A few months ago I was approached by a state Realtor association - New York, maybe. Well, it wasn't actually the association; it was the marketing firm for the association, trying to sell me ad space in their magazine.
The nice man with the heavy New Yawk accent threw out a bunch of numbers and statistics and options, trying to entice me to spend several thousand dollars advertising in the magazine. Readership, distribution and such. Oh, several thousand dollars is out of your budget? Okay, well, we also offer very effective classified ads for a fraction of the cost (but still several hundred for a 3-line ad or something like that).
Okay, well... I've spent a lot of money on advertising in my life and I can honestly say that NONE of it has worked for me. In fact, it's rare that it even pays for itself, much less generates a profit. But, hey, I'm open to new venues for business, so I made this proposal to Mr. New Yawker:
"Sir (okay, I didn't really call him sir), I'd be happy to give your magazine a try, but I don't have that kind of budget to risk and in my experience, print advertising is a waste of money. But if you're sure that an investment in your magazine will pay off for me, how about you run an ad for me for a few months and if it generates business for me, I'll be delighted to pay for it. And, obviously, if it's producing results, I'll continue paying for it."
Well, as you can imagine, that didn't fly. Didn't expect it to, but thought I'd give it a shot.
I guess when you work in an industry where you only get paid if you perform; you're much less excited to pay upfront for something that might NOT perform. And, since so much advertising simply doesn't work, I'd love to see the marketing/advertising industry adopt a policy of showing US the money before asking for ours...
Crazy? Maybe. But I'm from Missouri - the Show Me State!
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