Advertising

What Motorhome mag/site do people use?

  • Total voters
    89
Simon Select

Simon Select

MH Trader
LIFE MEMBER
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Posts
1,349
Likes collected
7,839
Location
Devon
Funster No
42,036
MH
A Class Coachbuilt
Exp
25 Years
Morning all,
After some feedback. We are looking into where to advertise next year. So far we seem to get most of our enquiries from Autotrader and the Howards website so obviously both will stay.
The next biggest source for us is MHF, we have a lot of people approach us either directly or through PM's on here as I would like to thing we have a good rep.
My question and point of the poll is:
Does anyone bother with other magazines than MMM and even then does anyone even bother with that nowadays? MMM charge a small fortune to place a tiny advert in and part of me thinks and I better investing my meager budget into MHF?
Just intrigued to see what you guys read/ look at.

Si
 
Last edited:
SpeedyDux said:
Before you joined FUN, I had zero awareness of Simon Howards Motorhomes.:oops:

HTH
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This makes me sad. We could could have been online mates years ago. All the things we have missed out on! :xsmile:
 
When we ran out business the advertising budget was close to zero we relied on recommendation and word of mouth a slow way to grow but better than offers. I think you are right about the small ad probably not being worth it
 
Who are mmm. Seriously have never read it. I get all my motorhome fix from this website. The people I have met on rallies are in general knowledgeable, I mean even the welsh ladies when partially inebriated knew when Taran las, was giving them the equivalent of battery acid to drink, not that it stopped them from drinking it.

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MMM was something i bought maybe 15+ years ago when i was first into motorhomes.
Not had it for years now as most info i search out on the internet, mainly Forums (Fun being the best of course (y) ) then Facebook groups and company websites.
 
I only buy magazines sporadically now (all hobbies/interest), I also tend to be “single forum” as each has a ”vibe” that you either like or don’t.
But purchasing items will always be flea bay or Autotrader as my first port of call.

Jim
 
Happy Jim said:
I only buy magazines sporadically now (all hobbies/interest), I also tend to be “single forum” as each has a ”vibe” that you either like or don’t.
But purchasing items will always be flea bay or Autotrader as my first port of call.

Jim
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Ebay is an interesting one, we use Ebay for trade disposals - old vans that would cost too much to retail etc, not thought about advertising new or forecourt used vans on there. Do people buy £40-60,000 vans from Ebay?
 
Simon Howards Motorhomes said:
Ebay is an interesting one, we use Ebay for trade disposals - old vans that would cost too much to retail etc, not thought about advertising new or forecourt used vans on there. Do people buy £40-60,000 vans from Ebay?
Click to expand...
Someone bought our RV after seeing it advertised on eBay.
 
Simon Howards Motorhomes said:
Morning all,
After some feedback. We are looking into where to advertise next year. So far we seem to get most of our enquiries from Autotrader and the Howards website so obviously both will stay.
The next biggest source for us is MHF, we have a lot of people approach us either directly or through PM's on here as I would like to thing we have a good rep.
My question and point of the poll is:
Does anyone bother with other magazines than MMM and even then does anyone even bother with that nowadays? MMM charge a small fortune to place a tiny advert in and part of me thinks and I better investing my meager budget into MHF?
Just intrigued to see what you guys read/ look at.

Si
Click to expand...

How does your website bring you enquiries?

Presumably anyone visiting your website arrived there having clicked on an ad or you appeared in Google’s organic search results, or they manually entered your website name having seen it in an ad?

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Simon Howards Motorhomes said:
Ebay is an interesting one, we use Ebay for trade disposals - old vans that would cost too much to retail etc, not thought about advertising new or forecourt used vans on there. Do people buy £40-60,000 vans from Ebay?
Click to expand...

The start of my search (prior to purchase) was on E-Bay, set search criterea for available cash - “Show me what I can buy”, then it leads to “Show sellers other items” etc

So for me it’s really another form of Advertising that draws me to your stock (and potentially getting scope creep to move from £x to £y

Rgds
Jim
 
Robert Clark said:
How does your website bring you enquiries?

