I recently started my sole proprietorship, and I’m looking to find some tips on advertising to get my foot in the door. My main emphasis is on rough and exterior carpentry and repair; i.e., framing, siding, cornice repair, decks. I also do limited trim carpentry, sheetrock, and painting.
I already have business cards, and I’m thinking of the following other ideas to get my business noticed:
1) vinyl lettering on my vehicle
2) logo’d t shirts
3) writing personal letters to real estate agents and builders I know/ have worked with
4) newpaper & yellow page ads
5) maybe a radio ad
Can you all give me some ideas for what has worked well for you? Thank you in advance.
Jason Pharez Construction
Mobile, Alabama
General Carpentry, Home Repairs, and Remodeling
When quality is your only consideration
Replies
I'm certainly no advertising expert, but I've read up on it some for my own biz.
Signage is considered the best return for the dollar. Signs on job sites, trucks, etc.
DEFINATELY contact everyone who even has heard your name through someone else. Direct mail, don't use a bulk mail permit (use stamps). Your barber, your mechanic, your banker (you need to develop a good relationship with your banker no matter what! Ya never know what you'll want to borrow for down the road! (Especially a guy with a growing family.... ; )
Go around in person, take time, be relaxed, meet real estate people and property managers. Give them cards. Ask if you can put up a flier (pictures help) in their office. Go to open houses just to meet the agent (sometimes you'll find they are not busy, they are bored, they are glad to talk to you (to anybody!)
Newspaper ads: Small non-display ads. Try small papers (shopper types, special interest papers such as retirement, biz, etc.) IME the larger the paper, the worse the return on the dollar.
T-shirts/caps: Rare return.
Yellow pages: Yes, but only the smallest ad unless you have a whoppin ad budget. Hidden expense here: You have to have a biz phone line and they cost three times what a private line costs (at least here they do).
Radio ads are a waste of money!
Name recognition is hard to quantify and builds over time.
I wish you the best of fortune!
Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.
One thing I'm going to do is a postcard with a job photo on the front and a short description on the back. It's relatively easy to get a mailing list from a service that sorts public records and prints the labels for you--i.e. they can give you a mailing address for everyone in a certain zip code that owns a single family residence assessed at more than a certain amount. You can use the labels or hand-address the cards if you want.
I figure just under $150 printing for 500 postcards and about the same for my designer to lay out the back, $60 for the list, and I'll probably start by mailing a hundred or so, that's $25 in postage. I've done a fair amount of architectural photography and took the shot I'm using. So, a $400 experiment. I did postcards several years ago when I had a cabinet shop and the first batch I sent got me a $30K job. The postcard landed on a contractor's desk the day she found out her usual shop was closing down.
Ive thought the postcard thing is a good way too, example: we had our chimmney cleaned by several guys over the years but we stopped using our wood furnace this past year anyway this postcard came last year with a guy in the next town sitting on top of a chimmney holding his cleaning brush with trees and sky in the background and it looked great well I saved it and next time i need mine cleaned im going to call him, the way i see it when somone needs somthing done they call or ask a friend or relative unless sombody like this does somthing unforgetable even if its a gimmik, he probibly got quite a few jobs from that mailing. id use him just because of his imagination. Dogboy
Looks right on track except the newspaper, yellow pages, and radio might not be as high on the cost/benefit payback as the others. I would add lumber yards that you have some relationship with. Also talking to larger competitors (friendly of course) for sub jobs or cast-off smaller jobs that they are not interested in. Insurance companies if you have any track record to back you up.
Jason,
I didn't advertise for the first couple of years but when I hired a guy I wanted to drive business up a notch. I checked with another contractor to see what he used. In out town we can get a 30 seconde ad on the local cable information channel for $35 a week. I get 1-2 call a week off of it and usually the level of customer I am looking for. Have averaged selling something to 40%. I tried the newspaper and didn't get much. DanT
Hmmmm......2 questions for this line of thought...
1) Did you need any production/layout work for the TV Add?
2) Has anyone (of course they have) had good experince with home shows?
BTW, Tee shirts or similar give you a professional look when on the site. Think of it this way, If the Packers came to play football in street clothes, you wouldn't think much of them. But when the Green and Gold comes on the field, looking sharp....They are ready to play! And people take notice.
You can buy better, but you can't pay more.
