It’s not the best picture of me - but hopefully it’ll work… I’m no hardened criminal, just a swash-buckling pirate. Let’s see how good that photoshop editing tool is now… lol
(Halloween pic from a few years ago – sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Kevin, I’ll try to find/get a headshot to you along with answering those other questions you had. Thanks – lookin forward to what you can come up with.
Thanks Bill. I know it’s not the best ad in the world and I’m trying to improve on it for this year – but at least it’s been better than my competition’s ads and it’s provided a lot of business for us.
I’m not sure of the exact distribution, but it covers all three cities in our area (which has a pop. of almost 200,000). Every year that ad cost goes up about 10%, but it’s still pretty reasonable compared to what I’m sure some of you are paying for similar sized ads (the ad size is slighter larger than a business card).
I found a recent photo of Jason – perhaps it will work well in the ad (sorry Jason, I couldn’t resist either!)
Hey Jason, I like that picture actually. It would seperate you from the pack for sure.
wait, you guys know I am kidding, right?
What about the photo used on the right side of last years ad? It doesn’t show his face, but…
Not good enough, for this particular strategy.
The objective of the “putting a face on the company” needs a [I]face[/I]! Someone they can trust to make it right if things don’t work out, and someone to crack the whip and make sure they get what they’re paying for from the beginning.
Not so much a “we’re a real company” vibe, but a “[I]I give you MY word[/I]” feeling.
Thus, a discernible person’s face, preferably the biggest, most important guy in the company, in this case - Jason himself.
All right, so this is what I felt reasonably embodied what we’ve been talking about here, to make a Yellow pages ad stand head and shoulders above your competition.
I’d love to hear what everyone thinks.
Thanks again Kevin!
Group, I’ve replied to Kevin (Paneless) privately regarding some feedback/changes (mainly dealing with colors and ad size - remeber my ad is only 4" x 2.5" and due to layout and not necessarily being under the window cleaning heading, it needs to clearly stand out and show/say exactly what we do and how we can help potential customers). I’d really be interested and appreciate what you all think of the ad so far. Thanks,
I think what Kevin came up with is phenomenal, I would be real interested in seeing the final #s a year from now. Comparing one full year vs another results wise.
Thanks!
Jason requested a couple of changes, especially with size issues in mind. I was under the impression that the ad was actually bigger than it’s true 4" x 2.5" print size.
Here’s the new look, incorporating some color changes, simplifying the text content, and still trying to capture the marketing leverage of some key strategies under discussion here.
Let me know what you guys think.
That’s hot!
The only question that I have is … Where do get your pictures from ??? they look very good.
there are countless stock photography sites online, some you pay small amounts for the photo’s others offer free photos.
Yeah - online stock photo houses. Here are a couple really good ones:
http://istockphoto.com/index.php
http://www.sxc.hu/ (FREE IMAGES ONLY)
The image in the ad above cost me $3 or $4 for unlimited, royalty-free usage
Stop the presses.
If this hasn’t gone to print yet, you need to correct the spelling of “YOUR” as in the line "Your world is about to get a whole lot brighter. "
Not You’re. as it is now.
Wow…good call! How come we all missed that?
Good call!
I switched the phrase last minute (doh…)
Thx.
Kevin, you’re a stud - the ad looks great - sorry it’s taken my a bit to get back to you but I’ve been busy and wanted to get some feedback from customers, family and friends.
I definitely like this ad better than the first proof you did (at least for the ad size I’m using). I’ve got some mixed feedback from people, but most really like it.
I’ve asked 3 customers so far which ad they like best and why - one liked my last years ad better - I emailed both to her and here’s what she said -"I like your top one (2007 ad) the best…i think it’s the one you did before. This is why… 1, the pictures are better (not catalog people) 2, it shows you doing a house with a bunch of windows, 3, it tells the customer what services you do 4, less wordy. does that make sense? the more i compare it to the others, the more i like it better."
The other two customers I showed it to (in person) both said the proof you did caught their attention/stood out more and they liked the “tone” and coloring of the ad - unfortunately, I believe only one actually read the ad, the other just gave me her first impression.
Here’s the problem… my wife still needs convincing. She’s not sold on the proof cause she thinks it needs to show more windows and/or more of the services we offer - and I know - “features tell, benefits sell” - and I told her this, but she’d like to see more of the two ads combined (if possible) - and anyone that’s married know how important it is to keep the wife happy 
Here’s what I think - I felt like I had a very good response from the ad I did last year and many customers commented that they liked that it listed many of the service I offer - so I’m a little worried making too many changes especially since this is permanent for the year and it makes up a large part of my marketing campaign (which in the past has been fairly weak), but I did/do want to make some changes.
I kind of feel like the proof “as is” feels and looks more like a postcard/direct mailer - probably cause when I look in the yellow pages about 99% of all the ads lin any category list features and services (not so much benefits). Why is this? I mean, some of these companies listed are multi-million dollar companies and I’m sure they do put a lot of thought/research into advertising and probably even have their own marketing division. I wondered if the rules of marketing/advertising change a little when you’re dealing with the yellow pages since people are already looking for you (a service) and want to know what you offer. Make sense?
