Adam B
|
I have wasted £1000's over the years on advertising my own businesses... I have tried everything including, cold canvassing, door knocking, magazines, newspapers, MLM, directories, direct mail, leaflets, business cards, radio, internet, referal marketing... etc. I now work as a Key Account Manager for the BT Phonebook in the UK, which is similar to Yellow Pages, dealing directly advising Small Businesses on advertising with the directory. I have a couple of customers in your line of business, so here are my thoughts...
Some of the previous posts have said some relevent things, so I won't repeat, but try to suggest some inexpensive tools and tips that work.
Phonebook.directory advertising (Yellow Pages, etc) is the best value 'paid for' advertising, as it is a good resource of ideas for parents looking to entertain their little angels on their special days. Directories go out to every home and are there 24/7/365 for the time when parents need to find your business or service. They are a fantastic resourse for anyone who has been recommended to you, but doesn't have your phone number, or a previous customer who has lost your number, or even someone who doesn't know you, but is looking for an alternative. Choose a directory that covers a large, but local area. Don't waste money on a BIG ad, but ensure the size allows for uncluttered, easy to read contents with the top 25% of the ad saying WHAT you DO, and not who you are... a lot of people make the mistake of putting their business name at the top... this is important, but put it in the ad above the contact details. You need a simple eye catching headline that hooks the eye of someone looking for your service, like 'KID's PARTIES' or 'PLAY CENTER'. Fill the top quater of the ad with this headline.
Leaflets are a fantastic tool if used well. In your industry, the majority (around 70%) of your new customers should come from referralls from the Kids and mums and dads who attended your events with their 'little Johnny & Jane'. Give out plenty of leaflets, ask to put them in the party bags to take back home, chat to the other parents, and dont be afraid to be cheaky and ASK for the business. They are a captive audience!
General 'mail shots' give a poor response of 1 - 2%, but can be improve with incentives. 'Targeted' mailings or leaflets if you have the resource are much better, but the data will cost you more. 'Shoe leather' is cheap if you have a spare hour or two, and you can target areas,
Build up a database of kids birthday dates and parents address details of every child that enters your centre and direct mail the parents 5 or so weeks prior to the birthday with an incentive or voucher to put the idea of your venue in their heads. Send birthday cards to last years 'customers', even if they didnt book you this year... include a voucher for their next visit or to pass to a friend.
Make sure you have a sign on your car or van... This is one of the best and cheapest returns on marketing spend there is! removable magnetic sign, or a board you put in the rear side windows if a car, or writing on the back window etc.
Make and market a little basic website showing your services, offers, pics of happy kids (get parents permission), with a testimonial page of comments from happy customers. Don't spend too much money on it, but ensure the web address goes on all your other marketing tools, so that your small 'static' advert, card, leaflet, can be expanded on with uptodate info and offers if they visit your website.
Newspaper advertising is the most expensive return on your investment, and only works for 'special offers' or if somone is in the market for your service at the time they read the paper, as tomorrow your 50 quid of advert will be fish and chip paper or in the bin. Only do this if your budget allows.
Cheap local village or church newsletters are well worth the money, as people like to use local services, and you are seen to be supporting the local community with your adverts.
Don't forget to target the Grandparents and child minders looking for something to do with their hyper monsters.
Target the kids, play groups, nurseries, clubs, schools etc directly... I dont mean accost them in the playgrounds, (I'm sure there are laws against that!) but get involved with fairs and school fetes, volunteer to run the Face Painting stall etc... Give out your leaflets... Talk to people!
A tip... Kids are fickle... You will lose customers through no fault of your own. You can only really expect to do a few parties within the same circle of school friends unless you keep good records and have a couple of different themes to add variety. Certain areas or groups may at some point get burnt out for a period, so you have to be proactive in looking to spread and target your catchment area, and vary your party themes. Think of the old fashioned farming methods... if they sowed the same crop in the same field every year, the yeild would fail, so they 'rotated' the crops, and even left the field empty (Fallow) for one year. If you are planning to build this business and sustain it, you need to look at the medium to long term strategy.
Your planned list (apart, possibly, from the Newspapers) looks excellent. When I look at any advertising, I consider the target market, location (ie can you deal with enquiries from the area and cope with an influx of enquiries all at the same time? and calculate the likely return on the cost of the venture (how much each resulting new piece of business / party has cost you to get) That is how you learn to understand what marketing gets you the best return on your investment.
You will also need to keep a simple list over the next year of where your business has actually come from. In the back of your diary or computer, for example, list all the possible marketing avenues you are doing like, yellow pages, referral (note who from), Newspaper, church mag, website, direct mail, leaftet drop, with the annual cost for that advertising,etc and ask the question where did you get my number/hear about me with each enquiry and put the customers name, date, value of the order with a tick in the appropriate column. At the end of the year, you can add up the columns and will know how much money each medium has returned for the investment. The following year you will have a negociating tool to get discount on your advertising if it was a poor return, or will know what lines to spend more on if it worked.
Final Tip... HAVE A BRAND IDENTITY. Use the same fonts/colours/pictures/logo on everything, smart logo on your 'uniform', coat, leaflets, website, adverts, leaflets etc. Get your image right and stick with it... don't chop and change and have a mishmash of styles.
Feel free to email if you have any direct questions. Hope this helps. Best of luck. |
Homepage 
Financial
Forum 
Advertising & Marketing 
No Spam
Adult 
Gambling
Unfinished
Deception
Plagiarism
Not English
