Marketing - What worked and What Flopped.

[lsjohsnon]

(Updated 8/15) Marketing - What worked and What Flopped.

Alright we've had some really great input and user suggestions. So I'm going to reconstruct this post to reflect the suggestions and advice so you don't have to go digging for them! Also to cut down on the wall-o-text. Keep Posting your ideas so we can benefit together as a community!

Legend:

New User's Suggestions
New Personal Suggestions
What Not To Do

Rating System:

Rating 1-10 = 10%-100%+ return on your investment

Rating Unknown = Untested Method and simply a suggestion by a user.

Rating Depends on your market = Things such as mailers / radio / or region only methods will only give you numbers that can be used for that particular region


Here is what I have done:

What Worked *in order of highest return*

What - Price - Rating 1/10

1.) Local Newspaper "3x3" Ad on Thursday and Friday - $189 per week - Rating 8/10

Additional Notes: It took me awhile to get this right, I have ran this ad on Sat/Sun, Mon - Wed, on holidays, I've even ran a Full Page 21" x 40" ad and got ZERO phone calls. I ONLY get phone calls if the ad is 3x3 and runs on Thurs/Fri don't ask how or why it just happens.

2.) Vehicle Wrap - $650 - Rating 6/10

Additional Notes: Pictures!!!

3.) Following Up / Call-Backs - $0 - Rating 10/10

Additional Notes: It's extremely important that you always call the client back the next day after the repairs and ask them how is it working. Always send thank you cards and if you hear the client mention their anniversary is coming up or their birthday or whatever always send a card for that as well. You will be amazed on the repeat business and referrals. Also make sure you ASK for referrals when you bring the computer back, say hey, here are a couple of my cards would you mind giving them to your friends it would really help me out. If a customer think they are doing you a favor they will always go out of their way to do so... because you did the same for them by fixing their computer correctly.

4.) BNI / Commerce Meetings - $0-$350/y - Rating 5/10

Additional Notes: This is going to rely solely on how you can network, the better your pitch is the better results. Being able to talk shop is extremely important in these meetings, a golden rule is have the best answer to this question "Why should they use you?". Currently our company attends 2 of these every month and see about 4-6 clients out of each meeting.

What Hasn't Worked For Me: *in order of complete and utter failure*

1.) Radio - $3,000 - Rating 0/10

Additional Notes: This method is truly about frequency and branding. This will be 100% your most expensive lead and that's if you have the income to support the frequency, after $3,000, 5 radio stations on air and live stream ads, banner ads on their websites, and close to 2,000 15 sec promos we got a total of zero phone calls over the course of 3 months.

2.) Giant Ads - $1,800 - Rating 3/10

Additional Notes: - I've ran 21"x40" ads, 7' x 14' banners, billboards etc. Our Full Page 21"x40" ad in the "Richmond Times" did O.K. for us. We got almost $2,000 out of the ad, but our problem is we paid $1,800 for the ad and after gas and paying employees it doesn't justify the ad. Typically if people see a huge ad, they think your prices are going to be high. Present yourself as a small local company and they think you're going to have mom & pop prices.

3.) Mailings - $450/y - Rating 2/10

Additional Notes: This is a tossup on your market. I issued 10,000 mailers and 3,000 door hangers. By my research a return from mailers is 1.5% - 3% which is 300 clients out of 10,000 right? Well I got 1... o yes... 1 soooo I won't advise doing that. But it's ALWAYS worth a try because it's cheap and you never know until you try. I think I paid $450 for all 13,000 mailers shipped and printed. Again this method is all about frequency, also from what I'm told don't do rich neighborhoods they are already milked to hard and anything that looks colorful they threw away without as much as a glance.

5.) Hosting a Golf Tournament -$2,000 - Rating 1/10

Additional Notes: For $2,000 I had 200 signs all over the course, on EVERY golf ball in play, a 7' banner on entry, a speech at the awards dinner, on the golf carts. Everywhere... there was not a place you could turn your head and not see my logo. Guess what.. funny thing... they were all there to GOLF so needless to say the return was poor, we did however land a single business contract to install wireless all over the "Day's Inn Hotel" for $6,000 but it still going up the food chain for approval so I can't call it a done deal yet.

Users' Suggestions

1.) T-Shirts - $3.95-$39.95 per shirt - Rating 7/10

Additional Notes: MichianaComputers2 / Suggested to print "I FIX COMPUTERS" as large as you can on the back of your shirt to promote people to talk to you about your business. Extremely effective tactic, cheap, and a great way to get your name out there. To order shirts go to queensboro(dot)com for the best company I've used for printing and embroiders.

2.) Mailings -29/c per - Rating Depends on your market

Additional Notes: noah / Suggested to include a coupon on your door hanger or flyer which will in return give the potential client a reason to keep your ad if they don't currently need your services at that current moment. It seems that several users posting have tried the mailers and I don't think I found one yet that has reported a promising return, however it's still branding and getting your name out there.

Corrugated Signs - $2 per - Rating Unknown

Additional Notes: PorterComp / Suggested to print several corrugated signs and stick them in the middle of street medians, street corners, and so forth. Very nice idea and I've also heard these work to a reasonable extent. Only catch is be very careful and call the city! Most cities will restrict the time, place, and day you can stick these, last thing you need is a fine!

