classified advertising formulas?

"dan" <whimsica@aol.com> wrote in message
news:bfhi640641@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
> Hi. are there any formulas for determining hit rate on classified
> ads. I saw one once in this forum that said on average
>
> if a magazine ad runs 7 times, it will be read by 2.5 people, and 24
> percent of the people will see the ad, and 1.5% will act on the ad. I
> don't know what size the ad was supposed to be. Is there any
> statistical average formula for classified advertising?

Dan, I think you are going about this in the wrong way. Placing a well done
ad in the right publication, that targets the proper audience, repetitively,
may or may not bring the desired results. And if you are planning to do the
ad on the cheap, just forget it. You are right that sales and marketing is a
numbers game, but there is a lot more to it. Magazine ads are going to be a
loser for you.

How many of these things do you have, and how many do you have to sell at
what price to break even? Has this venture run you into insurmountable
personal debt as well? If this is the case, don't feel bad, this happens to
people all the time! Just be glad that nobody got their damn finger stuck in
one of those things and decided to sue you!

Nothing personal, but I don't think your web page is all that impressive.

Rather than hiring reps, you might look around for other kinds of outlets.

I can see your product as a promotional item. Find some companies
here-and-there on the net that sell promotional stuff and give them a call
on the phone. I'm sure you have at least a few of these things laying around
that you can send off as samples. (You can get new pieces made in lots of X
with custom printing, no? Maybe even a custom design.)

Another thought for you is more of a grass roots kind of campaign (which is
where many great things start.) Go from door-to-door hitting mom-and-pop
party stores and the like. Sell a case of them here, a gross of them there.
Hey, its not the big time, but it is money rolling in AND your product
getting in the hands of people! Wouldn't it be nice to drive past a park and
see a few of these things being shot around?

Find a big event somewhere and give some of these things away. You do have
quite a few of them with your URL printed on the back, right?

By the way, does your product meet all of the ASTM, CFR and CE requirements?
I hope the answer to that question is yes. If not, we had better take up
another thread on this subject, pronto, because you could be headed for a
heep o' trouble!

Hang in there! This game far from over. Your coming to this newsgroup and
involving the people has the potential to help, big time. There are some
really bright people in this group.

Mike