Save money or save time: you can’t do both

We were asked by a new advertiser if we could design their advert. Sure, our graphic designer Ed would do it in next to no time – easily under 30 minutes. However he’s freelance so we do pass on the cost of the advert. Our customer decided they would save...

Ad-blockers don’t work with print

Have you ever thought that TV and radio advertising are just really annoying? Probably. On paper? Probably not…why is that? I was watching something on YouTube recently and was really irritated by the constant interruption of adverts. What was particularly...

Should you hide your prices?

In my early days of sales and marketing, I was repeatedly told that you shouldn’t say your prices up front. Rather,  you should do the sales pitch or give the marketing message to your prospect first. This meant you could promote all the benefits, and when you...

Keep your message simple

When advertising a business, there’s a temptation to put every skill you have in the copy. E.g. you do kitchens, bathrooms, electrics, plumbing, tiling, flooring, extensions etc. Obviously the reason an advertiser would do this is to pick up business from all...

Self-Employed Employee

Self-employed employee If you have your own business, whether as a sole trader or as a limited company, you probably think of yourself as self-employed. That is true, but subtly, this doesn’t necessarily mean you are running your own business. If you do 100% of...

Why ‘local’ matters so much to buyers

There aren’t many of us who carefully research where our goods come from before buying online. But even if you do, your preference will only be narrowed to the UK, not – say – Salisbury or Ringwood. Given that, why does it matter that our advertisers are...

Bad news early is good news

Every business owner knows there’s going to be an occasion when you have to deliver bad news to a customer. Hopefully not serious stuff, but it’s very often linked to a delay of some sort. It might be entirely your fault, or it might be somebody else in...

Too much choice is a sales-killer

You’d think that only offering customers a few choices would put them off. It’s likely that none of the choices would quite suit and they’ll look elsewhere. To a degree that’s true. If you are offering cars for sales and say ‘it’s...