talkmagic.co.uk

I am currently trying to decide what type of advertising is best.


Is handing out business cards or handing out leaflets better?
Positives of business cards is that they are small and fit in a wallet/purse/pocket easily .
Positives of leaflets is that you can put a lot more information on them.


What other types of advertising do you do?
Ads in papers/magazines?
Internet advertising?


Thanks for any help.

Business cards I find are the best. Although you can get more words on a leaflet, people really don't read it.

After the business cards I'd recommend having a web site.

Yellow pages etc. is a waste of time acording to most magicians that I've spoken too.

Rather than putting ads in papers I'd also recommend doing something locally that the paper will cover as a local interest story and which will raise your profile.

I agree that print advertising is hit and miss (in my experience, more miss than hit). There are a couple of publications that do well for me, but it took a lot of very costly trial and error to find the only two that did.

Business cards are a must, but they'll only reach potential customers if you hand them over personally. And I'd argue that you are a better advert for you than any piece of card.

Being seen and talked about (for the right reasons) is your best source of publicity. I do a certain number of unpaid gigs every year at charity fundraisers They cost me time (and I often have to turn down potential paying customers to do them), but I don't have to fork any money out, and I find that they work better for me than most web and print adverts.

You should also specify what kind of magic you do. There are very different marketing options out there depending on whether you're selling kids' birthday parties, wedding magic, corporate entertainment or spook shows.

Pete

Hi,

A good performance and word of mouth is all you need to start off with

I have many types of advertising but still get nearly all my work through Business cards and word of mouth.

Lee.

Defo, the business cards are your best bet. Leaflets and flyers are only really any good if you're looking to advertise a specific show or event. A website is a really good idea too, although make sure that it loks professional, a poor site will put off more clients than it'll attract.

But I totally agree with Pete, you're your best form of advertising. Most of the gigs that I've done have come from either recomendations or people who have seen me perform. Charity gigs are a nice idea, I do some church shows every now and again and have managed to get paid gigs from those.

This may sound a little obvious, but I've found one of the best forms of advertising is being memorable. Your audiences should be able to describe you in one sentence. That way, if someone forgets your name, they won't describe you as "That magician that wears a suit jacket and does card tricks..."

If you're a Mentalist, and do a lot of writing down and such, then using the backs of buisness cards is a great way to advertise.

All the advice here is great. Are you a restaurant magician, childrens, trade shows?

I ask because you have to be able to target your audience. Children's are probably the easiest, If each kid takes something away such as a loot bag, your business card goes in the bag that way mum and dad can see it. Also if there is a board at say the womans resource center, or childrens club, anything like that you can always ask to put up a flyer. Is there a parenting magazine out there. Place an add in those, although that can be expensive.

Targeting resaurants your best bet is to network, here in the USA there are all kinds of small business clubs where owners and managers get together and network show their services to one another. Also approaching the manager usually works.

Basically target your audiences do your homework and go from there. Once you start making a name for yourself a good agent is also a good idea, however finding a good agent is not an easy task. Most will just bleed you dry.

Eshly wrote:If you're a Mentalist, and do a lot of writing down and such, then using the backs of buisness cards is a great way to advertise.

So is the front!

I wrote a couple of articles about marketing on the web a few months back, which you can find here and here

Thanks for all the information.

Does anyone know any good online business card printing services?

Vista print looks good because it is so cheap but I'm not sure how good the quality is going to be. Has anyone had previous experience with them?


Thanks

Vistaprint do a reasonable job, but keep an eye on escalating costs. Glossy finish + graphics uploads + shipping costs all raise the expense little by little until you're paying significantly more than the initial quote.

That said, every time I do a trade show, just about everyone I see unpacks their business cards from Vistaprint boxes. They're mightily popular.

Another company to try is Print24. I use them to print all my brochures, as well as posters and flyers for shows. They do a grand job and are very competitively priced.

Local printing companies can often offer you a competitive deal too. Run a Google or Yell.com search and see how many offer online quotes. In many cases, you can save a few extra pennies by collecting the finished cards rather than having them posted out to you.

Hope that helps,

Pete

pcwells wrote:Vistaprint do a reasonable job, but keep an eye on escalating costs. Glossy finish + graphics uploads + shipping costs all raise the expense

Agreed. I was tempted by their offer of 250 free cards but by the time I'd paid extra to have the cards with a blank back and then added the cost of cheapest postage, they still cost me over a fiver! Good value for use with any effect where you note stuff down on a card but leave it with the spec afterwards.

I've never used Vistaprint myself, but I've seen a few cards produced by them and for a "first card" they're of decent enough quality. I have heard they have questionable business practices though, such as those mentioned above and the spamming they send out

But I can't recommend moo.com enough, they're genuinely quite brilliant (and that's no exaggeration). They're very nice guys (they've gone the extra ten miles for me customer service wise), their card quality really does have to be seen to be believed (no extras for a nice finish, they use top quality stock as standard), and my minicards never fail to bring positive comments. Sign up to their newsletter if you can, they often send out special deals

Lawrence wrote:

Eshly wrote:If you're a Mentalist, and do a lot of writing down and such, then using the backs of buisness cards is a great way to advertise.

So is the front!

Beat me to it Lawrence