Advertising: What has worked and what has not!

[lgtechcomputers]

This discussion is awesome!

It is a great thing to be able to share marketing experiences with businesses in the same field.

Here is what has worked and has not worked for me:

Worked
1. Word of mouth from my customers.
2. Postcard mailouts. I pretty much mail about 500 at a time about every 3 months and that returns 2 - 5 average. Not a lot but that has led to word of mouth, so it has been worth it.
3. Postcard in the mailboxes of real estate agents at their offices. One way to get in the door!

Did not work
1. Local newspaper add. I invested approximately 1k in this type of marketing over a course of about 1 year and I only received 1 phone call...which fortunately led to business.
2. Membership with the local board of real estate. Unfortunately, only produced a single phone call over the course of 6 months.

Trying and to try.
1. I added my website about 9 months ago and it is still in the works. I am working on better SEO, more content and eventually blogging.
2. I am also considering the yellow pages, based on the experience from somebody I know that is in the field, and also experiences posted here.
3. Car magnets...hopefully soon.

Keep the discussion going!

 

[lassenpc]

Have worked:
-Networking groups; BNI, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary (over 40% of calls from this)- word of mouth is KING
-Yellow Pages; doesn't have to be big, but if their computer isn't working, they are not going to find you on the web
-Website; for when their computer is working
-Vehicle advertising- lots of business from just being parked!
-Mousepads; every business I service has our logo'd mousepads; CPA offices, banks, UPS store, in places highly visible to their customers
-Home & Garden Show; for the @ home freelancers and basic end users
-Mailings to new businesses 'DBA' in the legal section of the newspaper;

Has not worked:
-Newspaper
-Radio (I do still do it, but only in trade, which they love to do)
-Fair sponsorships
-Local High School sponsorships "Calendar"

 

[usacvlr]

Door hangers are creepy. Like you're stalking your customers or something. I would never do that.

I don't recommend Door Hangers because they do cost alot of money to make and the amount of effort to go door to door.

I made some calls and was quoted $300 to hang out a minimum of 1000 door hangers.

Plus, when I am handing out the fliers on the street, by not shoving them into everyone's hand, I figure that out of all the people that ask or take the fliers, only about 25% might actually use my services...so at least I wouldn't be wasting them just handing out randomly.

 

[ATSCF]

Anyone do the local magazine ads that go out to different parts of town usually quaterly? Mine just went out so we will see.

 

[cmonova]

Most of the ad magazines are extremely expensive depending on where you live. I am getting ready to do one that will run about $650 and go to 75,000 homes.