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Online advertising is most effective for businesses that specialize in building computers, networking and other non-repair tasks. It is ineffective for those who are targeting home users for computer repairs. In my own experience, most home users only call me when their computer is seriously disabled which means they won’t be online looking for a computer repair technician. The great part about modern day online advertising is that you can choose which state your ad appears in and in some cases, even which postcode.
The two main advertising networks are:
- Google Adwords
Google Adwords is a great way to advertise for computer businesses that have a website. Google Adwords allows you to place ads on the Google main search page which are those links on the right hand side of Google when you search for something. You can also have your ads show up on relevant websites such as the ones you see here on Technibble. The great part is you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. The amount you pay per click depends on the keyword you want your ad to show up under. Each advertiser on Google Adwords bids for a higher positioned ad and some of the more competitive keywords can become very expensive per click.
- Yahoo Ads (Overture)
Yahoo Ad Network (Overture) works similar to Google Adwords. The difference is some keyword prices will be different.
The trick with Pay-per-click advertising is to bid on the lower-costing very specific keywords. For example, “computer repair montana†would cost a lot less than just “computer repairâ€Â.
Radio & TV Advertising
A fellow computer technician named Jeff from “Click ‘A’ Tec†informed us of his findings with radio advertising. For him, after trying most other forms of media he found radio advertising worked best for him followed up by TV advertising. He recommends that for one month you hit them with at least ten radio ads per day during 6am to 7pm on Monday to Friday (advertising on weekends doesn’t seem to be effective). Then after that month drop the ads down to air only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays for two weeks per month.
Jeff also recommends that you take charge with the companies you are advertising with. Don’t let them tell you that they are doing you a favor because they aren’t, you are the one who is paying their wages, tell them what you want and at what price you want it at.
In the U.S., it is illegal to put flyers in or on mailboxes.:
Here is the answer from the United States Code at 18 USC §1725:
“Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits any mailable matter such as statements of ccounts, circulars, sale bills, or other like matter,
on which no postage has been paid, in any letter box established, approved, or accepted by the Postal Service for the receipt or
delivery of mail matter on any mail route with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage thereon, shall for each such offense be fined under this title.” (CFR TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 83 > Sec. 1725.)
Rich, is that America wide or only applies to certain states?
that is country wide.
Really great article, thanks for writing it! I started a computer repair service company a few months ago and we are definitely having some trouble building new business up. We’ve advertised in the Yellow Book which has been ok, but nowhere near enough business as we need. We did try a local paper by purchasing a bigger ad, and got 0 calls from it. We’ll be doing some door hangar advertising next, hoping that helps! I do like the idea of the smaller line ads in the paper though, and will probably be giving that a shot.
One thing you didn’t mention was press releases…did you have any experience with that?
Dave, I havent tried it with my Computer Repair business but I use them frequently for Technibble. I found that you need to send your release to ALOT of locations/emails for it to be effective. Only about 5% will pick you up, but those 5% can be worth it.
As for your advertising with bigger ads, you might be interested in this:
http://www.technibble.com/advertising-bigger-is-not-always-better/
[...] How to Advertise your Computer Business - So you know nearly everything there is to know about fixing computers. You can build a computer in your sleep and have all the BIOS beep codes committed to memory. Great! Now we need to get some clients. In this article we will be covering various different forms of advertising and their effectiveness. [...]
[...] are still many cheap ways to advertise your business mentioned in one of our past articles “how to advertise your computer business“. Print This Post Del.icio.us Article By [...]
I want to subscribe to your advertisement listing for UNIX/Windows computer repair
Please send me email.
Yeah I’ve tried the mailbox drop before. Got a strongly worded letter from the USPS.
Great information. Thank you, love your whole site…
My question is, for flyers, is it better to use my own name or use my company name that I have set-up? Which will return more results?