Effective Advertising

[hext]

I would like as many people as possible to list which two forms of advertising you find most effective?

Two types, so that refferals won't be the only answer :p

I wanted to target my budget in the most effective way...

Thanks

[gunslinger]

So far I have found business cards and a local sales website to be most efective. But honestly I get most of my customer by word of mouth. Its a small town and word spreads fast be it good or bad.

[tartis]

Yellow Pages. I just started running my first AT&T Yellow Pages ad last week, and I have already received several calls and jobs. I ran a color business card size ad for $200 per month.

Vehicle lettering. I paid $375 a few months ago for my truck to get lettered, and I have already made my money back in a web job, and a few repairs.

Dress up in business casual clothes and visit your local small business owners and introduce yourself, and hand out literature.

Does Not Work ---> Billboard. $150 per month and I only get about 1 call every other month. I can't wait until my year contract is up on this advertising.

[SandTech]

WOM is the best.

Received a lot of calls from craigslist

[dcstek]

I'm in a small town and I use the local newspapers website. It increased my website traffic 200% immediately. WOM is first though. I also buy lots of pens and hand them out everywhere.

[iladelf]

These are just my opinions, i.e. what's happened to me. YMMV.

WOM Cheapest, and the best overall, DEPENDING ON WHICH CUSTOMER REFERS YOU, AND WHAT KIND OF CUSTOMER THEY REFER YOU TO. Have had a lot of customers refer me to bad new customers; even a family member did that to me!

Yellow Pages. Best bang for the buck, paid advertising wise. It's where I get most of my new customers.


Vehicle lettering. Has gotten me looky-lous, but not much else. Plus, the damned magnets stuck to my car (had never happened before), and cost me $100 to have a body shop buff out the paint. Probably necessary to have them, but to me, a complete waste.

Radio Expensive. I was on-air for $50/wk, for a minute a week on a morning show, talking tech. Yeah, ROI here was two total calls, nearly six months after I was on-air. About worthless.

Newspaper Media here is a monopoly, with one company virtually owning every media outlet, therefore their paper is godawful expensive. Whereas a typical dinky classified ad might run ya $20-25/wk in most places, here it's about $80/wk! And no other local trader papers; the newspaper bought all of those up. ROI poor here as well.

Of note, I'd do Craigslist, but the closest town with a Craigslist to me is about 120 miles away. Doubt if folks will pay for the gas for those trips.

[Holzster]

My best is Word of Mouth but from the local Chamber of Commerce. Be sure to be active in the chamber go to as many of the networking & ribbon cuttings as possibly can. Plus once you join have a ribbon cutting for yourself serve coffee cookies & have your literature out so they can grab it (place the literature next to the food).
& do not forget to get your 30 second elevator ad (have 5-6 of them) & practice giving them.

Holzster

[GraemeP]

Could some of you guys with Yellow pages , Newspaper and flyer ads post what you have got give some of us other technibblers some ideas. Thanks

[tartis]

Could some of you guys with Yellow pages , Newspaper and flyer ads post what you have got give some of us other technibblers some ideas. Thanks

Here is my Yellow Pages ad in low res.

http://www.bigdogservice.com/images/stuff/yellowpages.jpg

[GraemeP]

Very nice ad tartis. Do you just work onsite and take the computer home if needs more work?

[greggh]

We actually have a TV commercial:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Y5PWtGEg0

My roomate/co-worker put it up on youtube. We play it on the local cable tv.

[GraemeP]

Haha Nice Greggh.

[tartis]

Very nice ad tartis. Do you just work onsite and take the computer home if needs more work?

If I can't fix it on-site, I will take it back to my basement workshop. I also offer a pickup and delivery service. With the pickup and delivery service, I charge $20 per hour less, but charge a $35 pickup fee.

[GraemeP]

Tartis do you have customers come to your home?

[cmonova]

We have one runnning at the theatre

Here is the link from our site: Here (http://cmonova.com/images/cmproof.avi)

[GraemeP]

Greggh and Cmonova, Did you make the TV ads your self? or pay some one too, and how much would something like that cost?

[cmonova]

Not positive what I paid cause it was part of the package to advertise. But my bud in North Carolina just had one done here is the link:
Here (http://youtube.com/watch?v=DBT5IXqLYvk)

And I believe I was told it ran like $600. But it's one of those things you pay one and you are done. Not sure if it's a good price or not.

[GraemeP]

Thats a good ad. Has anyone had anything like this done in Australia?

[greggh]

About the same as cmonova. We had someone else do it, then set up the deals with the local cable company.

[Joe The PC Doc]

We actually have a TV commercial:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Y5PWtGEg0

My roomate/co-worker put it up on youtube. We play it on the local cable tv.

Wow... That commercial was great!

If you haven't watched it yet forum readers, treat yourself for a minute!

Is that you with the sparkle in your eye Greggh?

[greggh]

Wow... That commercial was great!

If you haven't watched it yet forum readers, treat yourself for a minute!

Is that you with the sparkle in your eye Greggh?

Thanks, but no. I did not make an appearance in the commerical. It sucks, the week we did that I actually ended up in the hospital with a really bad infection and was in no shape to be in a video.

[JJsMom]

Great Ad! I am a long way off from running something like that but it is nice. Short, Sweet and Simple.

[swany971]

I've been running an ad in a small weekly newspaper for the past 4 months named the Bargain Bulletin. Costs me $5/week. I've gotten around 3-4 calls per month from it. The rest of my customers have come from flyer dropoffs in paperboxes and tear-off sheets placed around town, which i print myself. But have yet to see any steady stream of customers. I will go some weeks and not get any calls at all.

I'm glad to hear that the Yellow Pages have helped a couple people, since I put my ad in there too. The next one doesn't come out till May though, so I won't know if it works till then.

A guy approached me about a month ago about showcasing my ad in a restaurant up on a board alongside the specials. It's gonna cost me $150 for the whole year. I'll see if it pays off.

Two other ideas I will be trying soon are placing yard signs at busy intersections, and finding out what the newspaper charges to put my flier in there just loosely. I will be back to report my results.

[GraemeP]

I'm trying to make a flyer in Pubisher now not having the best of luck but getting there, I'm guessing anything is better than nothing. I am in need of new customers have not been getting any new ones just been doing jobs for all the old ones. I have a question what would be better A4 or half page flyer? Any tips on making a good flyer will be much appreciated.
Thanks
Graeme

[darren1270]

In my opinion size dosen't matter.... LOL As long as you don't junk it up with way to much info you should be good. First thing to remember is that when doing any type of print advertising you want to get your point across quick and don't want the person reading it to get tired..... such as this post....LOL

Good Luck
Darren

[GraemeP]

Thanks for that I had a nice sweet to the point so i thought, showed someone and they told me to cut some stuff out. I am working with an A4 setup but having it spread out.

[Andyuk2007]

I use local advertising and shop windows for my business at the moment, word of mouth is also helpful :)

[MrMille]

We actually have a TV commercial:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Y5PWtGEg0

My roomate/co-worker put it up on youtube. We play it on the local cable tv.

Very good!