We are firm believers in advertising. Every week we have an ad in the Tidewater Trader - they charge a fair price for a reasonable amount of exposure. I should do more within the local paper - the Kent County News - but they are quite a bit more expensive and our advertising budget goes only so far. Still, as I notice everyone entering the Super Fresh on Thursday morning picks up their copy of "The Paper", I question my judgment on this - we probably should use that resource more than we do. Now and then we'll do a "big" ad - most recently is our placement in this spring's annual House and Garden Pilgrimage, in which Kent County is participating. We are only one of two restaurants locally with an ad, but I felt it was a good investment to get the word out about our relatively new business, especially since they use the same brochure for the entire tour, which means Talbot and Baltimore Counties, as well as Baltimore City - places where we might just draw some business. I would like to get a listing in the Eastern Shore What's Up magazine - you need to get four reviews from "customers" in order to get your free listing - but somehow this has not worked out for us, even though I gave it a good plug at our staff meeting last month...
Of course, word of mouth has traditionally been the best advertising - at least if it's good! - and the price is right. Plus now with the internet you have your WebSite doing a lot of work for you, which seems to offer a pretty good return on the investment. I recently put a "counter" on our WebPage and it is interesting to see the number of "hits". (of course every time I land on it, it counts too, don't forget, and every time I change anything on the site, I land on it...) We're up to 622 this morning - and I think I put that counter up soon after we came back from vacation. That makes it even more imperative to keep it up-to-date and fresh.
Meanwhile, we'll be having our 1st anniversary next month and we hope to do several promotions celebrating our "birth week". That will involve lots of advertising, one of which may involve clipping an ad for redemption, which might be revealing - no one redeems the ad, no one must be reading them, eh?
Stay tuned for more exciting reports on the mysteries of advertising!
Of course, word of mouth has traditionally been the best advertising - at least if it's good! - and the price is right. Plus now with the internet you have your WebSite doing a lot of work for you, which seems to offer a pretty good return on the investment. I recently put a "counter" on our WebPage and it is interesting to see the number of "hits". (of course every time I land on it, it counts too, don't forget, and every time I change anything on the site, I land on it...) We're up to 622 this morning - and I think I put that counter up soon after we came back from vacation. That makes it even more imperative to keep it up-to-date and fresh.
Anyway, I enjoy doing the ads. I try to change them every week, to keep the ad interesting both to me and the reader. My favorite one so far has been the one last week with "Eat Drink Relax" spelled out in six or seven different languages. For instance, Dutch: eet drank ontspannen. Korean: 음료를 이완한다 먹으십시요. Greek: φάτε το ποτό χαλαρώνει. German: essen Sie Getränk sich entspannen. Japanese: 飲み物を緩む食べなさい. French: mangez la boisson détendent. Portuguese:coma a bebida relaxam. You get the idea! That was fun, and I thought it looked good.
Meanwhile, we'll be having our 1st anniversary next month and we hope to do several promotions celebrating our "birth week". That will involve lots of advertising, one of which may involve clipping an ad for redemption, which might be revealing - no one redeems the ad, no one must be reading them, eh?
Stay tuned for more exciting reports on the mysteries of advertising!
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