An Open Association of Landscape and Horticulture Industries
Advertising with Horticultural Week
Has anyone else tried it? and how many people use it?
seriousgardener
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Roy Bretton on -
I advertised in Horticultural Week for a one month and I didn't receive a single phone call, it would be interesting to hear about other peoples experience on advertising.
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Permalink Reply by Dave Sewell on -
We adverstised for staff in Hort Week 4 years ago. Not one response. The biggest waste of £1000 I've ever experineced and I'm still getting councelling for it now...
Dave
www.gardenmaker.wordpress.com
www.the-gardenmakers.co.uk
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Permalink Reply by Dave Sewell on
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As an addition to last post, I had two responses for our recruitment advertising on LJN yesterday alone. And that didn't cost a penny!
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Permalink Reply by Phil Voice on -
That's nice to hear Dave, thanks :)
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Permalink Reply by Fenlandphil on -
I had Horticultural Week back on the phone today trying to interest me in advertising on their online version of Hort Week. Armed with my knowledge of them moving to subscription only platform I was prepared. He mentioned their page views, I told him I was only interested in how many people were likely to click through to my site. He told me of an advertiser who was getting ten click throughs a month, when I worked out the cost for each click for him, it weakened his sales pitch desisively. I suggested he give me a few months free advertising and if it was effective I said I would buy some but it would need to be as cost effective as Google ad words.
Perhaps Phil could give us the viewing stats for LJN.
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Permalink Reply by Phil Voice on
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With pleasure Phil
Landscape Juice Network: estimated for March 2011 - +55,000 visitors +350,000 page impressions
Landscape Juice: estimated for March 2011 - +31,000 visitors + 45,000 page impressions
I do not understand HW's decision to take their site behind a paywall! They need to open up not close down.
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Permalink Reply by Fenlandphil on
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I can't remember how many page impressions he said HW got per month it was either 400 000 or 40 000 unfortunately I wasn't taking notes.
My click through rate on here is better than they thought was reasonable for an advertiser on their site and certainly a lot more cost effective. Apart from which I have the opportunity on LJN to discuss matters with a very nice group of people.
That is not something HW offers as far as I can see.
It did say to the salesman ,that it must be difficult for them as a print publication to find an effective way to change their business model, now the digital medium was so important and that making their site subscription based wasn't a good idea.
Philip Voice said:With pleasure Phil
Landscape Juice Network: estimated for March 2011 - +55,000 visitors +350,000 page impressions
Landscape Juice: estimated for March 2011 - +31,000 visitors + 45,000 page impressions
I do not understand HW's decision to take their site behind a paywall! They need to open up not close down.
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Permalink Reply by Phil Voice on
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I have a Hort week .PDF file from last year that states 42,000 visitors and 156,000 page impressions.
It's worth bearing in mind that when the Times Online went behind a paywall they lost 90% of its traffic.
As you say Phil, HW hasn't got a community so potential is restricted.
Only this week LJN members recommended your business [Fenland Ironworks] when Chloe asked if anyone knew where to source silver obelisks; John answered the call when a school from Whitby contacted LJN to ask for advice about setting up a school garden and only yesterday, Karl and the Marshalls' Register were put forward when Helen asked for help finding someone looking for a block paving specialist.
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Permalink Reply by T & S Plants on
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From memory and this going back a few years here is my take.
Do not waste your money advertising but they used to offer a free straight directory entry which could well be worth your while. That is all we used to do and as a printed guide (sorry Phil), people , and I know this to be true, would keep it and refer to it when they needed a product or service.
Hope this is of help
Tina
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What I should have added is that this is particularly useful if you want to get into Garden Centres because most buyers do not have regular access to computers and are still reliant on the written word.
Tx
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Permalink Reply by Fenlandphil on
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I did try their directory one year but wasn't very useful for me in terms of sales.I have had a good stream of people this week ordering and enquiring from all over the place, so one way and another the website is doing its' job.
The video of my daughters boyfriend on our home page assembling an arch persuaded one customer that they were easy to assemble so he ordered. I did have concerns about a large arch we sent out to a couple who didn't strike me as particularly young, after talking to them on the phone. The arch weighed about 66kg but they managed to assemble it and install it between them, they very kindly sent me a photo of it installed.
T & S Plants said:
What I should have added is that this is particularly useful if you want to get into Garden Centres because most buyers do not have regular access to computers and are still reliant on the written word.
Tx
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Permalink Reply by Phil Voice on
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I agree some people don't (yet) use a computer and prefer paper between their fingers but it's not a sustainable business model for the likes of Hort Week who have a huge wage bill and printing and distribution costs.
They are mortgaged to the tune of £40 million on Michael Heseltine's Northamptonshire Thenford farm alone and they took a whopping £120 million of debt INTO the recession.
Peter Kirwin says in an interview - Is Haymarket an empire in decline? Don't say that to its heir - with the now chairman, Rupert Heseltine, Haymarket [owners of Hort Week] are 'one of the most indebted media companies in Britain'. Haymarket pays in excess of £13 million just in interest on its borrowings.
So to risk losing 90% of visitors to their website at a stage where it would seem they need more, not less, traffic so that their advertisers enjoy the prospect of a good return for their investment, is an extremely dangerous gamble, in my view.
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