Pegs,
Nope, I just gave them a CD of before and afters and they did a demo, I made changes, then approved it and on the tv it went. Just a pro announcer with a series of still photos. Has really worked though. We are doing the Home Show thing in March so I will know more then. DanT
Truck signs are great. I have had a good response to newspaper ads, but you have to be creative with them. Yellow pages is necessary for any marketing program, but I haven't had an excellent amount of work from them, but it portrays professionalism. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising. I have heard that is a customer hears your name three times they feel you are credible.
One way I like is the door hanger or post card method.
When I'm working in a neighborhood I like, I'll gather 20 or 30 addresses around that residence and send out a postcard saying I'm in the neighborhood doing work and invite them to stop by and check us out.
I also announce the job saying that there will be trucks coming in and out a lot during a specified length of the job and for them to please call if there are any problems. It's a way of advertising and showing I intend to be a good neighbor even if it is for a few weeks.
All this and my yard signs.
Curious how much business you work up out of the letters to the neighbors, sounds like a good idea
Not very many at the time were in a neighborhood. But we get a pretty good response a little later. We will get a call from someone saying they kept out door hanger. I've had one client who called us a year after we had been in her neighborhood. Seems she kept our door hanger on her fridge dreaming of her future room addition.
I don't put out a lot just a dozen or two in the immediate area. The cost isn't much about $2 bucks a piece. Half the time I put them out myself. The walk helps me feel the neighborhood, might sound silly. But it really helps me work better.
We almost always get 1 or 2 that come buy after getting the hangers. The volume is low, the responce is low but the one's that we close with for a new project has so far always turned out to be one of our better clients.
I worked for a company that sent out 'pardon our dust' letters to all the neighbors. We sent the laborer out to take down all the street addresses within a block or so and the sent the letters from the office. It gave our jobsite and office contact info so that people could call (me) if they had any issues. Of course they never did but once in a while a neighbor would call for an estimate. Hard to say what did it since we also had job signs and truck signs.
I started my business a year ago.
I sent letters to a few architects I knew worked in the area - some response but no immediate jobs.
I wrote a press release announcing my new business in town and two small local papers wrote stories on my business. The phone started ringing off the hook. With small papers, you don't even really have to go formal with a press release. Just buy a copy of the paper, find the name of a writer who covers local biz, call them up and tell them about what you do. You need to come up with an angle about what makes you a newsworthy story. You get a chance for a longer explanation about your specialties, and it's FREE.
I also did a yellow pages listing, not ad, so people could find me after publication of the story.
I had two signs made up for placing in people's yards. Those have generated a great response and only cost $70.00. My vehicle magnetic signs have not generated any direct leads, but it makes clients feel better that I show up in an identified vehicle.
When in doubt, spend as little as possible until you know what works.
Alison Hardy
Window Woman of New England
Jason: Just a word of advise....one thing that I took away from my Mktg, 101 class is that if you are using multiple channels of advertising, that you ask all incoming inquiries "how did you hear/learn of me"? You'll quickly gauge where your dollar should be spent. Name recognition is great, but we all can't be Bob Villas. "Methinks" that your better prospects will be from those who tell you that "you did some work for a friend of mine". Rookie
Jason, I am an advertising creative director by trade, renovator of a 1916 bungalow by vice.
without getting into a long screed about advertising dos and don'ts let me offer a few pointers.
• stay focused. Determine your market, whether its by geographic location, type of work, income average, etc. Example - Don't try advertising high end work to folks that can't appreciate your efforts.
• Look professional. You don't have to hire someone like me to get great looking results. But crappy advertising makes you and your work look crappy.
• Keep it simple. I can't tell you how many of my clients (often savvy business folk) want to clutter their ads, brochures, etc with too much info. Say what you need to say with as few words as possible. One great photo is more effective than 4 mediocre ones. The words "Simply Elegant" (by example) say volumes more than a paragraph about your work will.
• sell an image. - Portray an image that represents your work. If you are the cheapest, say it. If you sell luxury, say it. If craftsmanship is your thing, say it.
• Track your efforts. The biggest failure of most small businesses attempting advertising is that they fail to measure the results. Keep accurate records of your returns on all efforts to determine future efforts and expenditures.
