Advertising?

[superman]

Has anyone had any luck with print ads in free publications? In my area we have a weekly pub that is mailed out and just wondering if anyone has used any thing such as this and if so what were the results? I know the best source od advertising is word of mouth but just trying to expand and increase my client base.

Any feed back would be great. thanks is advance.

Superman

[Uncle]

Did not work for me

Has anyone had any luck with print ads in free publications? In my area we have a weekly pub that is mailed out and just wondering if anyone has used any thing such as this and if so what were the results? I know the best source od advertising is word of mouth but just trying to expand and increase my client base.

Any feed back would be great. thanks is advance.

Superman

I tried it two ways. Inserted ads in the free weekly pubs and then tried inserting a separate sheet into the free weekly pub. Distribution was about 12K copies. It did nothing for me.

[Black Bart]

Dear Clark Kent,

Has anyone had any luck with print ads in free publications? In my area we have a weekly pub that is mailed out and just wondering if anyone has used any thing such as this and if so what were the results? I know the best source od advertising is word of mouth but just trying to expand and increase my client base. Any feed back would be great. thanks is advance. Superman

I put ads in a free pub every week during tax season for about ten years. I thought it helped me a pretty good bit. While I never found a sure way to attribute it to the ad, my business increased so I kept it up until the pub folded. As you said, word of mouth is best, but it doesn't hurt to get your name in front of people to let 'em know you're in business.

This pub was delivered weekly to every cafe, quick shop, and small biz in our 7K population town. I made a deal with the publisher (for a slightly higher fee) to have it put on the front page at the top every week (he didn't mind because it only lasted 3 1/2 months). A good bold black border around the large-lettered BLACK BART TAX SERVICE made it easily readable to anyone strolling by the stack of pubs, even if they didn't stop to pick one up.

So, I recommend those pubs in preference to the Daily Planet. My theory was that the younger, lightweight (moneywise) clients I was appealing to don't read newspapers but do frequent conveniece stores would see the ad and maybe give me a shot. The mostly older, solid-citizen clients who do read a paper usually have long-standing relationships with a tax preparer and likely won't switch because of a newspaper ad.

Good luck,
BB

[Roberts]

JMO but most print advertising is about reminding clients and prospects about your existence, not attracting new clients so much. If the State Farm rep puts an ad in there, everyone already knows everything they really need to know about State Farm, it's just reminding people that you are there or telling them of a NEW service. If they don't know who you are, print advertising isn't going to work as well. Now if you want to bomb prospects with advertising, that's a different story but seeing an ad once isn't going to generate business like you'd hope. Printing up a coupon on the other hand to cut out, I think that would attract certain people.

They always say to people to write articles and get yourself published in the newspaper as THE expert. IMO, that doesn't attract so many clients but it is amazing at reinforcing the relationship you have with your current clients. It reminds them that Bart is an expert and I need to make an appointment with him to discuss that IRA distribution we are planning on making. But if they've never worked with Bart, they likely aren't going to go look up who he is and learn more about him before calling.

[AuditorTurnedGood]

I've done some print adv

and got effectively nothing for it. Then I did the analysis: 97% of my clients overall are referrals, and 100% of my tax clients are. Each year when I do my pre-season letter, I let my clients know I'm always looking for referrals, and offer a 10% discount off the return prep of they send someone my way that becomes a client. I've given up on print, it never worked for me.

That said, this year, for the first time, I'm not taking new clients. Never thought I'd reach that point, but only so many hours in the day!

ATG

[Black Bart]

Well,

everybody to their own taste said the old man when he kissed the cow.

Years ago my office was a little cubbyhole in the upstairs of a downtown commercial building. It's a small town; I figured everybody looking to have their taxes done knew of me.

One fine December a heated landlord/tenant dispute got me evicted suddenly. Renting a place on the highway, I put a large sign (print advertising I guess you could call it) out on the yard. In the next 3 1/2 months I did $10,000 (say $25K of today's dollars) more business than I had done in the previous year, the majority of whom didn't know me from Adam. Most said they drove by, saw the sign, and decided to give me a shot just because they weren't satisfied with their last preparer (one franchise/three independents here at the time) for one reason or another.

A duke's mixture of 20/30-something factory/construction workers and clerk-secretaries, they were loyal to no preparer (prep price and refund $ paramount). This demographic segment buys lots of stuff and they actually pick up free pubs (my ad was there) to read the used merchandise buy/sell ads. Initially they're looking to switch to something better/cheaper/faster and if you'll provide it, wanderlust eventually fades and they morph into good, solid clients.

And Rob is right -- they didn't look Bart up online or call Bart. But they did simply walk in the door cold.

[taxcraft]

Signs are better

I agree that advertising or Yellow Pages is a waste of money. Putting a visible sign outside your office works best of all.


__________________________________________________ __________________________
Any thoughtful person would agree that if a democracy is a welfare state and an immigration state, it cannot survive.

[lenboush]

An idea to increase referrals

I will share one idea that I have used very successfuly to increase referrals. I work with a local Chick-fil-A to give away totally FREE Chcik-fil-A sandwiches to my clients. No purchase is required by the client. Clients would normally have to pay $2.49 for the
sandwich and, at least around here, everybody loves them. If they have a Chick-fil-A in your area, it is an incredibly inexpensive way to create significant goodwill and get your clients to talking about you.

While it may be different from franchise to franchise, my local Chick-fil-A only makes me pay for the cost of printing the coupons. Since they are custom printed, I have my onw business information printed on them as well as the Chick-fil-A coupon. Even this cost
is not as much as it might otherwise be because they have already pre-printed the back in 2 colors in large volume. The costs for me has only worked out to about a nickel per coupon. That creates some dirt cheap goodwill. I usually give away about 4000 coupons per year.

I not only give them to clients but I go around to nearby businesses and ask if I can give them to their employees. I attach a small flyer to them with a coupon for my services. I also go to the nearby nursing homes and give one to every employee with the same
coupon attached. At a nickel apiece, I can afford to be pretty free with how I give them away. They really do create incredible goodwill.

The only negative is that the clients have now come to expect them.

Incidentally, if there is not a Chick-fil-A in your area, I suspect one of the other sandwich chains might work out a similar deal with you.

This year (2009), the Chick-Fil-A only allowed me to buy 1700 coupons. Apparently the economy is causing them to cut back.

[superman]

Thanks

Thanks for the ideas. I just ordered a sign to put in the back of my truck. Local code does not allow a-frames but no rules on what you do to your cars. There is always a way around the goverment just have to be smarter than them. I will try the chick-a-fila idea there is a new one in town and now days everyone likes something free. I hope to like Black Bart and get alot of walkins that are unhappy with the big chains.

Superman