$750 - $1000 marketing budget (I'm desperate here)

[bagellad]

I second the phone book add, I pay about 600 bucks a year for a small basic one, but i got maybe 2 customers a week from it and more phone calls. Some turning out to be long term.

 

[supertech365]

Curious

hey nibbles. how are things going so far? did any thing work for you? Update if possible

 

[nibblesandbits]

hey nibbles. how are things going so far? did any thing work for you? Update if possible

Hey, yeah I've been away from these forums for quite a while. Turns out I didn't use that $1000 to market. Instead I just decided to go ahead and put ads in local papers. I've also coupled this with a new referral program I'm doing and it seems to have made my business MORE than double (but that's because no matter what multiplier you use with ZERO business you still get ZERO business) lol But anyway, all my lame jokes that make no sense aside - I'm now getting at least 5 jobs per week. It sounds like nothing - but to me, it's crazy. For the first time in my life, I can say I'm MAKING money enough to actually justify paying to get incorporated - only meaning I actually have the filing fee and CPA fees laying around to do it, whereas, up to this point I hadn't.

Also, my business has now been running for over a year and a half and I think for the most part - the reason it's picking up is my 57-customer-strong customer base is now "advertising" for me. They are telling all their friends and their friends are telling people. I'm doing this without a sign and a measley little ad in a local rag that most people probably miss. I have found that using the ad consistently is helping my exposure and also my credibility as being a legit business. They know if I'm keeping myself in the paper I have to be a real business, not a fly-by-night. I missed last week so I think I may start doing my ad every other week. At almost $20 / week, it's a pretty big expense for me yet.

Sorry for not paragraphing and probably using the worst punctuation known to man. I've been up since 7 after going to bed at 1 this morning. I'm beat. I'm doing well to just keep my eyes open to finish this computer restore, let alone type a long post. lol

I am getting ready to search the forum for "workflows" people are using. If you have a good one that you'd like to share (i.e. Call from ad comes in -> You get name and schedule a time to be on-site or have a drop off -> Ghost the drive as your first boot -> run your utilities to check for problems -> remove / fix "problems" -> verify fix -> contact customer (email/sms/phone) -> return computer to customer) That is very generalized, I was thinking more specific, but that's what I'm looking for. I just want to compare it to my workflow, mine is efficient enough, but I want to see what others are doing.

Alright guys, I'm out of here as for typing. I'll leave the forums up on my desktop and watch for any responses. Until then - back to the PC restore I'm doing. (By customer request, I'm not a "nuke and pave" every computer kinda guy. ;])

 

[mmanna]

I also must add my two cents in support of the yellow pages. For what it's worth, we started in YellowBook as it was the cheapest, but didn't find it to be particularly effective. Once we got into Superpages (Verizon) with a small ad, things picked up a bit, and then when we went to a business card sized ad for about $90/mo, we started getting lots of new calls. I've always asked people how they heard about us, and far more people say yellow pages than "saw your sign" or "found you online." As someone else pointed out, web-based directories aren't very helpful if your computer won't boot or if you're having problems getting online. We have continued slowly growing our yellow pages exposure over the past 4 years and found it to be very effective. Our local radio station was a complete waste of time ... we didn't even get one phone call for the $600 we spent over 3 months. I haven't tried newspaper advertising but I think people have become "immune" to the ads and just focus on the articles. I don't read the newspaper very often, but even when I do, I don't ever remember even looking at the ads.

 

[DohIForgot]

Good ideas... I'm about to put an ad in the phone book as well as do newspaper ads in our local paper. We should finalize our truck wrap tomorrow and it should (hopefully) be done by the end of the week... I've also done flyer drops with coupons (today), we'll see how that goes - traffic is already going up on the site, so cross my fingers...

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

I think people have become "immune" to the ads and just focus on the articles. I don't read the newspaper very often, but even when I do, I don't ever remember even looking at the ads.

Yes very true but if your quick enough to get in with your small local newspaper (e.g. the one that given away free at corner shops etc), you can then offer to donate some of your time as the papers IT expert. With this you can go three ways depending on what your most happy with 1) you be their rent-a-quote on IT in the news or 2) Q&A column where you answer a couple of IT problems from readers or 3) Column on computer articles every issue.

As these papers are normally run on little or no budget they will be quite happy to gain column inches for free, Also it free advertising for you every issue and in the readers mind propels you as better than the other techs who are paying for advertising or even those locally that dont advertise.

 

[nj_computer_repair]

Thanks for your reply, my web site is http://www.jteknet.net or http://www.pcrepairwv.com (both are the same)

I'm going to be redesigning it because between your forum members and I - I HATE my site. haha I'm always so busy working on other people's problems and sites that I haven't made my own very good. I haven't actually gotten business from my web site but one time - I'd say probably because the lack of design quality and ease of navigation.

I think your site is pretty good, not really hard to navigate at all. How long have you had it up? I am surprised that you only got 1 customer from it.

Having your picture up there is good business too. Customers love that.

I think you just need to advertise your website more and get more traffic to it.

 

[ell]

Have you tried hanging fliers with tears-offs at local coffee shops/library/grocery store/anywhere that has room?

Do you have an ad in the yellow pages?

How's your website? Are you ranking well for "computer repair <your area>"?

Don't forget Craig's List. It's free and, although sometimes the people using it are shady, it's a great marketing resource when times are tough!

These are all fairly easy and cheap things to do that have seemed to garner good results for others.

Y.F.N.C.G. is dead on, I've been in business only two years and work has doubled only from exhaustive work on getting my site in the top ten in google, all my adv is free, I do hear where yellow pages might be worth it. Definitely use Craigslist, it gets you exposure even though you do get alot of cheap customers.

 

[Trigger_this]

Wow within 2 months you went from nothing to 57 customers... I only hope i'm that lucky for 2010... keep the suggestions and comments coming in, i'm learning alot!

 

[nibblesandbits]

Wow within 2 months you went from nothing to 57 customers... I only hope i'm that lucky for 2010... keep the suggestions and comments coming in, i'm learning alot!

Sorry, that wasn't in two months, I may have made it unclear.

I have about 65 customers now after being in business almost a year and a half. Getting 50 customers in 2 months, I'd have to make the entire wall of my office a "bench" to set them all on. lol

Would be nice though. *dreams*

 

[Trigger_this]

07-14-2009 Is when you said you had nothing... 09-22-2009 is when you said you had 57 customers...

That's a little over 2 months...

anyways whatever the time frame congratulations

 

[nibblesandbits]

07-14-2009 Is when you said you had nothing... 09-22-2009 is when you said you had 57 customers...

That's a little over 2 months...

anyways whatever the time frame congratulations

Ah, I see where it may have come off that way. I had at least 50 of my 65 at the time of that first post, I just didn't have any business coming in the door. They were past clients that just didn't need my assistance because I fixed their problems right and put Avast on them (don't let anybody tell you this isn't the best A/V ever or at least in the top 10 haha) it will catch almost everything you may get in my experience.

As for the time lapsed between the second post and now, I've gained the other 15 since then.

Thanks, and good luck in your business.