Movie Screen Ads - $85/week - Rating Unknown

Additional Notes: Lsjohsnon / $85 a week for 480 ads, which is 2 15sec ads before every movie full motion/color/and animation. I will have detailed results once this takes effect in 30days on what kind of return I get.

The Phone Book 3"x3" Full Color - $450/year - Rating Unknown

Additional Notes: Lsjohsnon / I'm trying the local one that every town has it runs in September so I'll keep you posted on how it does. But $450 for the entire year for a 3x3 color ad is worth a shot.

Your Website - $0-$$$ - Rating Unknown

Additional Notes: Lsjohsnon / It's under construction but you can check mine out at TheCollegeTechs(dot)com. We are doing some cool features like a blog, chat live, RSS feeds, remote support, etc. I'm pushing some heavy internet traffic over the course of a few months so I'll let you know how the internet leads pans out. However the cornerstone of all your advertising should ALWAYS in some fashion lead back to your website!

Craig's List - $0 - Rating Unknown

Additional Notes: Lsjohsnon / zomg the spam... brace yourself seriously. It's almost to the point I don't want to read my e-mail. I'm going to give it a little while but if these keeps up and no return I'm taking it down. However I'm willing to try anything that's free at least once!

The Classifieds - $94/week - Rating Unknown

Addtional Notes: PorterComp / Suggested The Classifieds as they are a per week issue not a per day issue. Which is wonderful because your ad stays around the house longer! Rather then getting tossed out every day like the normal newspaper try to find a local weekly edition, typically you might get better results.

All of these numbers are based out of Lynchburg, VA pop 25,000.

So that's my list... what's yours? Anything I haven’t tried that you have? Let's see what creative things this community has come up with

-Thanks,
Logan

 

[silvano]

I wish I had your advertising budget. We're working on getting some door hangers designed and printed up in the next week or two. We seem to get most of our business either through referals or the phone book. It helps that the non profit we are associated with is listed right before Geek Squad in the phone book as well.

 

[thebeardedone]

3.) My Website : It's under construction but you can check it out @ thecollegetechs *won't let me post urls until I have done 15 posts grrr*. We are doing some cool features like a blog, chat live, RSS feeds, remote support, etc. I'm pushing some heavy internet traffic over the course of a few months so I'll let you know how the internet leads pans out.

Good post with some interesting ways to advertise However, I thought a website would have been higher in the list considering all the money you have spent elsewhere. i.e. in the ads (radio or whatever) if you had your web address included then at least people could follow up, have a look and make a decision based on your site, as well as have something to return to if they need you (by bookmarking your page)

A lot of people post their web address like such mydomain (at) tld that way you can add your site. Hope I don't get in trouble for dropping a hint like that

 

[lsjohsnon]

@thebeardone

It should be I agree. Sadly however I'm the only skilled web developer on my team of employees so with having to handle everything else makes it hard. I tried getting some quotes but the extent of what I wanted was going to cost upwards of $6,000 for something I can do myself if I can manage to make the time. *sleep is already down to 6 hours a night grrr*

A website should be the corner stone of your store front and anyone who does not relize this will be sorry in the end.

 

[thebeardedone]

@thebeardone

It should be I agree. Sadly however I'm the only skilled web developer on my team of employees so with having to handle everything else makes it hard. I tried getting some quotes but the extent of what I wanted was going to cost upwards of $6,000 for something I can do myself if I can manage to make the time. *sleep is already down to 6 hours a night grrr*

A website should be the corner stone of your store front and anyone who does not relize this will be sorry in the end.

Sheesh! Don't burn ourself out, man

I understand that you have a site now, so did you get someone to do it or do you get spare time between jobs to do some web work?

 

[lsjohsnon]

@thebeardedone

Ah the price for owning a company .

But I do have a website, just partially completed. Been working on code mostly for the past week. I have my office administrator putting together wording to fill the pages while I work on the back-end. But yes I have been making an extra effort to get it up and running before I have my internet marketing hit.

 

[MichianaComputers2]

Advertising on your back

I had a great return on advertising on my back when i bought and sold houses. It said in big letters across the back of my coat "I BUY HOUSES." People would come up to me all the time about it and I would give them my card. It worked so well my daughter dreaded going to the store with me because I usually got stopped by someone to talk business. I haven't tried "I FIX COMPUTERS" on my back yet but I expect similar results.

I also had magnetic signs on my car. That worked well when i had a nice convertible. But when I wrecked that car and switch the signs to an old car the calls stopped coming.

 

[lsjohsnon]

haha yea I have branded uniforms for my employees but not a promtional one. I have a mock-up for my "FREE In-Home Computer Diagnostics" It's currently in print.

Very very nice idea and hopefully it'll show a nice return. I'm still trying to play around with the wording, because every marketer will tell you you need something that calls the person to action.

So... options are like

1.) FREE In-Home Computer Diagnostics, Ask Me To Schedule!

2.) I FIX COMPUTERS! Need A Card?

3.) COMPUTER PROBLEMS? I Can Help!