Presumably anyone visiting your website arrived there having clicked on an ad or you appeared in Google’s organic search results, or they manually entered your website name having seen it in an ad?
Click to expand...
Do I need to make it clear about how the Howards website that gets hundreds of thousands of views a month as we have 21 franchised main dealers in group and an existing customer base of circa 90,000 people who have bought cars from us.
Also the natural landing pages for any advertising that is done across the group. The landing page is the home page then every dealer has their own pages within the site.
The website also features quite highly organically on google which again drives travel, all of our staff also use the website address in our email signatures.

Is that clearer lol
 
I think the, no doubt very expensive, full page ads in MMM or Practical Motorhome probably work. They certainly help to give you brand recognition and I guess even now the mags will be the first place newcomers will look. On the other hand, I think the small ads are a waste of time and money.
Like others, until you popped up on here, I'd never heard of Howards - must say something!
 
Again I has never heard of Howard's group before you joined fun.
But since I have popped in and out of your website looking for our next mh.
Will probably buy from you guys as you seem pretty decent and have fair prices.
So for me your contribution to fun is well worth the investment ???
 
Once again this site amazes me. Actually having the ability to speak directly to you guys and ask you what you all think. You can't get better feedback!
All the reps for all the mags/ advertisers etc will all tell you their site is amazing and you should spend thousands with them. Ask on here and get the truth!

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I've just cancelled my subscriptions to MMM and Practical Motorhome after taking them for a good few years. I've found that I'm no longer "consuming" them as soon as they drop through the letterbox, often having a couple of issues on my side table waiting to be perused. I've also noticed that they are often covering the same things, be it travel articles or reviews. I never look at the ads so there is no longer anything of interest that I cannot get from MHF or specific places.

I believe that word of mouth is the best sales technique, but in today's society that way there is simply not enough turnover so business must advertise. In the end you have to choose your target audience and go for wherever they're looking. I do hope your "investment" in the MHF mag proves to be worthwhile - thanks for your support.
 
I was given a years subscription to Practical Motorhome last year and when it ran out I missed it, and have subscribed for another year. What I tend to do is pull out any interesting tour articles and file them under the relevant country. Then take it with us when we tour there. So your little advert could be lucky and be on the back of the cutting or unlucky and in the bin after a couple of weeks.
I now have a Bailey and I’m on the Bailey owner Facebook group, I think your contributions on there win you tremendous awareness and good will. This is a bigger forum so although I am aware of you here see less of you on here, it’s a difficult one to judge. Danger is you over commit and jump on every thread and get annoying (like some others do), just about right atm. Good luck.
 
Paul and Kate said:
Again I has never heard of Howard's group before you joined fun.
But since I have popped in and out of your website looking for our next mh.
Will probably buy from you guys as you seem pretty decent and have fair prices.
So for me your contribution to fun is well worth the investment ???
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts ?
 
Simon Howards Motorhomes said:
The website also features quite highly organically on google which again drives travel, all of our staff also use the website address in our email signatures.

Is that clearer lol
Click to expand...

I just checked on Google Ad Preview tool (using Taunton as my location, which favours local businesses)

For the term 'Buy Bailey Motorhome Somerset' you appear at the bottom of page 1 in position 9

For the term 'Buy Motorhome Somerset' you dont appear at all on page 1

If I was selling motorhomes in Somerset, especially Bailey ones, I'd certainly consider spending some of my advertising budget so that I appeared on the first page of Google (paid or organic), as the commercial intent of anyone using those (and similar) search terms, is probably going to be higher than somone browsing a mag, or forum.
 
Simon Howards Motorhomes said:
Do I need to make it clear about how the Howards website that gets hundreds of thousands of views a month as we have 21 franchised main dealers in group and an existing customer base of circa 90,000 people who have bought cars from us.
Also the natural landing pages for any advertising that is done across the group. The landing page is the home page then every dealer has their own pages within the site.
The website also features quite highly organically on google which again drives travel, all of our staff also use the website address in our email signatures.