• Make it personal. If you are just starting out, do what you can to personalize your message. Add a "promise" or guarantee to your ad and sign it! when showcasing your work make sure you showcase yourself, get in the picture. People buy services like yours based on personal referrals, personal opinions, personal friendships and personalities. Use it to your advantage.
good luck.
All the suggestions mentioned in the other posts all sound good and I am sure one or more of them will work for you. I also own an ad agency and my motto is out of sight, out of mind. Keep the signs on the trucks, in the yards and get those business cards and postcards in potential clients hands.
I have found that word of mouth brings in more business at my company than anything else we do and I bet the same will be true for you. With all the money your are going to spend promoting yourself don't forget a great free source, your previous clients. Don't leave the job without asking if they have friends who might need your services or that you can put on a mailing list. Leave a few cards with them so they can pass them out.
Good Luck!
Shawn
Good luck with your new business and I think the responses have been excellent. I have been wondering myself about the home shows. I think you may even be able to get a lumber yard or material rep to help you out, team with if you find the right connections. But word of mouth is a truth in this industry and the home show seems like a good place to pass out flyers, business cards etc and get face-to-face time to explain yourself, your business to people. But I would like to know from someone who has done the home shows if the cost of the booth and displays of your work was worth the responses and jobs you got out of the show.
Dan
A couple of things that hasn't been mentioned yet are joining a local building association. Your membership dues pays for them to advertise for you and they tell the potential client that you are in the business to do quality work and therefore makes you more credible as a contractor. This also opens you up to a local network of trades. In our area there are a few contractors who have too many leads and are just looking for someone in the association who can use the work to follow up on these leads. This is a minimal cost per year in comparison to what it can produce. Another idea is what I did my first week in business 14 years ago was to go around to pool companies (they have clients who need decks or sheds), solarium companies, window companies (these usually need installers), kitchen companies (also need sub-installers). This way you can pick up clients and/or jobs, pay the company a referral fee and this starts the ball rolling for more referrals and it didn't cost you a dime from you own pocket. Spend the money on professional business cards (not the ones you print off of your computer), and get very nice letter-head for your quotations and estimates, supply a cover letter telling about yourself and your company and your talents and how you would look forward to performing their project, and present yourself well. Don't be too flashy with t-shirts, hats and fridge magnets, these are usually a lot of money spent with very little return. And listen to everybody else about the lawn signs, get them! And if you belong to a building association, put that on the lawn sign too. Make sure you do quality work and finish every job whether you lose money or not and the customer referrals will make sure you don't have to spend money on advertising again.
Thank you so much to all of y'all for giving me some really good advice--and some that was surprising! I'm gonna print out all of the suggestions and really "go to town" with my marketing pretty soon. Thanks again, and I will update you on what returns what in the future.
Jason Pharez Construction
Mobile, Alabama
General Carpentry, Home Repairs, and Remodeling
When quality is your only consideration
I'm a little surprised that I didn't see anyone mention website in the above posts. I doubt that a website, in and of itself, is going to do too much, but for someone like myself it is really nice to followup on something I see in some other form of advertising. Websites are fairly inexpensive these days. The cost is in developing a decent looking website (there are a lot of shabby looking ones).
Sometimes you can get lucky and have a neighbor high school kid crank one out that looks decent and costs very little. You do need to spend some time on it.
I may be unusual in that I spend a lot of time on the computer researching the products and services I plan on using, but these days most of the brochures, business cards, and ads have a website on them. I generally tend to give greater emphasis to those products and vendors that do have a website.
As I indicated initially, I think the website wouldn't displace the other forms of advertising that have been mention but would augment it.
Oh, and get some good advertising pencils so you can give them to all of us Breaktimers...
and hats, don't forget the hats!
The local building association cost about 400$ a year and got me one job with a builder who had lost all his other subs by not paying them.
A far better avenue for me was the local Porsche club. Dues were only 40 a year and I meet alot of nice people with substantial incomes looking for someone they trust.
Word of mouth is definately a good thing but you have to have been around a while to really live off word of mouth.
Tying in with builders and doing their warranty work has proven to be a good inroad to bigger jobs and referrals, just remember to be prompt and carrying and you'll go far.
ANDYSZ2I MAY DISAGREE WITH WHAT YOUR SAYING BUT I WILL DEFEND TO THE DEATH YOUR RIGHT TO SAY IT.