you have a record then sell your services for the price you want/you think.
Good luck!

 

[pipedream2017]

Update:

so today I have been cold calling. Called about 20 businesses so far, small businesses and most have said no. Very unmotivated now. So my local competition charge £180 full page advert and my business is only £69 I have been calling some businesses that advertise in the competitions magazine, but they say they are not interested. What about a whole month free to get attention from other local businesses?

 

[Tommo]

hey everyone, so I’m looking for some advice, I am starting a local advertising business it will reach 10,000 homes for the price of £69 full advert. Now I’m stuck I don’t know if it is best to call businesses and give them a free month or whether to call businesses and charge £69? Suggestions?

Free or charge ?

I am on a similar path and am advertising all companies free no questions asked. There is a similar business here in my country who charge and I looked at their amount of adverts and the charges and it is a miserable amount per annul and also a close copy of MJs limo business. Hence provide it for free but figure out how to monetize the business. By the way the words that inspired me this year were " figure it out" from KAK. Need any help contact me. I have to get mine going before my 65th birthday in 6 weeks to prove a point on the forum lmfao.

 

[pipedream2017]

I am on a similar path and am advertising all companies free no questions asked. There is a similar business here in my country who charge and I looked at their amount of adverts and the charges and it is a miserable amount per annul and also a close copy of MJs limo business. Hence provide it for free but figure out how to monetize the business. By the way the words that inspired me this year were " figure it out" from KAK. Need any help contact me. I have to get mine going before my 65th birthday in 6 weeks to prove a point on the forum lmfao.

So you are running a local business magazine too? How are you going to monetizar it? And how much is it costing you right now whilst you are doing it for free?

 

[Tommo]

So you are running a local business magazine too? How are you going to monetizar it? And how much is it costing you right now whilst you are doing it for free?

Not exactly it's a country wide website. You didn't say magazine you said a business so I made a presumption. I'll give it some thought though. Good luck.

 

[minivanman]

20 calls is kind of like throwing a football in to the Grand Canyon, not really a big deal and no one really knows.... once you've made 2000 calls then you can see where you stand. Most good sales people can make 20 calls on their lunch break.

 

[pipedream2017]

20 calls is kind of like throwing a football in to the Grand Canyon, not really a big deal and no one really knows.... once you've made 2000 calls then you can see where you stand. Most good sales people can make 20 calls on their lunch break.

This is how I’m opening, hi, I am a new local advertising business in the ***** area. Is this something you would be interested in? Any feedback?

 

[minivanman]

So with what you typed in, if you've had no luck, it takes you about 7 seconds to say that..... it takes them about 7 seconds to say no. It takes you another 7 seconds to dial another number so you've spent a whole 7 minutes calling so far? And I always thought 7 was a lucky number. lol

I haven't done any phone sales since the early 90's. I used to sell nuts & bolts to farmers and hated every minute of it until I figured out that most of the times their lonely wife was going to answer the phone. Once I figured that out, I changed my pitch totally. lol I'm out of the loop on what to say these days but I can tell you that 20 calls is nothing. Not rushing and updating information, you should make 100+ calls a day but you probably need a better script than you have. Just start calling and you will get more comfortable and before you know it, things will just slide right off your tongue. But let me ask you this..... if you have no proof that what you do works, why would anyone give you money unless you are a real smooth talker, but I'm guessing you are not. That's why I was saying what I did in my 1st post ^ And always remember, people that have experience with marketers know that cheaper is usually never better. A drop from 180 to 69 is HUGE! You might have better luck at 149 or 159.

 

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[pipedream2017]

if you have no proof that what you do works, why would anyone give you money unless you are a real smooth talker, but I'm guessing you are not.

Haha so what you’re saying is that a whole free magazine would be better as it will attract the businesses and show that there is actually a business behind it not just some random guy calling up?

 

[minivanman]

I don't know about a whole free magazine, I'd just do 3-4-5 IF I chose to do things your way. To the person you are calling up what have you proved so far? They probably have 25+ people a month calling them for advertising..... why should they give you money? I've had 3 people today call me for advertising. You are an unknown..... they haven't even seen any of your magazines around. Maybe if you want to target the 69 businesses, go with lawn care/house cleaning/window cleaning/carpet cleaning..... they really have no clue about advertising or how to get customers but are always willing to spend their last 69 to try and get a few customers. Cherry pick the easy ones

 

[pipedream2017]

I don't know about a whole free magazine, I'd just do 3-4-5 IF I chose to do things your way. To the person you are calling up what have you proved so far? They probably have 25+ people a month calling them for advertising..... why should they give you money? I've had 3 people today call me for advertising. You are an unknown..... they haven't even seen any of your magazines around. Maybe if you want to target the 69 businesses, go with lawn care/house cleaning/window cleaning/carpet cleaning..... they really have no clue about advertising or how to get customers but are always willing to spend their last 69 to try and get a few customers. Cherry pick the easy ones

Hahaha fair enough. So what my goal is eventually is to have this business in a few areas. I think if I advertise 64 businesses full page for free for the 1 month and at the end of the month provide them with the GPS tracking, hopefully they will wish to continue and pay me for The next month. Also this will attract businesses as they see this is an actual advertising business and will also hopefully call in.

Before you said about pricing. I think £69 is a very good price and reasonable and I think this would help me in getting customers. I know you said I would be better off at 149 or 159 but don’t you think they would just stay with the one that has been around for 10 years that they have used and trusted? This is why I think undercutting is crucial if I want to break into this business

 

[minivanman]

Keep us updated.