Guaranteed Marketing

[Mushin]

I am looking for marketing options that Guarantee results.

One such compnay is Groupon where they take a pretty heft cut of the revenue and this is one option that we are working on...

But I am trying to find other options that we could use. Does anyone know of any other marketing/advertising company that operate on a revenue share type system where they generate the sales / lead in exchange for a percetage of the revenue generated.

The key with something like this would be that there would be no out of pocket expense and the results are guarateed in the sense that sale are generated in advance of paying the marketing company. Thus it is a win win for everyone involved.

 

[musogak]

for a computer repair business, I think yellow pages are the best. when your computer is broken and you need fast support, you dont have a website, you dont have groupon, you have a yellowbook or friends... yellowbooks are expensive, but with 1-2 appointments per months, you get your money back... so anything on top of that is profit.

yellow book worked for me for 3 years... many many calls.

 

[14049752]

Yellow pages isn't what he's asking about, because it doesn't guarantee results.

I was approached by Yext, and I seem to remember that they do what you're asking. I just don't remember their fees, but I didn't do it because I didn't like the deal.

 

[Mushin]

The Yellow pages are not guarenteed maketing or advertising.
They are traditional advertising where you pay in advance with no guarantee of results.

What I am asking/looking for are methods of marketing/advertising where you only pay when a sale is made. As I stated in my post... an example would be where a portion of the revenue is shared.

 

[vitalgeek]

Did you ever find anything besides groupon?

 

[Corbin]

Nothing is guaranteed marketing, it all depends on who your advertising to, what your location like, and thats just 2 of the factors, I would suggest looking around your current location and see what has been done and works, but also see what can make you different from the last guy.

I would see if their is any good business networking places around you and join a chapter or if possible a few, if its a good one it makes all members recommend at least 1 client to another member of the chapter to stay active.

 

[ProTech Support]

Nothing is guaranteed marketing, it all depends on who your advertising to, what your location like, and thats just 2 of the factors, I would suggest looking around your current location and see what has been done and works, but also see what can make you different from the last guy.

I would see if their is any good business networking places around you and join a chapter or if possible a few, if its a good one it makes all members recommend at least 1 client to another member of the chapter to stay active.

This is exactly what I was thinking when I read your post. If there was a such thing as "guaranteed marketing" everyone here would be in a much better position.

I will tell you this though. I always believed that putting 110% effort into your business will make you successful regardless of which marketing routes you take. Too many times people come with the mindset of I want to run my own business, but don't have nearly the dedication or knowledge to pull it off (I am not saying that is you, I know it's not), just saying.

 

[callthatgirl]

Become an association sponsor, offer hefty discounts for packages. There is no guarantee, but people love discounts for being in association. That's my new marketing package.

I am giving a 20% off discount for the members, to join up and use Call That Girl. I am also offering a huge package deals for them in different level of plans. All of course, are remote support. Which is what 90% of what they all need. So if you are not into remote support or business applications, this will not pertain to your business model, but it fits in mine really nice! i just wrote up 5 different packages for different clients.

Bling!

 

[Paul Rodgers]

If I remember correctly I saw an article on gizmodo or ars technica stating that a lot of companies found that people who used groupon weren't people that they want as customers.

 

[Corbin]

Best and cheapest advertisement I just thought of would be Word of Mouth!!

 

[BostonGeek1]

well in advertising you're either paying with your own time (which is money) or you're paying for someone else's time.......you can go and hand out flyers or put them up and that is practically free, and IS guaranteed...you'll get a few calls...but you'll have to do the work yourself. you can also invest time into learning some basic SEO skills to bring your website up to rank for competitive keywords, or pay someone to do it. SEO has a more or less guaranteed result....you don't know WHAT KIND of result ahead of time, but there WILL be some result.

 

[Lou Horton]

Personally I have not found any marketing source that will truly guarantee results in the sense that if you don't have tangible sales, you don't pay.

I haven't heard or checked into groupon. The closest thing was probably Yext but I stayed clear. There was a hefty flat fee per call that was related to a service that you provided (based on their interpretation). You could have somebody call you price shopping and still get charged like $40 for the call. The marketing that they provided through sponsored ads on the net was impressive but there was a catch... They would market your company using a phone number different than your real main number. Any leads that came in through that number would be subject to the fees. I really didn't like that idea at all. What if I cancelled after a month and people were still calling their number...

