Text or photos?

Using press and magazine advertising, brochures, mailings - old hat or still cost-effective?
Margaret
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Text or photos?

Post by Margaret »

When we started advertising we wanted to spend as little money as possible and went for text only adverts in the few publications we tried, with some producing good response.
Now that we have a good flow of bookings, we are considering using text boxes with background colour or even ads with photos to get more bookings.
Does anyone have experience of comparing these - are the text boxes with colour or ads with photos worth the extra money?
cromercrabholiday
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Post by cromercrabholiday »

I guess it depends where you are advertising.

We are finding that NCT mags are cheap and get us off-season bookings. I think that families with new-born babies often want a holiday but don't want the hassle of flying. The mags are cheap and cheerful and our dodgy black and white photo with some bullet points works well.

I would look at other ads where you will be advertising and follow their lead - if they are all in colour, you will look second classs.

John
Margaret
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Post by Margaret »

We are looking at publications which already do all 3 types. Hence being unsure as to which is better.
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Giddy Goat
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Post by Giddy Goat »

cromercrabholiday wrote:if they are all in colour, you will look second class. John
I wonder whether Jimbo, our resident pro photographer will post here. I only advertise on the internet, but agree with John - if I felt it to be appropriate to advertise elsewhere, I think the extra charge for a colour image would be worth it. Black and white photography can be very powerful in certain contexts, but for selling a holiday, with an option of only one photo, a colour shot would be more effective IMHO. And better than a text ad with colour - in such a stunning area though, which shot will be the difficulty!
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Jimbo
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Post by Jimbo »

... for selling a holiday, with an option of only one photo, a colour shot would be more effective ...
Agreed. Colour is a must for commercial use unless there's a compelling reason to use black and white. I love B+W with a passion but colour is the lifeblood of commerce.

Jim
jaylene
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Post by jaylene »

i guess it just all depend where you are advertising or what you are advertising. Ive had some experience in marketing and such and i would advise that going for colored pictures though it does cost a bit more than black or white but it is worth it if you opt to step up your advertising scheme a notch, you'd rather go for the best option than settle for black and white and end up wanting to change to colored advertisement later on as well.
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