Hello All,

I have read a lot of posts stating that local advertising is effective. A few months ago, I placed some display ads in some local papers, and didn't get much response from it. I was wondering what type of local marketing WHT users have had the best results from? I am seriously considering doing a direct mail (snail mail) campaign, but wanted to get some feedback from others who have done this. What is a rough average return rate? I am trying to decide how many pieces to mail out and what I may be able to expect. Also, have most in this business sent out letters in envelopes, or postcards? I am still on the Interland mailing list and get their postcards several times a month. I figure it must pay off if they are still sending them, but I feel it would be more personal to send a letter to the local market - then again, they would have to open the envelope!

So many decisions!

Anyway, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,
David Harris

If you send out 1000 letters or postcards, you might get 10 calls... out of those 15 calls 4 might sign up.

It really depends on what you're charging and who you're targeting..

I target local businesses and my local form of advertising is radio and walk-ins with a brochure..

Can you elaborate on walk-ins with a brochure?

I make up a brochure that has all the information I would say to them.

- What a web design could do for them
- What web hosting is
- What it costs what it costs
- What makes me better than someone else
- What they get with me
- What level of service and support I provide
- Any other little bits of info...

Then I walk into a business and ask to speak to the person in charge of the business at the current time (PIC, Manager, Owner, whoever it is) and tell them what I do.. they either A) tell me who to contact, B) are the person I need to talk to... I give them the brochure and then start saying what I could/would like to do for them.

5/10 people will call me back... 3/10 will sign up after they call..
out of the other 5, I call them back a week later and follow up.. 2/5 will tell me they're not interested, 3/5 will talk with me some more. and usually 2/3 will sign up....

so 5 signups out of 10 tries isn't all that bad.

That's pretty good conversion Lirath ... I think a lot of hosts miss out on the follow-up aspect of marketing .... when it could bring in additional sales ;)

Lirath...

Thanks for the detailed info...

Do you have a web site URL?

me too ... I want to check out your site :stickout:

actually no.. we don't :P

go figure.. a web designer without a web page. Being that we don't target the "buy it, have it, use it, leave it" people.... we don't have a site that people can come on and check out.

We have meetings with businesses, we sit and talk with our clients, we do the walk ins.. we have radio ads that give our phone number and location... that's it.

I could never secure a $300/month web hosting and a $2000 web design from a business with a web site. I need them to sit down and talk with me and make them understand what $2000 for a design and $300/month to host it can do for them.

That's the key. You see everyone charging $2/year for ulimited everything and they say they need to do that in order to compete. Wrong. I could charge someone $500/month for 30gb of bandwidth... if I could make them understand that with this website, they will bring in more than $500/month. Then it's worth it. Then they do it.


Anyways - We will be doing a website soon I believe. We'll just have an online form for a quote and just emails us. Then we'll call them. But yeah.. targeting local markets is the best thing you can do. You don't have 104910320 other web hosts competing with you. And most people locally don't know about the trillion other webhosts online charging $2/month for the same thing you're doing. ;)

I agree, in the local market, there are a lot of people that like the idea of having a partnership, or a service that is close to them as well. I am located in Phoenix, AZ, and if I call someone in Staten Island, NY, and if I tell them that I have better prices, better services, it wouldn't be as convincing as a company just like mine in their hometown. They'll take the local company over me. We recently started advertising our webhosting business to local design companies for partnerships, and suprisingly it has been working out. It doesn't take much to look up a company's phone number, call them up, tell them who we are, and invite them out to a lunch on us, as long as they listen to our proposition. Local marketing can be very beneficial, another reason being is you are doing sales IN PERSON, not over the phone like a telemarketer, and we all hate those. We are not sending them email information, because that's considered junk mail by many, and we aren't advertising by snail mail, because they actually do have to open the mail. Face to face is the best kind of advertising you can do. We haven't considered advertising on the radio yet, and I am not sure that we would, for the simple fact that the common public probably won't even know what webhosting is. Let alone want to know more. That area seems a little gray.

We advertise on a station that is played in businesses... that's what the station is made for.. a station that you can have on in the workplace... and you'd be surprized how effective it is.


"Yeah, I heard about you guys on the radio. I have your station on for my employees to listen to, and when I heard your ad, it sounded like it could be something worth looking into"

I have to disagree a little.

I do agree that you can't assume that all of your business would come from your site, but when speaking with people face to face, the site acts as a backup.

I am just finishing up a site, $3000 design, plus $50/month hosting, and $200 maintenance. But that customer I found face to face. They liked my web site and im sure that helped some.

I'll have to look into business radio stations around this area, I don't know of any off hand. Of course your site can be used as a backup. The face to face advertisement can be an effective initial ice breaker, once you've done that, you can really use everything you have to lure them in. I remember in english class, writing persuasive essays... the most important line in the paper is your hook. If that catches the reader, you can use any other tools you can and have to make it a successful catch.

www.aresnetwork.com

Like I said.. we _are_ developing a site.. I mean, it's not going to cost us anything except time... but it wasn't a main priority. I know that sounds very odd... but it just wasn't needed here.

If that works for you all the power to you!

And if you do decide to change your mind but don't have enough time to create a site, let me know, we do a lot of web design ;)

Originally posted by Lirath
actually no.. we don't :P
Anyways - We will be doing a website soon I believe. We'll just have an online form for a quote and just emails us. Then we'll call them. But yeah.. targeting local markets is the best thing you can do. You don't have 104910320 other web hosts competing with you. And most people locally don't know about the trillion other webhosts online charging $2/month for the same thing you're doing. ;)

where's your local market? is it that huge enough to have enough businesses paying you $2000 for design and $300 for hosting month after month? :eek:

Fairbanks, Alaska.. population 35,000 city limits, 85,000 for the burough...

None of our businesses here are incredibly huge, but you'd be surprized what some of them can afford.

One of our main competitors ( www.webbweavers.com ) does web design and hosting... their hosting is very weird, so I don't know about their prices... but their design... they charge a frickin arm and a leg for their design... and people pay it.

They're about double what we are. - and they're not that good ;)