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the optimum time for advertising


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Have any of you given any thought to the optimum time to start your advertising?

OK, sooner is better than later and that certainly goes for any free advertising that you come across. But, when you're paying for it, it's different. This question is aimed at the online places as you don't really get a choice of date when you've print publication deadlines to contend with.

For instance, is it worthwhile even considering paying for advertising starting "now"? I can well remember last year when we fired off our application for one of the better places at the start of June and almost TWO MONTHS went by before we went online with them. If that leadtime is typical (and I'm thinking that one month is more typical at the moment), then anybody starting now hasn't a hope of being online 'til after the summer.

Possibly more significant are those growing band of sites that give you two or three months free before the charges start. Obviously you want to make the most of that free time so, when should you apply so that you get the full benefit of the summer booking season?

 

Arnold

 

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Excellent question Arnold! , As a novice, I look forward to replies.
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There probably isn't any absolute correctly time, just some months might just be better to start than others. Advertisng to work, needs to be a year round exercise. Otherwise it is like putting an ad in something like The Lady. Put in an Ad for 2-4 weeks, not too good, keep it in for a year and it could well work but in this example, rather expensive to find out !!

I would say one should have all advertisng in place by November (sure, with brochures they set the rules and normally demand that all is in place by July/August in the preceding year)as for GdF that is also done around here by July, if you need to use the good organisations, you must be thinking mid year for the following year.

With websites, of course it is not so important, as they are normally instant membership (within days or a week or two anyway). If you want free months then why not start it in November but logically, if they offer a free period for goodness sake, so start it ASAP. I will say this once again. One cannot possibly intend to be a serious business, if you do not fork out a realative amount on advertising. It is no good crying how bad the season has been, unless you have as much advertisng in place, as you feel the need for business.

Free advertising means some possible business but in my experience, not a lot !(that's why it is free !!)

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It's interesting that you're saying November Miki. Personally, I'd have been guessing more like June or perhaps May but then that different perspective of yours is usually profitable for me!

I was thinking that it would be better to try and hit a period when you're getting the maximum number of bookings from the "free period" sites simply on the basis that you can obviously have the equivalent thousands and thousands of pounds worth of advertising in place with them but realistically couldn't afford to keep them all running.

I certainly agree with the advertising spend. We actually forked out about 3000€ last year but that was mainly via commission based places. It's the places that look for money upfront that I'm very stingy with. I feel that those on commission have their interests more aligned with ours ie no bookings, no fees. So whilst I forked out about 700€ with one place for no return, by the end of the year I'd paid over 1000€ to another but 5€ at a time ie hundreds of bookings.

Free advertising means some possible business but in my experience, not a lot !(that's why it is free !!)

That's true in general terms but I've noticed that a couple of "free" places have given me a reasonable number of bookings. The thing that seems to differentiate those ones in the main is that they have a fee charging option; the only other free one that I've (so far) had bookings from is ourinns but then that's a bit unusual for other reasons.

 

Arnold

 

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Try to remember back to when you were one of the customers who you are now trying to attract. Personally, I never gave a thought to my summer break before Easter. I knew people who had theirs booked early January but I can't recall ever having met anyone who booked their holiday before Christmas and I usually waited until April or May even if I wanted an early break. People are media savvy and they know that there is an oversupply of gites so they feel pretty confident that they can get what they want later and later. Having said that, the bottom line with advertising comes down to a very simple mathematical equation, if you can put your product in front of enough people you will sell it and, as another poster said, the only effective way to do that is to go with the established circulation operators. You only need one booking to pay for the ad and you are almost guranteed to get more than that. Speculate to accumulate, there are lots of gite owners scratching their heads because they only got a few weeks occupancy from all their 'free' advertising, it's a useful option but not a long term solution.
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