I like your I FIX COMPUTERS, gets the point accross quickly. But what are you ideas on a call to action?

 

[noah]

Reposting from a thread down below

I run in the county newspaper. They have a special section every Tuesday. It's done in 12 week runs $125 a week. The page is full color and has a 1/4 page full width ad on top and 8-12 businesses listed on the bottom. At least once during the 12 week run your business gets rotated to the top quarter page ad. It's huge. I get at least 3 calls a week from it. Many of the calls are people who clip the ad and keep it since I have a 10% new customer coupon. It has also netted several business contracts. Definite thumbs up.

I also do direct mail money mailer that goes to 10,000 homes. They have an area map and you can target certain zip codes and income levels. 9 mailings a year and costs $283 a month. Average returns depending on the area. It at least pays for itself and gets my name out there. It only goes to residential people. I have found that targeting high income areas did NOT increase my return. It seems that wealthy people just toss those things. Middle class keep them.

My first radio ad ran today. 2 commercials a day during afternoon drive time on the 2nd and fourth weeks of the month. $640 a month for two months and I can decide to drop it if I want. Just getting my feet wet on this. I know advertising is about repetition and 2 months may not be enough. If I at least get some nibbles I'll try again when I build up my cash reserve again. I had extra $ this month and figured I'd try it.

 

[MichianaComputers2]

Advertising on your back

The call to action is the size of the words. They are so big that people know they can talk to you about it. You could also say "Ask Me!" under the "I Fix Computers."

The other reason it worked so well is I carried alot of cards. Everytime i was in line anywhere I would say "Hey do you know anyone who needs to sell a house?" of course you can say "computer fixed" and then I would give them my card. I would give it to the clerk at burger king, at wall mart anywhere and I would give them to the other people standing in line.

Every one started to know me as that guy who buys houses. If you have alot of business cards in your desk they are not doing you any good. Give them all away!

 

[jbutler9]

Tried the doorhanger thing and after the 50th door, I gave up. Doorhangers are expensive and time consuming. If you want to pay someone else to hand them out go fot it, but I don't trust anyone enough to hand out my door hangers.

I figure I will cut the tops off and hand them out on the corner.

 

[rusty.nells]

Tried the doorhanger thing and after the 50th door, I gave up. Doorhangers are expensive and time consuming. If you want to pay someone else to hand them out go fot it, but I don't trust anyone enough to hand out my door hangers.

I figure I will cut the tops off and hand them out on the corner.

I've thought about hanging them at apartment complexes. I'd probably avoid the stairs and place them on the first-floor only.

 

[angry_geek]

I've thought about hanging them at apartment complexes. I'd probably avoid the stairs and place them on the first-floor only.

I personally avoid door hangers because I hate coming home and having to throw away a bunch of crap hanging on my door. I don't even look at them anymore. If you are targeting apartments, you should get permission from the management company first. Otherwise, you could be facing fines and some very angry people.

 

[thebeardedone]

You see, there is just something about door hangers that would put me right off a business. As angry_geek has said, it would be annoying to come home each day to more of the poxy things, so for me that would be a no
Personally, I think ads in a couple of local papers, phonebook, business website and word-of-mouth are the best forms of marketing.

 

[Tesla]

lsjohnson, can you post a picture of your work van/car?

 

[lsjohsnon]

Sure guys, I would be happy to post the pics of my car. I'm in appointments until 6pm EST today but afterwards I'll break out the camera and show you how I wrapped it.

Also about the mailings... ALWAYS use a company to do it for you. They have the legal permissions to mail/distribute your mailings rather them be doorhangers or magazines, every state is different. The LAST thing you need as a small business is fines or a law suit on your hands.

Again, the return is suppose to be 1.5% - 3% and getting only one customer out of my 13,000 trial run I would again prob would advise putting your efforts somewhere else.

 

[Tesla]

Thanks Logan, I am currently looking into various options for getting my van sign written/wrapped.

 

[bagellad]

one thing about wrapping your car in business logos, is you will need to inform your car insurance company that you are using your car for business use or they can nullify your policy if you were to get into an accident since you would only have residential coverage. It doesn't mean they will.. but they could.

 

[Tesla]

one thing about wrapping your car in business logos, is you will need to inform your car insurance company that you are using your car for business use or they can nullify your policy if you were to get into an accident since you would only have residential coverage. It doesn't mean they will.. but they could.

This is true, in the UK you have...

1) Social, Domestic and Pleasure (Basically if you use the car for everything other than getting to and from work, e.g. a house wife)
2) Social, Domestic and Pleasure + Commuting (As above but you usually drive to the same, fixed place of work)
3) As above but + Business Class A (Drive to an unfixed place of work).
4) Business Class B (Unsure?)
5) Commercial vehicle insurance (i.e. Van, etc.)

 

[noah]

Again, the return is suppose to be 1.5% - 3% and getting only one customer out of my 13,000 trial run I would again prob would advise putting your efforts somewhere else.

In my experience I start to get multiple calls after the 3rd or 4th mailing in any area I target. Make sure you include a coupon of some kind. Even though you may get one or no calls that first mailing, they hold on to them.