I'm thinking about doing some magazine advertising for our hosting business and just wondered if anyone could tell me if they've found this effective?

Obviously loads of companies do it which would suggest its worthwhile - or do they do it cause thats what all the big companies do?!!

About 6-7 years ago, I spent about $1000 in a popular regional computer magazine. The ad ran for about 4 months. What I got from it were two phone call inquiries, and no actual sales. It was the last time I spent anything on print ads. Perhaps, my ad wasn't effective in itself or maybe I should've ran the ad longer, but still, out of that amount of money, I should have at least brought in one customer from it.

For small hosting companies, I don't think magazine advertising is the way to go. It's far too costly and the return of investment could most likely be minimal at best.

It really comes down to who you are in fact advertising to, many people think they are advertising to "magazine readers" so when a magazine says they send out to 10,000 people a month, you figure well there is 10,000 potential customers.

You need to provide more information about your business, in order to get some help from us in your marketing techniques.

Who are you advertising to?
What are you advertising?
What benefits do you have over your competition?
What would make it worth their while to switch companies?

You should also consider plain old newspaper ads when looking at the print media. From my own experience this still is very effective.

Hi,

I would have to agree with direktiv on this one too, although magazine advertisements can provide you with a considerable amount of exposure they have their downside for smaller hosts too.

Magazine advertising can be very expensive, and the potential conversation rates for customers can be very small. You must also understand that there may be many other hosting companies advertising in the same magazine, competition is therefore increased considerably.

You may be better of spending some time with some A5 flyers around the local community and or through word of mouth.