ForumsAdvertising, Sales and Marketing

CLTO672,
Thanks for the advise. I am currently looking into that option.
Carpetman

One suggestion I would have from my housepainting business is to get involved in a charity that you think closely fits your business' mission. For us, it was getting involved in Christmas in April and Habitat for Humanity. We got good PR from some of the free work we did and enjoyed doing it. Plus, it gave some word of mouth as we ended up on committees and boards with other business people who were happy to use us and refer us.

so, that could be a good approach.

Have you tried partnering with real estate agents? Most houses need carpet cleaning either before, during or after the sale. Maybe a small referral fee would get you some business. If you cna help them make or close a deal, your are golden. Another great tool is Google AdWords. More and more people look first on the internet for services.

Here is some information about advertising that you may find interesting. This was the first draft for an article I wrote recentlly for a couple of local business publications. I own a sign company in the Indianapolis area. We specialize in "find a solution for effective marketing". Vehicle wraps and vehicle lettering/graphics will get you the most impressions for least money.

Is your business vehicle paying for itself?

Certainly with the price of gasoline today, it becomes a larger and larger expense to travel the roadways today. Why not use that vehicle to advertise your business? Today small businesses often undervalue and certainly underutilize the advertising power of their company vehicles as a rolling billboard.

The Outdoor Advertising Association of America and the Transportation Advertising Council state that vehicular advertising generates between 30,000 and 70,000 daily impressions. The Indianapolis area is around 35,000 daily impressions.

Arbitron, Inc., an international media and marketing research firm shows that mobile advertising reaches virtually all demographics as 96% of Americans travel in a vehicle each week, while 35% of heavy commuters come from households earning $75,000+.

Now if you are the person who likes numbers, here are some facts and figures compiled by Driving Revenues, a Washington D.C. based advertising firm. They found that $20,000 spent on advertising produced the following ad impressions by type of advertising placement.

• Mobile advertising garners 8,400,000 impressions in a 12 month period
• Radio attracts 900,000 listeners in 6 weeks with 10 to 12 30-second spots
• Val-Pak offers reach 600,000 households
• Direct mail campaigns reach 20,000 names with one post card mailer
• 7 city buses get 600,000 impressions in 2 months

The average price of a full vehicle wrap is around $3,500. The average life expectancy of a vehicle wrap is 5 years, but let us assume the business vehicle is leased for only 4 years. That is $72.91 per month. But perhaps a full wrap is too much. Vehicle lettering can be done on a van for around $500. Over four years that is just over $10 per month to effectively advertise your business getting over 8,000,000 impressions per year.

seems like you got some great suggestions - have you tried any and have they worked?

Join a leads group through your localarea chamber of commerece works good for me

I am sorry if this was mentioned in earlier posts, I couldn't read them all, but my website has been my most effective marketing tool. I actually made it myself a long time ago, updating as I need to. But I have key words set in the meta file so that when someone searches "massage spartanburg" (that's me btw" I am one of the first few to pop up on google. And if not the first, my site has the most information and looks the best so I get the most attention.

I actually had a guy from TX tell me last week as he ordered a gift certificate for his girlfriend that I got his business because of my webpage and information it contained and it was the best in our city.

Carpetman,
I have worked in advertising for over 12 years. I have experience with small business and currently run one Most of the gorilla markeing feet on the street methods obviously make sense. But, don't you think you need to try and target buying need? I can look at a Claritas study (shows buying trends in a market place) and hit about 50% of the buying population from one source. Dex Media is the phone companies phone book in this maket and there I can purchase yellow page print and internet and get a managable SEO campaign to target search engines with measurable results. Go out and optimize the internet in other areas of no cost and for a reasonable amount of money I can keep one or two guys busy no problem and grow at a safe rate. Everyone that complains about the phone book or other advertising for that matter of fact bought the wrong program and did not have reasonable expectations. I can easily go get a 3 to 1 return and most of the time average over 8 dollars of return on my programs. Why wouldn't you advertise? That is the thing most of the guys that complain, run crappy businesses! When you get right down to it the only people they can sell are their own mothers. when you look at success or failure that is what it comes down to how good are you on the phone. Most business owners I see answer the phone and give a price and let the caller go without ever asking for the sell or heaven forbid actually giving them a reason to purchase what they have. You ever heard of a General Benefits Statement? I bet you 100.00 we could ask everyone on this site to give us two reasons why we should use there business and it would be becuase I'm better than the rest and I'm friendly or something stupid like that. Take it for what it is worth and good luck. Key points are understand why you are better than the competition, Gorilla maketing is a given and go out and buy as much active buyers or ready to buy customers as you can or the match you desired level of growth and you will find success. Watch out for those crazy people that tell you it is all internet, I did a study one time and only 4% of the traffic converted to cusotmers, compared too 40% in more traditional areas. Good mixture is a must, but the leads are not cheap on the internet. I would ask for a bundle when working with your advertising people. Best rates and product mixes are there. Good Luck-