I’m not sure I like the idea of listing a starting price point in the yellow pages. As one of my friends that I showed the ad to stated - “at least let them make the phone call to you, then tell them your prices after you’ve convinced them how great you are.“
Also, residential is a large part of my business (probably about 70%), but we do have a fair amount of larger commercial work/professional building we do - and they are very profitable. This ad definately targets to more residential -which is OK, but is their a way we could tie in the commercial market too?
Anyways, my wife and I will talk about it more tomorrow and I’m hoping to get a bit more feedback from others (especially customers).
Sorry for the long post.
P.S. I talked with the yp company and they’d like to have my proof in by this Friday and the exact ad size is 3.875” x 2.333” - so I need to finalize this in the next day or two.
Thanks again to Kevin and all those that have given feedback.
Hmmm.
With such a small space, its impossible to leverage every tool, so we’ve got to select the most powerful combo possible.
I’ll try and keep things straight in my response.
[I]“I’ve asked 3 customers so far which ad they like best and why…”[/I]
[INDENT]Try bouncing it off NON-customers instead: Neighbours, Friends, etc. This ad is for these kind of people, not repeat customers.[/INDENT]
[I]“I kind of feel like the proof “as is” feels and looks more like a postcard/direct mailer - probably cause when I look in the yellow pages about 99% of all the ads in any category list features and services (not so much benefits). Why is this? I mean, some of these companies listed are multi-million dollar companies and I’m sure they do put a lot of thought/research into advertising and probably even have their own marketing division. I wondered if the rules of marketing/advertising change a little when you’re dealing with the yellow pages since people are already looking for you (a service) and want to know what you offer. Make sense?”[/I]
[INDENT]You raise an important issue, Jason, and one that hasn’t been talked about openly on this forum before, to my knowledge. A lot of what we have been preprogrammed to believe as “standard procedure” for marketing is based only on what we’ve observed other people/businesses do. Every day, MEGA million dollar companies produce meaningless and foolish marketing pieces that squander billions of dollars. That sounds completely arrogant, but it’s true. Try not to pay too much attention to competitors in terms of how to structure your marketing. Pay keen attention to their offers, though.
I guess what I’m saying is that I think the ad as is substantively communicates that you are a window cleaning company. We don’t need to add pictures of you cleaning windows to fortify that point. And again, ideally, if we had the room, we’d include a WHACK more stuff, but we can’t. Images are best used to focus on the most impressive benefits that the client will experience from using your services.
If, on the other hand, you were window cleaning a famous local building in a photograph, or a famous persons actual home (and could advertise that), this would be a great opportunity to show you cleaning some windows in a photograph used for the ad.[/INDENT]
[I]“I’m a little worried making too many changes especially since this is permanent for the year and it makes up a large part of my marketing campaign (which in the past has been fairly weak), but I did/do want to make some changes”[/I]
[INDENT]I hear you 100%, Jason. In the end, it’s your money, and your decision. You have to decide who to trust. Every time you change something, you take a risk. What is amazing is that the more you trust proven marketing intelligence, (not MY ideas or something I’ve dreamed up, but PROVEN marketing strategy) the more you end up with completely different end-results than your competitors. And more often than not, you end up with exceptional results.
If you would rather use the same ad as last year, and simply change one or two small things, that’s understandable, for sure. Again - your decision.
I was told many times that holding a prize drawing for a $2,000 iMac was a stupid decision, since I had no safety net, and no guarantees that it would result in ANY new work. But it paid off 6-fold. Risks & Rewards. Gotta love it.
As for the [I]pricing thing[/I], I have found that the more open I’ve been with pricing, the more I effectively pre-qualify my leads, and the higher my close rate. And if I tried to “hide” my pricing, it always seemed as if I was ‘ashamed of it’, and was trying to sneak it past them. The “from $99” is important, because it doesn’t preclude you being able to charge $599. “From” means only “from”.
My opinion: Include some pricing in the ad.[/INDENT]
[I]“is their a way we could tie in the commercial market too?”[/I]
[INDENT]What would you like to swap out to create a spot for it? Hard decision. I assumed that you were mostly residentially minded with last years ad, with the residential windows in the photo. My mistake for not asking and clarifying from the get go.[/INDENT]
[B]Final thoughts:[/B] At this point, with the deadline and all, I’d like to make what YOU want, and I promise to do that, since I’m doing this as a favor. If you were a paying client of mine, I’d say “back off bucko”, and roll out this ad essentially as it is right now. But you’re not a paying client, and its 100% your baby, so just let me know how you’d like me to treat it, and I’ll do it.
I have been following this thread and just wanted to add a few thoughts.
-
I like the add that Kevin has created. It stands out from the rest of the ads you see in the yellow pages ads for window cleaners. Being different gets attention.
-
Being such a small ad, you need something to get there attention. A picture of the couple sitting in their bedroom does that. It says look at this- to me anyway.
-
As for the big companies having huge marketing departments, they may, but that does not mean they are good. I worked for a huge service company for seven years as a manger and they would push out marketing brochures and information sheets with errors all over them. I once took a handout that we left in all of our customers invoices and circled all the misspelled words. I turned it into my branch manager. He passed them on to his boss. The next year when we go the shipments in again. You guessed it, the same errors nothing changed. I said all of this just to make a point. Although big companies have billion dollar marketing budgets does not mean that they are better than us.
Derek
