Bob: I don't know what the results would be regarding newspaper ads of the type you plan, but I have used "coupon" advertising in the past with some good results. You know, the envelope with a dozen or so envelope sized coupons with pizza ads, oil changers, local businesses. I jacked up my tuning price in the ad, with a "discount" that saved them the same amount. I will admit, it was expensive, and most hadn't tuned the piano for years, and probably wouldn't tune it again for as many years. I think I tuned every Acrosonic spinet there was in the area. The advertising covered only a specific area of town (I used La Jolla, a very exclusive area here in San Diego), about 20K homes, and it cost near to about $500.00. I did make a little profit, but it was a lot of work to break even (I was charging $50.00 at the time). Eventually I got an offer to trade work for advertising, for which I got a nice 4-color ad for several months in trade for doing a regulating job on a (guess what) Acrosonic. The nice thing about this kind of advertising is that you get calls from people who hold on to those coupons, and I have had work from people years later who kept them (I never turn down work if I can get it). A single ad for one week in a newspaper might not pull as much as you could get in a coupon mailer. If you do decide to go ahead, I'd like to know how it goes. Good LucK! Paul McCloud
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