Advertising that has worked for me

[MyCrazyMachine.com]

Hi Gang,

New user here and have read a lot of the threads here regarding sales and marketing.

I'm a local tech business in Chicago, and have run the gamut of ads/marketing (yelp, google, twitter, facebook, print ads, posters, direct mail, e-marketing, newspapers, etc)

One of the most successful I'd like to share with you guys is the street marketing.

Its very basic, but it works. Design a 8.5" x 11" flyer ad and make the bottom portion phone number tear off sheets.

I post them on busy area light poles, universities,grocery stores, restaurant bulletin boards , public transportation areas, etc

One day I put up about 200 all over the city (about 6 hours of work) and got about 20-30 calls a day.

It's by far the cheapest and most effective form of marketing.

One caveat is check with your local city ordinance, some cities can issue you warnings or citations. Just don't over do it or over post and you should be ok

Cheers

MCM

 

[vdub12]

So in other words don't do like in "GTA Vice City" and steal a helicopter and drop fliers all over town.

I agree I get a lot of customers from bulletin boards, just search the forms for my starbucks rant. However, I have gotten the most customers from hand delivering fliers to businesses. The problem is I have hit all the big arias in my demographic and I want to do it again with a new flier and don't know how affective a second go will be. I am worried that a second go will make me an pest. However, call this girl has had good lock with just passing fliers out on the street to people. I think putting a face on the flier helps your chances of bringing the best turn out.

 

[kagman]

I do agree that putting a face to your business is a good thing. Will have to ad this to my list of advertising. In a few weeks my ad will be out in some local papers. Its a hit or miss thing so i don't expect to much or any business from these ads. Then again I always figured that posting flyers around town would not work either, however some people have success with that.

So what other stuff has worked for everybody out there?

 

[MyCrazyMachine.com]

Putting a face is definitely a good idea. While I put up posters people typically stop me to ask questions.

One other thing I do is order about 10,000 post-its (from Vista Print) with my logo and co. info, with a promo offer and post those around town. I carry them with me everywhere I go and put them up when Im running errands, etc

I have not been successful with newspaper ads, only because I ran 1 ad. It needs to be consistent (i.e. for 1-2 months). Publications that are weekly are better, because daily publications people throw out instead of hanging on to.

 

[maclaptech]

Its very basic, but it works. Design a 8.5" x 11" flyer ad and make the bottom portion phone number tear off sheets.

I post them on busy area light poles, universities,grocery stores, restaurant bulletin boards , public transportation areas, etc

One day I put up about 200 all over the city (about 6 hours of work) and got about 20-30 calls a day.



MCM

You know, I've been wanting to do this for a longest time and I keep putting it behind. I was going to post it in apartment complexes. But putting it in areas that you mentioned is even better.

This is an excellent idea and I really appreciate it.

I usually advertise on Google Adwords which works good for me but cost money too.

 

[MyCrazyMachine.com]

Also important, is to make sure you put a flat rate cost for repairs..I've put $50 and $60 per repair, it may be low, but our intent is to expand our client base

 

[vdub12]

My colleagues and I were laughing at how well this works. Here we are dishing out hundreds and hundreds of dollars to google, facebook, newspapers, etc..

when all along a .05 cent flyer did the trick

Also important, is to make sure you put a flat rate cost for repairs..I've put $50 and $60 per repair, it may be low, but our intent is to expand our client base

Flat rate repairs just don't cut it. There is no way I could survive on $50 per repair. Also when you go to up your prices later on many people get upset and stop using you.

 

[kagman]

Flat rate repairs just don't cut it. There is no way I could survive on $50 per repair. Also when you go to up your prices later on many people get upset and stop using you.

I agree but also disagree on that.

 

[Xander]

I post them on busy area light poles, universities,grocery stores, restaurant bulletin boards , public transportation areas, etc

And be sure to check with your city hall about its by-laws. This action is illegal in some cities and will get you a decent fine if they pursue. (They fine based on how much it would cost municipal (union) employees to remove them).

Otherwise, consider that it's vertical littering and some folks would never give business to a place that advertises like that.

 

[Hercomputers]

I agree but also disagree on that.

It all depends on where you live. Right now I'm targting the affordable housing complex around the corner from the condo complex where I live. Most of the residents there have computers in their home. Whenever I walk my dog, he seems to always get their attention- Although they're all on a fixed income for whatever reason, they still need computer support and I want them to know that I'm the one that they can call on to help them with their issues.

I'm going to go to the Housing office after work tomorrow and see what I can do to get a flier posted up somewhere in the area.

CM: Excellent idea and a good reminder. I've been putting this off for too long now-

 

[kagman]

I think that we should all do a project like this. We all go to places where we can post flyers and come back to TN then report in on the success or failure of the project we could all do it together virtually. Could be an interesting group project.

 

[donte10]

I think that we should all do a project like this. We all go to places where we can post flyers and come back to TN then report in on the success or failure of the project we could all do it together virtually. Could be an interesting group project.

I'm going to try it and report back. I will let TN know the places I've posted the flyers and which locations worked. Also what my flyer said.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Great idea, I will do something similar here in my local area of manchester. Once I gain permission, if needed that is, and report back.

 

[hyper1pua]

You know, I've been wanting to do this for a longest time and I keep putting it behind. I was going to post it in apartment complexes. But putting it in areas that you mentioned is even better.

This is an excellent idea and I really appreciate it.

I usually advertise on Google Adwords which works good for me but cost money too.

When you use google Adwords, what do you shoot for. What does your ad look like, what kind of results are you getting as far as clicks, how much do you pay per click and how many customers do you get per day/week etc? What is your budget per day?
Sorry for a million questions.

 

[BCC]

free paper ad's work... well they do for us anyhow!

in our nearest town we've got two free newspapers out every week, we started advertising every week with one of them & did it regularly for 3mths but despite getting a really good response we just couldn't afford to keep it going....

....so we rang them & had a chat with the sales girl who suggested we change the ad to run alternate weeks not every week, skeptical as usual, we said we'd give it a go for a month & see what reaction we got....

The result has been brilliant, the customer response has been growing month on month, we ask every customer how they've head about us & some even say the ad in the 'rival' paper - how funny is that????

it's now our only really regular form of advertising & we change the ad itself about every 2-3 mths...

 

[Adept PC Repair]

Yesterday I stood in my town centre and simply said "Computer Repair?" as people walked past whilst holding one of my leaflets up.

Only 5 people actually took these leaflets from me in the half an hour I was there (I left early as it started raining).

I got a call today from one of the people I gave the leaflets to and earned £45 from the job. They are also in with the local golf club and are putting my leaflets on the tables and business cards on their message boards. They also have a son-in-law who I am told is to be calling me very soon regarding 3 computers he has to be repaired.

All in all, a good half hour's work. I might have gotten lucky with the amount of advertising and word of mouth potential this one client has, but it's still possible.

Get out there, and put a face to your business. If you're friendly and can hold a conversation, there's no reason why you cannot get work. I will definately be making repeat visits to my town centre.

 

[EdEllingham]

I'm thinking about doing some specialized advertising...basically working out deals with the local low income housing and elderly/disabled apartment complexes in the area. I think if I offer residents of these places a simple discount the actually people in charge would allow me advertising in the buildings. In places like this talking and socializing among residents is often and I think word could spread fast. Granted...if you do someone wrong it could go very wrong LOL.