Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Not necessarily. It all depends. Not every business spends on advertising
in the same way. And frankly you don`t see folks advertising all willy-nilly
hoping that some exposure is better than none at all. Some folks
understand the power of advertising towards an applied market and some
don`t. There`s difference between advertising STP, a commodity common
in that industry vs. a service that isn`t. It may end up being wasteful and
free enterprise on Chris` part.

Chris, I suggest you do what the experts do and research your market
audience first. In this case, the audience who will see this car on the
track. What sort of business owners are they? Do they have a need for
your services? If there is potential to generate a response from among the
crowd then I say go for it. On the other hand, if the chances are slim I`d
pass. I`m all for a barter of services only if both parties walk away with a
win on the deal.


smileys/smiley1.gif

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Archetype Design Studio - Creatively Disciplined, Design Driven | Arche-BLogGER - A virtual exploration inside the Creative Mind | no!spec - Eradicating speculative work one designer at a time | Combating the Stigma of the Overpriced Designer - A Creative`s first intrepid adventure in the journalistic arena

Thanks Sea. Nice to *see* you over here also.

Barter? You bet!

By way of illustration:

I just did a deal today with a related business in my industry.  He sells house plans, I build houses as well as market for other builders. 

He already has a plan publication that is given away free on newsstands.  He has also published over 10,000 plans on CD to be given to clients who ask for free.  It is offered on his website, but he doesn`t capture any data on who gets the CD`s.  I want the names, so I have agreed to handle all the duplication and distribution of his plan CD`s.  All he has to do is put a link on his site to send to me where I will pop up a registration/request form, capture all the data I need, then send out the CD.

I present at home and garden shows with a cost of about $4000/show, get about 50-150 serious leads, so my cost per lead is around $40/name.  In my deal today, I pay for the CD`s, postage and envelopes to over 500 people per month at a total cost of about $1.50/name.  So my acquisition costs drop over 97% and my response increases by about 500%.  (Really 1500% because I get this 12 times a year versus 4 times per year.)  In addition to this, he will send all plan book requests to me, which is another 2700 people per month. What a deal! 

He gets his plans distributed for free, I get all the names, ads in his pubs and shared expenses for presentations when we do go on the road!

The point of all this is someone has previously said know your market, then know the market that the medium you are considering is going to reach.  If they overlap significantly, then do it.  If not, don`t waste your time.  My deal was great because we are in the same general market, with me specializing in the more up-scale customs.  My market is a little more focused or targeted than his, but that`s OK, I can weed `em out.

Barter?  You bet!

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Burnin` Green, the only way to go.

I`ll barter for advertising with anyone in exchange for resources to help with our next Pursue The Passion tour.  What we are doing is traveling around the country to interview passionate professionals about their career path.  Our goal is to provide people who are fearful of leaping into their passion with the inspiration and resources for them to pursue their career aspirations.

In relation to the tour, we can offer promotions within our interviews, on college campuses we will be visiting, advertising opportunities on our car, website, our foreheads (j/k), whatever in exchange for the essentials of starting up a small business. 

Please let me know if you or any of your contacts would be interested in becoming involved with this project.  It`s much more lucrative than race car advertising.

Thanks,

Brett  

A few thoughts on the topic:

Listening to StartUpNation; one point they make about advertising is you have to get the numbers and you can`t just go `gut feeling`. Evaluate it just like you would for any other ad spend. What are the demographics of people attending? How many people come to races?  etc.

Once you evaluate the reach of the ad, figure out the type of website the person is thinking of. How many pages? Who will maintain it? Figure out how much that will cost you. If the race car ad doesn`t look good then pass.

Also, I worked for a short time at a bartering company where we took product overstock and traded it for advertising credits. It was quite interesting, if a bit strange service. What I learned was that the bartering deals were still taxable events. On a small scale I guess most people don`t report that type of thing, but it might still be considered income, of some type, as both services that can be given a fair market value. I am not a tax specialist so I might be off, just thought I`d raise the point.


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Heath Weaver
In depth swimming analysis
www.wbmny.com/swimming

The idea is only the first step.

There is one thing you are missing in all this ... more than the car, what kind of traffic does his website get? If it`s heavy traffic, it might be worth plopping your name on it.

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That PHP Girl
Small Business Essentials
Latest Post on SUN: New Facebook Pages - First Impressions

For me, it depends on how much work would go into the design service.

If you can barter a few hours of your time for some free recognition then go for it.  You`d spend a couple hours setting up a deal like that if you paid for it anyway, and you`ve got no financial loss at stake.

I say go for it, unless it`s a major job/way outside your audience.


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Simple, accessible and usable websites with standards.

[/QUOTE]
And frankly you don`t see folks advertising all willy-nilly
hoping that some exposure is better than none at all.
pass.
[/QUOTE]

On this point I must respectfully disagree. I`ve seen people throw money at just about any advertising proposal offered to them, especially if it was `cheap`, hoping that at some point something would stick. My observation of businesspeople spending money on ineffective advertising contributed fuel to the fire that launched my company. Business owners are experts in their field, but that field is rarely marketing/advertising. Too often, their advertising choices were based on an attractive price rather than a reasonable expectation for return on investment. Ironically, advertising that`s not working is the most expensive of all!

Even though we`re discussing barter here, this topic is still a good example. A company`s name on a race car may sound exciting and glamorous, but if it doesn`t get that name in front of the `right` people, it has zero real value. I have to agree with those who suggest a `pass` on this one. 

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"The Media Fairy"
Carole Holden
Gelmtree Advertising

"Your advertising doesn`t have to be expensive or complicated to be effective. Ask for your free slice of Advertising Pie."