Do you have a price comparision with your competition? I am speaking in the advertising relm right now.

-----Shields: Yes, LG is very similar.

-----One of the best things a publication can offer are coupons to drive traffic. This way the customer can see their money at work. I am sure you have thought of this so forgive me if you have. I am not one to talk down to one. I have been a customer of print advertisement and I know that this worked for me. A few years ago, I bought a small add in the paper to drive people to my dj gigs, it was a clipping. People were bringing them in right and left. Now I am sure that a lot of it had to do with the fact that this place was well known. But we were driving attendance to midweek night, tuesdays. Which was dead as sin. This print add changed this and put that night  in the black, quickly.

-----Shields: The thing with advertising in general is that a customer is not necessarily going to tell you where they are coming from, unless they happen to have read an article.. seen you on the cover.. etc.

coupons are good but.. not always reliable

-------Just an idea and if you have thought of this, my apologies. I do know the owners of B Ella. I will speak to them. They are in other print media.

-----Shields: That would be great.. I have worked with them in the past and asked them several times to consider advertising.

---- BTW, smart of you to not mention the name of the publication. Any form of mention is advertisement for them. When I was on the radio with my own show, the competiting radio station would say stuff about me, all the time negative. Well, people would tune in to me to hear what I was saying in retort and it was always nothing. Plus, this people would call me to tell me what others were saying. I have always treated competition seriously within. But acted like they didn't exsist outwardly.

Be well! TjH 

----Shields: Cool, yeah well I have refrained for the most part from being more vocal but it's time now to grow and bring about some change. This will also rock the boat a bit.

Thanks for taking the time to write-----

I'm sure you know all of this already, but, when I was in Advertising, the best thing we could do to gain people and $$ is to show consistency, eyeballs on the piece, and value...Beyond that it was persistence, grouping, placement and package pricing. Longevity helped too, but that's difficult with a new relatively unproven model of publictation. (No matter how cool it is!) :-)

 

Contracts always help...

Bonus placement, or bennies help...

Buy 3 get (whatever) free....

Readership promotes advertising. Contests promote readership. Sponsorships promote contests, Advertising helps sponsorships...its a vicious circle but one that worked well for me when I was classified manager.

 

We fought the same battle with publication that shall remain nameless. We had to always prove to advertisers our quality, service, pricing WAS better than the competition, because of we offered (daily consistency, in-house design, innovative ideas and better service). Apples and Oranges when comparison shopping.

 

Make fliers regarding comparison shopping for advertisers,

Offer Time sensitive ad specials

Run contests and readership promos (Like V-day..it was fun, it got eyeballs on the piecs, and created momentum)

 

Thanks and I hope this helps!

Again...I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here...