118118/118247

[horsefeathers]

I never said radio advertising doesnt work, or wont work. But the ROI seems too small to waste a few hundred quid on. If you target one radio station then already you eliminate all potential customers who do not 'tune in' to it, and with the wide choices available to the listener (those that actually listen to the local radio), it seems to me to be alot of cash aimed at a small minority. So you spend a couple of hundred on a run with one station, what then? Maybe another couple of hundred on a different station? I listen to the local radio all day and i have NEVER heard an 'emergency' service advertised, unless you call Autoglass an energency service!

I just cant see the value of it, when that money can be better spent in developing other advertising opportunities.

But certainly it would be interesting to hear of your experience of radio advertising should you go ahead with it in the near future.

[toomush2drink]

Again your focusing on one part of a locksmiths work, the emergency market, its not the only thing that makes money in locksmithing and also every one of the nationals is targeting the emergency work.

How about a radio campaign promoting a new bs deadlock fitted for a special price ,this month only at £60, you only need about 10 jobs to break even after taking away parts and overheads but if you get 20 jobs you make about £500 profit.But you could get a lot more jobs than that plus other work from it.
Thats a 100% ROI, but if you think thats not worth doing then dont bother with it.

If you get that roi from £500 then imagine the response from £1000 or £5000 ?Also what about all the other work you could get from it too ? You also get exposure and may get calls after the ads have finished.
But like everything else you need to test an see if it works, its another opportunity rather than a waste of money.

Its this type of thinking that gets the phones ringing for reactfast, as we all know its not their reputation........

[horsefeathers]

We will agree to differ

I dont target anything specific in any of my adverts - just all round locksmith services (not safes). I average £3000 plus per month (before stock/overheads etc), not a fortune but as I am mobile with no shop it give me a fair income and I am happy. I dont do warrant runs and take the view that there is plenty of work about (at least where I live) so long as you make the effort to travel a bit and not restrict yourself to 9-5. My income level has risen each year over the last four years and I am keen to continue this process. I meticulously record every job and where my name was found by the customer. By far and away is the Yellow Pages.

Apart from Google, all of my advertising is in printed form. Perhaps those here with a shop may feel more merit in radio advertsing.

regards

[Bump]

Well! Today I had a letter telling me that my 118118 advertising has been initialted and the DD was being authorised so maybe the 118118 preferential listing is happening after all.

[toomush2drink]

It looks like we can disagree but how can you dismiss something without even trying it ?

[horsefeathers]

I am pretty certain I aint gonna like a turd sandwich, but I am not going to try one to prove it...

[EvoRed]

By far and away is the Yellow Pages.

Be sure to make certain the customer actually did get your number from the YP directory. I've had many call yell.com the YP, 118247 the YP, the BT book the YP, the Thomson Local the YP, it's only when I enquire further that I find out, in a lot of cases, it was something other than the YP book...

[NKT]

Got to agree, nearly everyone says they got your number out the YP. Since I've dropped by advert to a tiny little YP ad, I'm now fairly sure that of the 53 locksmiths in my YP, it's normally not there that they saw me! Probe a bit more and you will find it is all over the place.

[nhughz]

Small advert works well for me in the Yellow Pages, many people tell me they called me specifically because it was a small no frills advert containing a full address, landline and mobile which looked like a local business.

[UNFORGIVEN]

118 247 i got advertising with these and ive had about 3-4 jobs from them in nearly a year every time i call up to test out my number eithas dont come up or its a big call center first witch rip people off
i had a meeting with 118118 and they wanted to slap my A55 for jus ova a grand for the year advertising sayign thay my number will be given out more lmao

personaly i think ill have more luck stading in town wearing a sandwitch board with the words THE END IS NEH on it lol

F4CKING call centers rinse it for all of us

but i do cotract for one i have to admit and id like to think that i charge them fairly and i know for a fact that they are ripping custermors off and rinsing the bizniz for us genuin lockal lockis

ps i know i cant spell and my grammer is dog sh1t and every one is intiteld to there own oppinion so id thank you to keep yours to your self lol
play safe every one

[UNFORGIVEN]

118 247 i got advertising with these and ive had about 3-4 jobs from them in nearly a year every time i call up to test out my number eithas dont come up or its a big call center first witch rip people off
i had a meeting with 118118 and they wanted to slap my A55 for jus ova a grand for the year advertising sayign thay my number will be given out more lmao

personaly i think ill have more luck stading in town wearing a sandwitch board with the words THE END IS NEH on it lol

F4CKING call centers rinse it for all of us

but i do cotract for one i have to admit and id like to think that i charge them fairly and i know for a fact that they are ripping custermors off and rinsing the bizniz for us genuin lockal lockis

ps i know i cant spell and my grammer is dog sh1t and every one is intiteld to there own oppinion so id thank you to keep yours to your self lol
play safe every one

[NKT]

The end is neh? eh?

You could stand downtown with a sandwich board saying "Locksmith for sale or rent." There would be bound to be enough interest and genuine jobs to make up for all the "I know a bank..." comments.

[plumber carl]

[
if this isrelevent or helps.being a plumber i have used all the teliphone directorys over the years and i can say that non work for me ether. thay average out at 500 pa and to my knollage give me about 1 enqiry a week. and usualy for a price over the phone when there ringing around .my biggest problem with them is the amount of sales calls i get usaly when in the loft or under afloor. as acomparison to this i get around 20 calls per d a y when using the paper this works out at around 2300 pa but most are quility calls and like for like theres no comparisoni know its not the best comparison to locksmithing but i work on my own probly like you so if it helps that my angle on it good luck boys