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Local advertising magazine startup

pipedream2017

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Okay so I finally pulled the trigger and started a local advertising magazine. It will go out to 10,000 houses formed of 32 pages A5. I will charge £75 per page per advert. Here is my website: www.capitaldirectory.co.uk

Profits if I deliever myself and is full
£15,000
Profits if I get a distribution company to deliever £6,000

So this idea came to me when I wanted to try and start a small pressure washing business. To have 10,000 leaflets printed and distributed it would cost £800, so I found a problem, expensive business advertising, and thought of a solution, how to make it cheaper. If I can fill the magazine up with no competition for example 1 plumber 1 electrician, then it would be a cheap alternative for business advertising locally.

There are a few local advertising magazines throughout london and they charge typically between £150-£250 per page and they seem to have the magazines full up. My end goal here is to have the distribution company deliever them and for me to branch out into different areas with more magazines.

In the area I want to start there are around 2500 services businesses and around 50 different types of businesses plumbers, electricians etc I pull the numbers of yell and have a list of who I’ve called and who I’ve not. So I all need to really do is just get 1 from each category to sign up.

So the results so far are I’ve cold called about 300, spoke to about 120, taken down about 11 emails, 1 guy confirmed he is very interested. The reason I’m posting is because I got back to some of the people who I emailed and they said that they weren’t interested and it really demotivated me. So yeah just thought I’d share it and see what everyone thinks.
 
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NMdad

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The reason businesses pay for advertising is to generate more business.

But why would readers want to read your magazine? What's in it for them?

I gotta say, the idea of building a magazine with readership sounds like a super expensive & time-consuming hobby for someone just starting out.

Wouldn't it be easier--and WAY less expensive--to create a website that brings in leads for a specific type of business, then rent out the website or sell the leads? Or simply just run ads in Google or Facebook to generate leads? @Andy Black, what say you?
 

pipedream2017

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The reason businesses pay for advertising is to generate more business.

But why would readers want to read your magazine? What's in it for them?

I gotta say, the idea of building a magazine with readership sounds like a super expensive & time-consuming hobby for someone just starting out.

Wouldn't it be easier--and WAY less expensive--to create a website that brings in leads for a specific type of business, then rent out the website or sell the leads? Or simply just run ads in Google or Facebook to generate leads? @Andy Black, what say you?[/QUOTE

Sorry I forgot to mention it is only businesses advertising, no content. So rather than paying £800, businesses can advertise in my magazine for 1/10th the price and there shouldn’t be competition, as hopefully will get just 1 business per trade advertising
 
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NMdad

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So the magazine is purely ads? Again, why would those businesses' customers open the magazine--what's in it for them?

I think there are easier ways to generate leads for local businesses.
 

Andy Black

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Have you listened to the call with @Contrarian in my signature?
 

Bekit

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From a copywriting perspective, couple of big questions...

Did your pitch include the price anchoring aspect? Highlight to your prospects that if they get their ad printed separately, it'll be $800, but this is only $75 for the SAME EXACT amount of copies distributed to homes in the local area. And any other magazine would charge them at least $150.

Did your pitch invoke scarcity? Highlight it! "I will only accept ONE company per industry so that there's no competition. I am contacting you and 300 other plumbers right now. But only one will appear in the magazine. First come, first served."

Did you briefly tell the story of your "why"? "I found a problem, expensive business advertising, and thought of a solution, how to make it cheaper. I wanted everybody to benefit. Are you in?"

If you do those three things, I think you'll have people jumping at the chance.

And if you get this pitch dialed in, you'll be able to scale quickly to all the local areas.

Don't hesitate to follow up multiple times in different ways & different channels so that they see the offer repeatedly.
 
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PizzaOnTheRoof

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Maybe people will open the magazine if they’re looking for a plumber/electrician/handyman?

Only way to find out is to test...
 

rwhyan

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Sounds like junk mail. How is this any different from the ads I throw away every week in my mail?

As some others have already asked, what is in it for the readers? I have yet to meet someone who will voluntarily read advertisements with nothing in return.

Even if you’re looking for something specific, like a plumber, this magazine would be no guarantee you’d find a plumber. I’d just ask my friends, family, or do an online search.
 

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