Thread: Trying a Newspaper Ad for the First Time-Update

My current marketing dilemma is this:

1) Classes are booming, but gigs are fairly sporadic.

2) The winter and holidays are a very dry time for gigs for me. From November - February, I'm lucky if I have one gig per month. ..cr.:

3) I have an excellent web presence in an area with a limited professional dancers. If someone is looking for a Belly Dancer, 90-95% of the time, they are going to find me. I now want to reach those people who don't have belly dancing in mind when looking for entertainment.

With the above in mind, I think I'm going to dip my toe into newspaper advertising. My idea is an ad that suggests hiring the fabulous Galatea for your upcoming holiday and New Year's Eve parties. I just got off the phone with my local paper, and if I stick to the suburban editions (the metro paper is wayyyyy out of my reach financially), I can get a really amazing rate - less than $100 for a business card sized ad. They even said they can try to place my ad near editorial content featuring holiday events and activities.

What doth bhuzzers think about this idea? Anyone have personal experience with promoting performances rather than classes in newspapers?

Don't have any experience, but it sounds like a fabulous idea to me! What are you going to have in your ad...a picture? Just text?

It's worth a try, just see if you can make sure you don't end up in the strip club section of the ads! A good picture and text ought to get you going. It's something I'm considering as well.

The layout I came up with was a professional shot of me with the following copy:

Make This Year's Holiday Party Extraordinary!
Belly Dance Performances by Galatea Middle Eastern Dance
Exciting, fun and family-friendly entertainment
[phone #] [website] [email address]

The ad size is 2" x 3.558", basically the size of a business card. It's only $88, so if I even get a single gig it will pay for itself! *crosses fingers*

Originally Posted by shimarella

It's worth a try, just see if you can make sure you don't end up in the strip club section of the ads!

..l;, This will actually go into the weekly suppliment newspaper that goes out to the Northwest suburbs of Milwaukee. It's a disturbingly wholesome publication, with most of the articles about school sports, new library acquisitions, and heartwarming personal interest stories of my fellow suburbanites. Most of the entertainment/event ads are for craft fairs, potluck dinners and church fundraisers - so my ad with the tasteful picture of me in bedlah will likely be the raciest thing in there.

my teacher placed some ads in some local ethnic papers and didn't get many hits out of it. But now that I think of it they were mostly for classes.
yours sounds like a great idea. let us know if you get any hits.

Have you thought of adding a "Discount if you mention this ad!" So you can keep track if its worth it...

Originally Posted by laura 2

..l;, so my ad with the tasteful picture of me in bedlah will likely be the raciest thing in there.

but you cant help it if you are sex on a stick even in tasteful bedlah !

Originally Posted by laura 2

The layout I came up with was a professional shot of me with the following copy:

Make This Year's Holiday Party Extraordinary!
Belly Dance Performances by Galatea Middle Eastern Dance
Exciting, fun and family-friendly entertainment
[phone #] [website] [email address]

The ad size is 2" x 3.558", basically the size of a business card. It's only $88, so if I even get a single gig it will pay for itself! *crosses fingers*

My experience with ads such as these is that it takes consistant placement to get results. A one time ad doesn't generally do much. People will remember it after they see it time and time again, so you need to budget and plan for regular advertising and not just a one-time placement.

Also "Belly Dance Performances by Galatea Middle Eastern Dance" seems a bit long and redundant. Try to keep it short & memorable. Some sort of short tag line works better than a long descriptive sentance. Also, I don't think you need the word "and" or "entertainment" in the 3rd line. "Exciting, Fun, & Family-Friendly" should be sufficient.

I'm just rambling. Take the suggestions you like and leave the rest behind. Good luck!!

Originally Posted by Samira_dncr

My experience with ads such as these is that it takes consistant placement to get results. A one time ad doesn't generally do much. People will remember it after they see it time and time again, so you need to budget and plan for regular advertising and not just a one-time placement.

