Best form of advertising?

[scientist]

As the topic subject says… I’m putting it out there to help me with my advertising campaign.I’m in Ireland so I won’t be stepping on any ones toes!! I am still only a pup in this trade and want to secure my future in it. What form of advertising has been most fruitful?? All suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[scientist]

Re: Best form of advertising?

By the way I know this is the million pound question and I have some advertising done but just looking to see if I’m on the right track.. No substitute for good work and being recommended by your customers. Whats the next edge?

[odom]

Re: Best form of advertising?

I don’t pay for any advertising except Gumtree – not sure if this is available in Ireland but only £4.50 a week and catches those who are looking for replacement machines.

Aside from recommendations, the two biggest sources of work I have are: –

Google Places page with good reviews. This is invaluable, only takes 15 minutes to setup and doesn’t cost a penny. If you don’t have any reviews on yours, ask regular customers to write some.

Van signwriting – mine only cost £50 because I didn’t want stupid graphics that no-one can read at 70mph, just big bold company name, description, phone number and web address.

Do something a bit mad or different that will get you, with a photo advertising your business, in the paper. I did this when I converted my van to run on vegetable oil, big photo of my van with phone number and web address on the side in the local paper. Dread to think how much that would have cost me if I was paying to advertise! Most of the customers I got from it were mad eco-types but paid for the conversion and me wasting a couple of hours with a photographer!

Finally, add a link to your signature on here to your website. UKWG is a high ranking site for “washing machine repairs” on Google, so adding a link to your site on here instantly adds to your credibility on Google when people are searching for washing machine repairs.

[kwatt]

Re: Best form of advertising?

odom wrote:Finally, add a link to your signature on here to your website. UKWG is a high ranking site for “washing machine repairs” on Google, so adding a link to your site on here instantly adds to your credibility on Google when people are searching for washing machine repairs.

Two points.

You need a website, which these days is the best form of advertising bar none. Low cost and the gift that keeps on giving if you do it right.

You need to post in the public forums with relevant stuff to get the full benefit.

K.

[Martin]

Re: Best form of advertising?

kwatt wrote:You need to post in the public forums with relevant stuff to get the full benefit.

I must ask you to explain that to one me sometime Ken. 😉

[bazza500]

Re: Best form of advertising?

I would have thought that was obvious.

If you don’t post in the public forums then how will any of the public be able to click on your link? :clown:

[scientist]

Re: Best form of advertising?

All points taken… Seems to be very cloak and dagger in Eire between service agents. Not really into passing on info like our UK friends.All I can say is thanks to all for shared info and advice.

[Applianceman2010]

Re: Best form of advertising?

Thats ok ive been on here quite a while now and i still don’t understand whats going on half the time lol 😆

[kwatt]

Re: Best form of advertising?

Heh, I don’t know what’s going on half the time! 😆

K.

[clockworkone]

Re: Best form of advertising?

scientist,free weekly paper is a good place to get established and known.had adds in free and pay paper and free wins hands down.good deals can be had for long term placements.small labels stuck on m/c far better than bus cards.paul

[fo3oz]

Re: Best form of advertising?

i)Van sign writing is good. Even if you don’t know anything about the internet, if you are without jobs it’s still a mobile billboard you could park at any busy place (need a good logo though)
ii) still not busy, then you need a web page. Doesn’t have to be much, just a proper web page.
iii) SEO and pimp that page, there’s normally a lot of businesses trying to list service providers. They list pages for free to rank their index. Once you have your own website, you’d be the guy that everyone who uses/finds these indexing provider use first, because the others are nondescript.
iv) local rags if you want to stay local (to save travel time and petrol)
v) tie up with a manufacturer for warranty. Pick a brand that sells well but has no local support. Warranty is a pain but you’ll get ALL the non warranty jobs too and can name your rates and price. Even if the industry is quiet, and the pay low, at least there’s always work and you never are sitting around doing nothing and losing money.

Another traditional way is leaflets/fridge magnets. Don’t spend a bomb mass marketing. But get some made up and just door knock the neighbours to every jobs you do get somehow. IE if you get a job through any other method, just drop to their left and right neighbour and across the road quickly before you leave.

Lastly, if you want to market yourself, real estate agents, they have to get things fixed, but don’t like doing it or trust tradesmen. But once they trust you, you may get very busy.

That’s every trick I have used. And if I wasn’t alone, I’d be super extremely busy. Unfortunately not always being able to answer the phone and not being able to do all the jobs cost me, so I’m just regular busy and booked out for 2 weeks.
I needed more people to handle the calls and work I was getting to keep more people happy. But I have the right workload for what I can manage, edit: ie trying to stop all advertising these days, but the info above is what I used when starting out in 2008.

[Author]

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