I'm considering some TV advertising. I would be doing a local station - FOX affiliate. Anyone have any experience that could share their pros/cons? Thanks.

We work with medical spas all over the country, and have run on television many times. It can work great - or it can bomb. That really depends upon the size of your market, where you are located in that market, your services you offer on the ad, and your budget.

Small Markets - TV can work well if there is a broadcast station with true dominance. Try to buy something long-form - interviews, 2 minute "business spotlights," that type of thing. As well as traditional ads. In a small market, typically the reach of cable or smaller stations is too small to have an impact.

Medium Sized Markets - Its a toss up in these markets depending upon the size of your budget. Cable can sometimes be very inexpensive, and you can target, so we've seen that work. Segments again are a good opportunity.

Large Markets - Forget about broadcast TV schedules. If you're in a big market, its too expensive. You can sometimes buy a segment on the local fluff news programs (i.e. Good Day Houston). I've seen these work very well. We've had a lot of success in large markets buying cable in zones - so you just pay for the people in your area.

The Creative and Services - TV works for services that have truly amazing before and after images and the use of testimonials. It works great for fat reduction and weight loss.

When to run the ads - In small markets, if there's a dominant station it is typically in the news. On cable you have the obvious targets. Here's how it works --- Broadcast TV can give you direct response in daytime. Cable does not do well for daytime direct response. Cable is great in prime, late fringe and overnight to get the word out and to drive visits to your website. Word of warning, though...if your web site is not good, you'll be wasting the money you spend on evening TV, as most of that audience will visit your site before contacting you.

Email me if you want to discuss this more. ernest@cordermarketing.com. I'm happy to help. We specialize in aesthetic marketing.

TV works great, get a target market channel, For a medical spa or laser center networks like Life Time or Oxygen or WE work great, another plus is that they will sometimes run your add when you don't even expect it, to fill empty slots. I have seen low budget med spa commercials during prime time. Make sure the commercial is professional because if it looks bad then you look bad..

Unless you have a bunch of money-forget it. There are much better ways to promote your services. I have done it and it is worthless unless like I said you have a bunch of money and can keep doing it. Ad's will only work if you have a great offer or you keep repeating them and it is costly to keep repeating TV ads. Same goes for radio.