Also "Belly Dance Performances by Galatea Middle Eastern Dance" seems a bit long and redundant. Try to keep it short & memorable. Some sort of short tag line works better than a long descriptive sentance. Also, I don't think you need the word "and" or "entertainment" in the 3rd line. "Exciting, Fun, & Family-Friendly" should be sufficient.

I'm just rambling. Take the suggestions you like and leave the rest behind. Good luck!!

No, no rambling at all. I appreciate the feedback!

I'm actually running the ad over several weeks, from Thanksgiving through January 1st, to try and specifically get some holiday or New Year's Eve gigs. If it works, I'm totally willing to run an ad on a regular basis.

The "Galatea Middle Eastern Dance" part is actually my logo, so it reads more like:

Belly Dance performances by
[logo]

When I get a proof from the paper, I'll try to post it here.

The entertainment part, I don't know, maybe I'm dumbing it down too much. But I'm trying to get people in to understand why they would even want to hire a Belly Dancer. I guess I was thinking that maybe they would be looking to hire entertainment (like a band), see my ad and then make the connection. But I agree your copy is snappier. *puts thinking cap on*

Originally Posted by perizaad

Have you thought of adding a "Discount if you mention this ad!" So you can keep track if its worth it...

When people call or email me to book, I do ask where or how they found me. I did think about a discount, but I don't know how much I'm really willing to give off of my normal rate.

Originally Posted by sumayasaahir

but you cant help it if you are sex on a stick even in tasteful bedlah !

..g.:

Originally Posted by laura 2

When people call or email me to book, I do ask where or how they found me. I did think about a discount, but I don't know how much I'm really willing to give off of my normal rate.

Yes, ask where they found you. Additionally, you can also create a special email just for that ad. For example entertainer@yourdomainname.com. If anyone sends and email to that address, you will know it's from the newspaper ad.

Also, you could just say "Holiday Specials! Call now!!" Nobody knows what your "special" is, so you can quote whatever you want. Also, using strong "call to action" words are useful. I know they seem redundant, but they work. That's why they are used so much. Call today!! Book Now!! etc. etc.

Originally Posted by Samira_dncr

Also, you could just say "Holiday Specials! Call now!!" Nobody knows what your "special" is, so you can quote whatever you want.

OMG, that is brilliant!!!!!!

Dont forget to up your quotes for new years!

Originally Posted by laura 2

OMG, that is brilliant!!!!!!

ROFL...Just one of those things I picked up running a ballroom studio for so many years. Glad it was a "hot" tip for you. ..g.:

Originally Posted by sumayasaahir

Dont forget to up your quotes for new years!

Little do they know that my "holiday special" is that I'll charge more! Muwahahahahahaha! ..l;,

Originally Posted by laura 2

Little do they know that my "holiday special" is that I'll charge more! Muwahahahahahaha! ..l;,

But you aren't really charging more. You are merely charging less for the holiday parties than what you really deserve!! (which might be double or triple your everyday rates.) Muwahahahahahhahahaha.

Seriously, you can set an "ideal" rate and then tell the callers that this holiday season you are discounting it by XX% to your current holiday rate. Nobody knows what your offical rates are unless you have them posted on your website. And if you do, then you should probably either remove them, or adjust them for the holiday season.

-----
Samira
Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive

Go for it !!!
I have ad's in a local newspaper that have 100.000 circulation and everyday I get 2-3 phone calls from it asking for show's to classes.
Its a weekly paper and cost us around 50 euro per week but it worth it.
We just advertized the new show and we have 70 seats booked from the newspaper !!!

maria aya

Here's the ad - the font looks a little jagged, because when I made it into a jpg from a PDF, I lost some resolution.

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/1...finalprba0.jpg

The actual ad will be perfectly clear, but I thought this was enough to give y'all an idea. It will print for the first time this Wednesday, and run through at least Christmas (or New Year's if I got some responses).

It's quite striking. I like the picture a lot. I hope it goes well for you and you make lots of holiday spending cash!!!