Is that clearer lol
Click to expand...

never heard of you until on fun....

but then again I would never buy from a dealer and the only time I would look at a dealers site would be for photos or information on a type van I was interested in then go and find it privately or a dealer abroad.

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Just smiffy said:
never heard of you until on fun....

but then again I would never buy from a dealer and the only time I would look at a dealers site would be for photos or information on a type van I was interested in then go and find it privately or a dealer abroad.
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Lol, you've had a bad experience then.
 
Hi Simon, for what it’s worth I saw the ad for the one I like on Auto trader, so your moneys not wasted using them. I find the more genuine dealers use AT rather than eBay unless they have some stuff that isn’t moving or they know it’s gonna come back and haunt them, there’s a lot of crap on eBay, scammers and lowlife which in turn spoils it for the genuine ebayers!
 
I had never heard of you guys until you appeared on here...But now I have recommended you lord know how many times

I bought a MMM a few years ago, did not even get 1/4 way through before it was consigned to the round file in the corner
Recently took out a 3 ( or 4 ? ) issue sub just to get the free show tickets for the NEC
First one arrived.. read the first few pages and found it was just as bad as before.. When the new ones arrive I will not even bother to open them

Reckon the mag is the go to mag for total newbies but that is about it
 
When I ordered my van at the October 2016 NEC, I got carried away and bought a long subscription to MMM. I pretty much read each mag from cover to cover while I was waiting for my van to be ready by April 2017, but once I started getting away in it, the piles of unopened MMMs just kept getting bigger.
They were usually given away or dropped in to the recycling bin, until such time as my subs expired.
I haven’t bothered with any paper mags since and only have a regular subscription to ‘Ocean Paddler’ magazine..... that is until Jim released MHF last month and I really enjoyed reading it.

I think MHF is likely to be my future motorhome magazine of choice.

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When we were looking to buy I used to look at outandaboutlive.co.uk all the time, it's free and widely available and easy to access. Haven't looked at it since. I don't buy magazines.
 
To be frank, print media, as far as magazines go anyway, is in it's death throes. Many years ago I subscribed to mmm and practical motor caravan. But they became stale with most pages dedicated to repeatedly the same advertisers who also provided the magazine with vehicles to "review".

Modern day communication rarely involves paper or physical adverts. When searching for a new motorhome, I first search google, then ebay, gumtree and adtrader. Buying a magazine to access the adverts never even enters my mind.

The only magazines that get into my house are the 2 big club magazines, which are either quickly skimmed through before recycling or normally straight into the recycle bin still in their wrapper

The old days of a free local newspaper are long gone too. People buy and sell on a national/international level now using a screen

If I was buying advertising space for a business now, it would all be online. Paid promoting on google with sponsored adverts and adwords or hashtags to hook into more searches. Search page prominence costs money but if everytime somebody searches "motorhome" your advertised page is in the top few, people remember you.

Advertising on here is also a great move. Thousands of members and a huge number of daily page views is very cheap access to your core demographic
 
I would have though asking on motorhome fun what magazine people use is a loaded question
it’s a bit like asking ford drivers which manufacturer they prefer or bmw drivers the same

the one option which you never gave us is in your poll is ( none ). which I suspect is the one most people
might pick , just my thoughts

It’s nice to see traders proactive in their business, good luck
 
I have just ended years of MMM subscriptions. A great magazine when anyone is starting out but a little stale after awhile and once you have a van you are happy with why read about the latest NEW thing.
This site for all things motorhoming for me :xThumb:
 
I haven't bought any print media to with MH's ever. I will use reccommendations off here , and google. I am not an 'internet buyer' so will go to my local place , Jacksons at Old Arley to buy anything I need. If they don't have it, I don't need it lol.

The only way to know if your ads work, is to stop doing them and see what happens.

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