Lay My Hat

I'm sorry if this topic has been covered before. I have never advertised my property in a magazine before, my husband advertised his building business and didn't get much response. What are your experiences?

Julie

When you look for a service or perhaps a holiday home. Do you wait until a free magazine comes through the door or look on the internet.


Bob

Julie, I'm unconvinced that either magazine would deliver much in the way of enquries. They're lifestyle types of magazines. People read them to be diverted in some way - vicarious participation in someone's restoration, blue skies and sandy beaches when their reality is a grey day in Basingstoke, or perhaps to make a mental note that next holiday, the Alsace region looks appealing.

When I get to the ads in the back of a magazine like that, I close it. If it's lying around, I might look at it if I need a plumber in my vicinity but I doubt it. Do people use holiday small ads in holiday magazines? I suppose a few might but I think nowadays, most won't. And yes, in using "I", I know I'm not someone that the ads are aimed at but I was once and I never found them useful then. One tiny picture vs the internet... no. Last year, an acquaintance said she'd taken an ad out in The Lady - not a single enquiry arrived.

The Archant magazines are nice but too expensive, imo. And while I'd normally balance that comment with something along the lines of "but others may have found them effective" it doesn't seem as though they have or they'd have told you!

It is true that there is still a category of person who has never used internet and never will.
I do ask myself how do they find their holiday rentals? When I lived in France before Internet was widespread, I saw lots of people using catalogues like Bertrand and immovacances. The former owner of our home swore by the Chez Nous catalogue.
It's not cheap to do but neither is a ad in the paper I imagine but I have no idea how efficient these marketing tools can be.
All these publications now have an internet arm to their business so that's proof that such a company can't exist anymore without being on Internet but what proportion of its customers only use the brochures? Who knows....

Thanks for the replies.

There don't seem to be many of us using the specialist magazines for advertising our properties. As has been said, if it were a good marketing tool someone would be shouting about it.

ccazes wrote:It is true that there is still a category of person who has never used internet and never will.

Definitely.

And I bet it is a category with a persistently large population!

But how to reach them in a cost effective manner that delivers results when many / most of us are small business owners with comparatively small advertising / marketing budgets?

ccazes wrote:It is true that there is still a category of person who has never used internet and never will..

I have no evidence, but based on intuition and experience, I'd suggest that these people are also unlikely to book direct with owner.
IF they want a self catering holiday rather than an all-inclusive hotel, they're most likely to visit a high street travel agent and/or book thru a brochure from the large agencies like First Choice, James Villas etc.

I do not even consider them part of our target market, and therefore money spent trying to reach them is probably wasted.

Puts on crash helmet and runs for the hills

juliew wrote:Thanks for the replies.

There don't seem to be many of us using the specialist magazines for advertising our properties. As has been said, if it were a good marketing tool someone would be shouting about it.

I think that this logic could be applied to your initial question too:)

E-Richard - I think that package tours and the high street travel agents have also lost ground to the internet but I still think there are those who used brochures and adverts before who are still not internet users and who won't be changing the type of holiday they book. They booked directly with the owner before and will probably carry on doing so. It's maybe just such a small amount of people that it is not worth spending a lot of money trying to attract them.

It would be interesting to know how many copies of the Bertrand brochure are sold in France each year (you can buy them in Relais H etc) although this is aimed at the French market mainly. If people are actually spending money buying them then maybe it's to do more than just look at the photos.

I'd have thought that most people buying the Living France magazine were either expats already, or people living in the UK but with a second home in France. Either way, the expats are probably too hard up, too busy working (gite/B&B owners) or happy living in their chosen place so no need to take a holiday, and the second home owners are obliged to visit their second home rather than go somewhere else. So a waste of time all round really!

I agree with all of the above ... I had a huge four page write up in Living France about my 18 month gite renovation project, with lots of photos and a big link to my website (I only did it for the link ) I had zero enquiries from it!

It is true that there is still a category of person who has never used internet and never will.

I have a lot of guests who are not particularly computer literate. I find they use members of their family to find their holidays for them or do the initial research. They then make contact with me, frequently by phone and ask for forms etc to be posted to them.

So even those who have not yet embraced computers find a way round it.

Returning to the days when, not long ago, Sawdays did not have an internet presence for holiday rentals, we were listed in their book. I was sold on the idea that it had a longer shelf life (2 years) than a subscription with a listing site, so the expense of being inspected and then paying the subscription seemed to be justified.

We did get enquiries - but always for weeks already spoken for. So I didn't take one reservation in the whole two years we were in the book. These were people who used the book but did not use the internet other than to email - our URL was displayed in the book but clearly those who enquired through Sawdays hadn't visited our website and checked the calendar.

They are a dying breed however so I would agree with others here that advertising in any printed publication these days would be a waste of money; the immediacy of the internet is what drives most people these days when it comes to shopping, at least it is for self catering holidays.

Thanks everyone, I think we will give it a miss.

Julie