Best way to advertise

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Hi guys,

Im only starting out in the business and am only working in the evenings at present.

I was wondering what is the best way to get your name out there to drum up some business. Im taking an Ad out in the Yellow pages.

I had some sales guy on the phone yesterday saying that if i paid them a £200 upfront fee and £30 a month they would guarantee me 16 enquires a month. The guys attitude on teh phone was shocking and i said to him "If your service is so good then why have you phoned me back 4 times to convince me?? Surely people would be jumping at teh chance"

They were an online company and i had never heard of them so was dubious. I eventually ended up literally telling him to F%^K off as he was pestering me!!!

Any advice would be great.

G
 
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I would imagine telling anyone to "F%^K off " over the phone or any other way is not the way you should conduct yourself,particually if you want to create a good image and name for yourself,the person you told to " F%^K off " may along with there friends/family may require your services one day and may well tell you to " F%^K off " :!:
 
I believe advertising is very very important,unless your the only firm in your area,which is unlikely,you see B/gas,advertise everywere even though there the biggest around.I would get in the yellow pages,and get your van signwritten,i have one van but people say "see your vans everywere".Im on yell and i got 3 boiler changes last month through them.I had my best few months of a local murder ,right by my office/shop,it was when i put a sign on the front windows,just name,number and c,heating centre installations,breakdowns etc,and i got loads of work,so follow the tele cameras around.
 
The company that called you is probably the one that is pestering all of us. It is a complete con. The way this usually works is to cold call everyone and his dog and ask them if they can send someone over for: “a free, no obligation explanation of the options”. You go there, spend your time and your fuel, and with very little chance of getting a job out of it. though against my policy to be rude to people, I was a lot more explicit to them than you were.

As for advertising, the BEST way is word of mouth. Takes a bit longer but can not be beaten. Do a good job, for a medium price and in a few years you will have more work than time. Do NOT fall for the temptation of doing budget jobs. IF you get any recommendations at all, it will be people who do not care for quality and expect you to be cheap. Or people who expect quality AND expect you to be cheap.
If you are in a hurry, keep an A1 database and use viral marketing
 
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The best way is hand delivered leaflets in your target area. That avoids YP calls from 30 miles away.

They can be delivered according to how busy you are.

A special offer is best like cheaper boiler services during that month of August.

If you are not busy a free efficiency check of the heating and controls and recommendations/quote for improvements.

Tony
 
Sorry to tell you the money you spent on that book was wasted.

Now don't wast any more on the other books.

Tony's idea sounds best.

The important thing is to gain the necessary skills and do everything to a very high standard. You'll soon be noticed.
 
The important thing is to gain the necessary skills and do everything to a very high standard. You'll soon be noticed.
And make sure they remember you: leave a professional looking sticker on every boiler you service or install (gather from the other replies you're in that trade?) with company name and phone number on it. Cheaper than YP and very effective!
 
I am a little dubious about stickers on boilers.

I am often called to repair boilers when there is one or more stickers from other companies already in place yet we are selected from YP or elsewhere. I have tried asking why they call us instead of calling the firms on the stickers. None of the replies have been very clear.

Certainly we are most often called when our number is on the back of the boiler booklets but it might be a little cheeky to put our numbers there.

Tony
 
Could be various reasons? New owners, bad experience with others?
Was just an idea, a local plumber uses it with great results. WE, not in plumbing but in flooring, use stickers on leaflets and on maintenance, diy-products like glue, filler etc. When the bottle, tin of maintenance product is empty they know where to get more.
 
i use yp and yell.com both keep me busy not to mention the word of mouth. i had a lean fortnight a while back and tried the local leaftlets, and F me if i didnt get loads of calls, just when the work started coming back in too, so i was doing very long days but the christmas hols is gonna be longer this year than before! i need a break! not sure if anyone will listen but apart from the yell.com ****mail and cons they are all 4 great ways to get work, of course the word of mouth comes later!
 
Word of mouth accounts for around 85% of my work, the majority of the rest comes from my internet site, but you have to make the effort with this to get first page results on google etc. Can be time comsuming.
 
depends on teh nature of your trade, but we found yell and yellow pages a waste of money and its well overpriced. Friday-ad brings us in an enormous amount of leads and work. Repeat custom and recomendations are always nice, but take a while to bear fruit. Leaflets never really paid off much for us. A good neat sign written van always helps as well and certainly pays for itself. We always ask people where they got our number from, its a good way of seeing which advertising works.

A word of warning. There are lots of people out there who promise the earth with advertising.Glossy mags, calenders etc. Find something that works. Its an expense and most have jumped on the bandwagon and see it as an easy way to get businesses to part with money, without delivering much. I speak from the bitter experiance of the 118 trades fiasco.....bastards...******s...tossers....****s.......arseholes.... :evil:
 
Word of mouth accounts for around 85% of my work, the majority of the rest comes from my internet site, but you have to make the effort with this to get first page results on google etc. Can be time comsuming.
65% from website, 30% and growing from word of mouth - including returning clients, 5% rest.
Website took a while to get attention, but know it is the hardest working 24/7 employee ;)
Nowadays there are simpler and cheaper ways to get a proper internet presence, but it will always take time and effort because for a website to work - you have to work on your website!
 
Word of mouth & personal recommendation can't be beaten.

If you only want to do local work (say within 6 or 7 miles radius or so) stay away from things like YP or TL. Complete waste of money - you'll get calls at all hours from all over your geographic area, most just wanting 'quotes' and very few actually wanting 'work to be done'

Also, IMHO, stay away from Freephone, 0845, LoCall etc.. numbers

If just starting out, best way to advertise LOCALLY is flyers. Go knocking on doors, hand a leaflet, TALK WITH people, get some up in local shops you use.

If you don't use local shops ..... why should other local poeple use you ?

Of my work, I'd reckon : 50% word of mouth, 30% returning repeat customers, 20% flyers or thereabouts
 
Hi every body i am new to the forum.

I don't want to hi-jack this tread to much but.

I am 2 months into self-employment as a burglar alarm installer and there was enough work up until about 2 weeks ago, i have tried so far...

Leaflet drop 1200 (only got 1 system & 2 maintenance calls) in the past 2 weeks.

Ad in the local paper 3 weeks (nothing) in the past 2 weeks.

Counter stand in local shop (only 1 system) in the past 2 weeks.

Special offer leaflet drop 220 (only 1 system after Xmas).

cold calling door to door :oops: (nothing)

The special offer is:
4x movement sensors
1X remote keypad
1X internal sounder
1x external sounder
1X main panel & battery

All hard wired with 2 years warranty for £375.00 all in !!!

Normal price more like £420.00


Has anybody any other tips for getting a bit of work on the run up to Xmas ???

Or any tips on door to door cold calling ? as i like it but i don't think i am very good at it :( is there any books on it ?


any input welcome





 
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