NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK, pass your card out everywhere, make your card stand out don't waste ink listing what you do unless you do something no one else does, give away usefull information weekly to e-mails that you get from networking, it takes time, I think this is much more worth while then plain old interupt marketing, people tune it out. People have to see your YP ad, flier, news paper ad atleast 7 times before it even registers in their brain to consider calling you, and just because they subscribe to the paper does'nt mean they see your add every time, same goes for YellowPages, they have to atleast go to the computer repair section 7 times before you might be considered! IMO this type of marketing is too easy and that's why it doesnt work very well. The average response (not sale) on a direct mailer or flier is 1-2% with a smoking "call to action" message. So you have to send out 10,000 just to get 100-200 leads at best, usually it is .25-.50% if your message is the same old "whats great about me" ad. 10,000 doesnt sound like a lot but at .10-20 cents a pop for printing and another .05-7 cents to distribute the fliers your looking at $2500, you would need 25 new customers paying $100 just to cover the cost of the campaign, what about profit?
Look at what all your competitors in the area are doing and do something different. but you have to position yourself as an expert and trusted advisor, which does'nt happen overnight.
Buy and read Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Levinson, you have to be creative to adapt this type of marketing to your business but the ones who take the time to actually build a solid client list and position themselves as an expert in the minds of the end user will be very successful.
Marketing tip - On the back of your card have a link to a free report that says something like "Free Consumer Awareness guide on choosing a honest computer repair guy" "don't let anyone touch your computer without reading it" or "12 little know facts about data backups", write a report about the subject, put your logo and number at the bottom.
It's like a whitepaper that companies write to give away free information but promote their product at the same time by writting about what makes something great and then being all those things. Give them value, educate them so they make the decision on their own