Thank you, Samira! Your feedback has been most helpful, so I'm glad you like it.

looks great.
hmm, maybe i should do this too.
same situation here: classes: fuller than i can handle
gigs: nada

i'd leave the "entertainment" off, it doesnt add visually, esp since it's on another line.

Hi Galatea,
I don't want to shot down your idea, but I honestly don't know if it's worth to run the ad for a few reasons. Business size is a little too small for some people to notice. Think about a paper spread with tons of advertizing in black and white. Your ad has to stand out. Also, not as many people will read newspaper during the holidays. Finally, I think lately people are less susceptible to paper advertizing. You have one advertizing on top of the other, ranging from car-repair to fortune-telling, it's just sort of loosing it's the appeal.
Maybe you can contact some other type of enterteiners in your area, DJs, musicians, party hosts and planners. It worked for me last year during the slow season.

Originally Posted by kateryna

Hi Galatea,
I don't want to shot down your idea, but I honestly don't know if it's worth to run the ad for a few reasons. Business size is a little too small for some people to notice. Think about a paper spread with tons of advertizing in black and white. Your ad has to stand out. Also, not as many people will read newspaper during the holidays. Finally, I think lately people are less susceptible to paper advertizing. You have one advertizing on top of the other, ranging from car-repair to fortune-telling, it's just sort of loosing it's the appeal.
Maybe you can contact some other type of enterteiners in your area, DJs, musicians, party hosts and planners. It worked for me last year during the slow season.

I do appreciate the feedback. I'm aware that this could turn resulting in no gigs, so I'm not spending any more than I'm willing to lose. ..g.: This is a small suburban paper, so there's not really that much advertising - I counted in my last issue, and each page only has 3-6 ads on it in addition to the editorial content. I don't know how many people really look at the ads, but I believe the paper itself has a really good readership - I got a ton of calls/emails after being featured in a story about my classes, and a lot of my freinds/neighbors (including myself) read it on a regular basis.

I have tried contacting party planners, DJ's, clubs, restaurants, even corporations directly, and it has resulted in zero interest the last couple of years. ,f:: Milwaukee is a really tough market for Belly Dancers, especially if you want to be paid fairly. So this was just a new and affordable idea that I'm giving a shot. If I don't get any bookings from it, I'll just have to go back to the drawing board again.

I say go for it. It sounds positive and worth a shot and if you can afford to take the risk, why not? No harm no foul....

I'm thinking positive thoughts for your success.

Thanks, Lucina! Well, it comes out tomorrow, so we'll see. *prepares for the phone to ring nonstop* ..l;,

Sorry Galatea,
I didn't mean to be negative. I guess I was thinking about it as the return on investment type of thing. If it doesn't cost that much, than it's definitely worth it. I do hope you get some good exposure.
I had the same problem with work last year. I danced only twice during the months of November and December. I expanded my geography a bit and started driving further for gigs. I also went after the Russian community in my area. A year later my efforts are finally showing good results.

Originally Posted by kateryna

Sorry Galatea,
I didn't mean to be negative. I guess I was thinking about it as the return on investment type of thing. If it doesn't cost that much, than it's definitely worth it. I do hope you get some good exposure.
I had the same problem with work last year. I danced only twice during the months of November and December. I expanded my geography a bit and started driving further for gigs. I also went after the Russian community in my area. A year later my efforts are finally showing good results.

Oh no, don't apologize! I just wanted you to know that, while I'm hoping for a wonderful response, it's definately crossed my mind that I might wind up with nothing but snake eyes. I worked in Yellow Pages advertising for over a dozen years, so I've seen it happen plenty of times.

I saw the ad this morning in the paper, so I'll let y'all know what happens.

Well, it went over like a lead balloon. I ran the ad weekly from Thanksgiving through New Years, and it resulted in zero bookings. ..cr.: I don't regret trying it, because sometimes you gotta gamble a little with advertising. Unfortunately, this time I rolled snake eyes.

I think I might just have to resign myself to the fact that in my area, November - February will forever be a sucking black hole for gigs. *sigh*