Hi All.
Looking for advise\suggestions\experiences on advertising for the 1st time.
Last 4-5 years been doing residential multi-trade\DIY stuff; painting, decorating, door hanging, tiling small\medium kitchens etc. All via referral. Had good minimal amount of work, but gone very quiet this year!
Previously did couple of £80/quarter ads in local little trade\lifestyle mag - resulted in two “tight” customer calls - arguing over £30 for coming out to do flat packs etc!
Been referred to Check-A-Trade. Initially feel £900/year a bit steep? Looking around at others – including Yell etc. Also notice a few more so-called referral directories now starting up.
Just noticed on this forum criticism about Check-a-trade (will search some more)! Have been getting a “hard sell” from them to join since an initial phone call enquiry to them! Now wondering if customers may turn away given what I've just read and end up being expensive waste?
There’s also The Green Book (Directory of Excellence?) in my area – Reading, Berks – that supposedly also operates via referral. Any experience\comments?
Have mail shot all previous customers with new business and Xmas cards. Also flyers – for the 1st time – but only to houses around the area that have For Sale or Sold posts outside - been told general flyer-ing normally has poor results? Also starting to use all the "free entries" I can find like Yell.
Cheers,
Neil
Do NOT advertise with YELL.com, Yellow pages OR Thompson Local - this will only guarantee that you will throw £1,000s straight in the bin! These sources will only generate sales calls as the only people that use them are advertisers and spammers that don't want to pay for a traders list, also if your dumb enough to advertise with the above they think your dumb enough to buy there advertising too!
A good flyer will generate a good amount of work out of 10,000 delivered I would expect 10 phone calls within a few days after delivery, 2 after a couple of months and possibly 1 more after a year as some people put them in a draw until needed.
Thing is it takes a very long time to deliver them yourself and will cost you 3p each to pay a company to do it for you.
I would say as long as its cheap try lots of little things, local church booklets, the green book free listings on internet sites and printed directory's.
My hammer, trade face and all the others that are copying Checkatrade are all ****e! Checkatrade does work very well but only if you are good and can constantly get scored high for your work. I have seen some small minded twits slagging of checkatrade - they don'd know what they are talking about. Its the best advertsing in the country if your good at what you do and its the safest place to find a tradesman if you need work done.
If your up to competing with the best join - basic internet only advertising is only £550 ish and will generate enough work to keep you busy all year on its own and its paid in installment.
Why don't you call a few members and ask them (call people that arn't your competetion though to get a truthful answer.
Hell it sounds like I'm on commision!! They won an award recently and it was because they are a good company and are raising the standards of tradesmen that are answerable for there work and conduct - no one wins awards for being ****e!
Also don't beleive the hype these advertiser give you, like BT keep telling me 'We're BT' - yer a dead monopoly for Telecomunications ie., telephones! trying to make out that they are market leaders in internet placements (that's googles thing) and Yell, Thompson will tell you that there product sells itself! - well then why are they cold calling and doing the pushy salesman bit!!
Also Checkatrade are rapidly becoming nationaly recognized company and THE standard for other to immitate and follow, I doubt very much that a couple of thickies on a chat forum is going to bring a rapidly expanding, sucessful company to its knees!