 

[roborobs computer repair]

If you are looking for something that works try Yext.com the way it works you only pay if you make money. They set you up with a profile on their page and you set the max amount you will pay a month. Once your profile is built their system broadcast your profile onto all the top search engines such as google, bing, yahoo, and many more. They give you a phone number that people see on the site and call which these calls are tracked by their system and when you refer someone to someone else you do not get charged. They have a system that weeds out unrelated calls such as telemarketers and only charged for the ones that actually come to you for business. If you have 1 call in a month you pay for 1 call if you have 100 calls a month you pay for 100. The way they have the pricing set up is $30 per call. Chances are you will be charging much more than $30 to do a job. There is NO upfront cost you pay at the beginning of the month for calls received in the previous month. I've used this service and business has greatly improved.

Hope this helps

 

[maclaptech]

Best marketing is SEO work. Yes it will take time and skills but once you get it right, nothing else works better...

 

[maclaptech]

The way they have the pricing set up is $30 per call. Chances are you will be charging much more than $30 to do a job. There is NO upfront cost you pay at the beginning of the month for calls received in the previous month. I've used this service and business has greatly improved.

Hope this helps

I'm sorry but I think Yext is a total rip off. $30 per lead??? are you kidding me??? I called them last year and they could only guarantee me 6 calls a month... what a joke..

 

[RogueTech]

Spoke with Yext today. Out of all the threads I've read about them I think there are maybe 2 people who have actually tried it? 1 was happy, 1 was so so.

From what I gathered on our call they must not advertise the company website or phone number in any advertisement. Just the 'routing number' so they can keep track of each call.

The $30 per lead charge is ridiculous and I told them that. I was then offered a flat monthly rate, which is a little more reasonable. I'm waiting to hear back from them to see if we can use our own phone number in their advertisements if we go flat rate (no need to track calls anymore).

Has anyone used them for any extended period of time and can report?


EDIT & UPDATE*:

The following are the sites they list you on-
Yahoo!Local
AOL Local
Superpages.com
CitySearch
YellowPages.com
Local.com
Free411
GetFave
Topix
4INFO
-Also, they list on various local directories depending on the region

They do NOT list your business number, email or website. All routed through them. Confirmed today via email.

 

[Corbin]

So in the past mont I have put out about $120 in flyers and business cards out. Iv been on vaction so this is what my partners tell me. W have had NO customers coming in refering to the stuff we put out. But we have had alot of word of mouth from call us and get services done.

Does anyone else get this same deal going on?

 

[BostonGeek1]

Spoke with Yext today. Out of all the threads I've read about them I think there are maybe 2 people who have actually tried it? 1 was happy, 1 was so so.

From what I gathered on our call they must not advertise the company website or phone number in any advertisement. Just the 'routing number' so they can keep track of each call.

The $30 per lead charge is ridiculous and I told them that. I was then offered a flat monthly rate, which is a little more reasonable. I'm waiting to hear back from them to see if we can use our own phone number in their advertisements if we go flat rate (no need to track calls anymore).

Has anyone used them for any extended period of time and can report?


EDIT & UPDATE*:

The following are the sites they list you on-
Yahoo!Local
AOL Local
Superpages.com
CitySearch
YellowPages.com
Local.com
Free411
GetFave
Topix
4INFO
-Also, they list on various local directories depending on the region

They do NOT list your business number, email or website. All routed through them. Confirmed today via email.

don't use yext......they basically hijack your brand identity online ..

 

[baccart]

So in the past mont I have put out about $120 in flyers and business cards out. Iv been on vaction so this is what my partners tell me. W have had NO customers coming in refering to the stuff we put out. But we have had alot of word of mouth from call us and get services done.

Does anyone else get this same deal going on?

bad flyers? Too much information? What service are you advertising? Are you giving out a "DEAL"? are you putting a guarantee?

 

[Sondor]

In response to something 'like Groupon' where you only pay for results, Wired Magazine has an interesting article (December '10) on 'retail hacking' via the use of coupons which could provide some interesting ideas and places to advertise for us:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/ff_hackingretail/

For those who want a quick quote instead of reading the whole article:

(talking about Groupon) '...It's been such a huge moneymaker that scores of copycats have emerged, including other startups like LivingSocial, and 8Coupons. Established online presences like Yelp and OpenTable have also jumped in; the biggest and most recent entrant is AOL which in October announced its own Groupon clone, Wow.com.'

Between all these startups, there may very well be one that suits our needs.

Groupon has some pretty clear negatives (50% commission, and limited acceptance of service based advertisements to name a couple) which a good startup may successfully address.

...without the stress of mass redemption that Groupon creates.