How much does it cost you to get a gig?

[Galager]

In a previous post about Thumbtack.com I got to wondering how much you folks are spending to get leads and how much it costs to get a gig.

If you don't know how much you spend, it might be a very good idea to figure it out. That information will be helpful in determining what forms of advertising you want to invest in.

To figure out what your cost per lead you need to take into consideration a variety of factors:

1. Direct costs per lead. This is like Thumbtack.com or WeddingWire or some other lead generating service.
2. Indirect costs. This is usually much bigger than people realize. Not only does this include things such as Yellow Pages, coupons, radio, fliers, or any other form of advertising. It also includes things like business cards, kick backs for referrals (I will give someone either a few bucks, movie tickets or some other form of reward to say thank you for a referral), signage on your vehicles, Thank you cards, and anything else that might be involved in getting your name out there as a DJ.

Total up all the direct and indirect marketing costs, divide it by the number of leads you are getting, and you have the cost per lead. Once you have figured out how much you are spending on average to get a lead, then divide it by the number of gigs and you get your average cost per gig. Just so you know, this only really works well if you have a long period of time to get your numbers from, a year preferably.

One other thing that is always good to track is how much each type of advertising is costing you per lead. If someone calls you to get a quote, I hope you are asking them how they heard about you and them keeping track of it. Over the course of the year you might find that the yellow pages are more expensive per lead than what you realized (or the reverse). When I had my construction company I spent over $11,000 per month in yellow pages advertising every month. Many people that that was way too much money to spend on something like that but because we kept track of the number of leads I got from the yellow pages, I was able to justify the cost. I was creating enough leads each month that the $11,000 was very reasonable.

You should also keep track of the percentage of a kind of lead to convert to a sale (gig). Thumbtack.com may bring in lots of leads but if your conversion of leads to gigs is very low with Thumbtack it may not be worth using in the long run.

Information is your friend. The more information you have about how your business runs, the better decisions you can make.

[DjNeedleSharp]

Thanks for the writeup. Definitely something easy to look over or write-off for someone newer to the industry. I've also learned cables and tape are a pretty significant cost that I wasn't factoring in. Stuff gets expensive.

[ghostnotes]

Great thread topic, which I will be keeping my eyes on as I do not know much about marketing-related costs in this industry. I know what my brother does for his contracting company, so I have an idea of what he pays for various referral and marketing services, but I'm clueless as to what you guys are paying for what mediums and how much is actually getting converted into business. Any insight into your marketing mixes is greatly appreciated!

[DJStevieRay]

My marketing budget is around $4000 a year. That includes 7 Bridal Shows, print Tri-Fold flyers, Print Ads, Web Site, Wedding Wire listing, and sales meetings. I average between 30-40 shows a year, so that makes my cost per show around $100-$150 per show.

[sse]

Great post by the OP. I am sure tere are a lot of DJs that don't add up the total cost of DJing. For me I have given up on print ads, was spending about $1000/year and getting nothing from it. Also tried Yellow pages for 2 years, and only got one lead 1 year after I dropped the ad.

But after reading this.....

My marketing budget is around $4000 a year. That includes 7 Bridal Shows, print Tri-Fold flyers, Print Ads, Web Site, Wedding Wire listing, and sales meetings. I average between 30-40 shows a year, so that makes my cost per show around $100-$150 per show.

It seams to me that there should be a percentage that you should be spending on advertising????
If your add costs are around $100 to $150 per show, and you are charging say $1000 per show, 10% seems about the max for advertising cost.

But if you were only make $500 per show, wouldn't $150 in advertising be a bit much?

[DJStevieRay]

Our packages range from $1200-$2000 so it is about 8% for me.

[Galager]

Our packages range from $1200-$2000 so it is about 8% for me.

That is a great percentage! Gratz. What is your most effective form of advertising?

[DJStevieRay]

There is no single most effective, I get about 30% of my bookings from Bridal Shows, and 30% from Word of mouth when questioning brides, but I have heard many say they saw me at multiple bridal shows, or brand recognition from print/online ads and then meeting in person at bridal shows. I think it is because I spend alot across many different platforms, that it creates Brand Recognition, as well as makes people who can't afford me want me more. They know the name, and are willing to make it happpen, because the the combination of them seeing my name multiple times.

[DJMC]

I spend a total of $120 on web hosting ($10 per month) and $110 for WeDJ "Silver" (gets me Gigbuilder & SEO). Total marketing cost = $240.00 per year.

Everything else is WOM (word of mouth)