I know this topic has been debated before but I was wondering for those of you living in major metropolitan areas what types of advertising did you find to be most effective. Community newspapers? daily papers? Is the Yellowpages worthwhile? Trying to pick up some small jobs(new doors, walls, entryways, cabinets, etc..) doing residential work as the commercial work isn’t really that satisfying recently(all metal studs and suspended ceilings, no interesting woodwork). Been to 5 or 6 of the apartment rental agencies and handed out my business card, even had a decent conversation with some agents but no calls to show for it yet.
-Ray
Replies
can't help ya on landing the first sale....
but a lesson learned from my days in sales full time....
canvass the neighborhood. Or paper it.
One method is door knocking the immediate neighbors. With the current job house in mind...make contact at the 5 surrounding....for a typical street.
That's the one's on both sides....then the one directly across the street ..then the homes on both sides of that one.
Helps if ya can pay attention thru the day to see if and when the onwers are home.
Sometimes I'll knock and introduce myself....handing out the all important card...then say I'm working across the street .....and just wanted to give the neighbors a heads up that some construction was going on....etc...blah blah blah...
Then mention you usually have time after clean up but before the long drive home to look at any projects they're considering....
Another thing I do is mail out a flyer ...Kinko's can print most anything you can think up..and attach pics ...for a pretty professional look. Sometimes I'll drive slow and note the house numbers.....mail to the whole subdivision ...or just one block....
All depends who ya wanna find.
Most will tell ya the flyer route don't work ......but I've made tons more than I have invested...traced directly to specific flyers.
I don't do any other advertising other than business cards that anyone that shows an interest in gets.....
And ..ask/tell previous customer to spread the word.....make a game out of it ....I've done whole kitchen remodels where I'll "throw in" a free screen door install....if they promiss to send me 10 "good, solid leads" in a year....
Who cares if they send ya 10 ...who cares if they forget in 6 months ....important thing is when they're sitting at that table 18 months later and someone starts talking about finding a good contractor..they suddenly remember your name!
It's all a numbers game.
Maybe someone else can teach us about real advertising ...I've been thinking along those lines too.....give something new a try....
Jeff
Buck Construction Pittsburgh,PA
Fine Carpentery.....While U Waite
If it helps, I can tell you what I (has a homeowner) have done. I typically just go through word of mouth from friends and neighbors.
I did try angie's list for a while, but found it rather useless (just not enough feedback to make it worthwhile).
As for advertisements, I'd probably look in the local neighborhood newspaper first.
I normally despise door-to-door salespeople or anyone that stuffs a flyer in my windshield and/or door, but I think Jeff's "just want to give you a heads up" approach is rather clever.
As for the rewarding existing clients to recommend others, that can usually be a great way to do it. Our Accountant mails us a $10 check whenever we recommend a new client to him. We don't recommend him because of the $10 (he's just a great accountant) but the $10 certainly doesn't hurt and keeps him in our mind ;o)
And as corny as they seem, the business-card-magnets do work (in terms of retaining name recognition) in most households that still use the fridge to put up the kid's artwork.
pick up a copy of "Guerilla Marketing"..
.... remember , repetition... most people will not remember you until you have registered at least 7 blips on their radar screen, so your total marketing campaign should strive for that...
logo is extremely important.. on your shirts, on your trucks , on your job signs , in your ads.. keep it consistently in their face.. and make sure your company is differentiated...
pretty soon they will think they see you all over the place.. because they do
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I don’t know how well this worked.
Some one here said he would have note pads printed with his co. name, phone number and leave hand full at lumber yards. The idea is when the customer want some thing written down. They would use his pad that way the lumber yard helped get his name and number out. Places to leave the note pads would hardware store, flooring shop, lightning shop, furniture store, of course any customer that liked your work.
Besides your company name and number you could put your web site, email address on it the type of work you do.
If you really want a job answer the phone, at least return the calls you get. You may get the job by default if you just talk to the people that call you. Unlike a lot of contractors who don’t call a potential customer back.