small business marketing ideas

pitkin2020

ESKIMO wrote: »

You said it yourself. It works out as a win-win-win scenario.

1) Local paper gets a 'happy' feature for a change, instead of reporting about the numerous accident black-spots and burglaries in the local area or cuts to local government council spending, or back-yard garden grabbing from over-enthusiastic property developers! (Sorry, i really should stop talking about my local area!)

2) Sparky gets free publicity 'donating' his services to help out with a local charity in need. With a note/article that he is just starting up in the local area.

3) Charity also gets free publicity from a genuine and unexpected 'act of kindness' who are only too happy to give a character reference to this gentleman, vouching for his high-degree of proficiency, professionalism and efficiency. Most more than happy to have him back. (No doubt we can all guess why ;p)

I can't see what's wrong with it myself personally.

Give it a try. You really have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Good luck Micky

It doesn't work like that i'm afraid. All 3 points you have raised are based on it making the local paper. Its very rare for the paper to report on the fact someone has gone and donated time to a charity. If they do its generally because something like a redevelopment or something big has happened and you will more than likely just be listed along with the other contractors who have helped out, most of which will still have charged for their time.

One line in an article for one print is hardly publicity, yes the leccy could try and spin it around so its a press release from him rather than the charity and that maybe the only real positive. Great if you want to loads more free work with other charities though!!

The other thing is do you really choose your tradesmen by their charitable deeds, not likely either. Most people will deal with trades they have been recommended or even trades they have dealt/met with and liked.

Like I said before if you are trying to build confidence or learn how to deal with the job on a day to day basis go for it, it will help you that way. If you expect to go and do a few days/weeks for a charity and then expect to sit back and watch the phone ring all day long you are being very naive. If it makes the paper then the following week another story will be printed and you will be forgotten about!!

Getting out and meeting people face to face offering them your services and showing willing is going to leave a better and longer lasting impression. Yeah for sure its a lot harder and you need to get your confidence up and you will need to be thick skinned as your going to get knocked back 9/10 times.

Its totally up to the OP how he wants to approach it I can only give you experiences from myself and others I know that have followed that path. I only work for charities now if I choose to support them for personal reasons not business reasons as I know the impact from working for them is low to non existent.

coupleuk

I dont know if someone is already doing this, but here's a suggestion (dont forget my drink if it pays off :beer:)

My mother recently moved into sheltered accommodation - there are 70 small apartments in her Home.

Whilst the actual Home has PAT safety checks etc, the residents apartments don't.

Elderly people are often more concerned about safety as they get older and (often) retain appliances longer than the rest of us.

How about approaching a home and suggesting that you put up a poster offering to Safety Check the residents electrical appliances for (say) £10 per apartment. CLEARLY and simply explain the benefits for the customer.

Tell them that you will be there on X day (2 or 3 weeks ahead) and that residents can call you to get their stuff tested. You'll build up a customer base and (if they don't peg it) are likely to get annual repeat business.

As many aren't that mobile, you could also keep a small stock of kettles/toasters etc to sell to them if needed.

Anchor Housing (for instance) have 700 homes around the Country - the potential market for this is HUGE.

The actual Homes would welcome your services as these checks would give everyone some extra piece of mind. Perhaps get in touch with the Home Manager to discuss (it is also the best way to get to Regional Managers as trying to go thru Head Office will take forever).

Im sure the staff would get onboard too and push the idea to their residents.

Remember, the average sheltered housing unit is just 1 bedroom, a lounge, kitchen and bathroom - I bet they'd only be a half-dozen things need checking. Having several clients at one location would massively reduce travel expenses.

Paul

Micky_d

Once again, thank you to all who have contributed to my thread. I have some fantastic ideas to start with, I am going to put a marketing plan together using your ideas. I will give an update over the coming month. You have all been a great help

tco03

Word of mouth is by far the best method of pulling in customers, however it also takes a lot of time for a good reputation to be spread.
Advertising is often more important than the product or service you have on offer. Dont see it as spending money, its a worthwhile investment in your business that will eventually see return.

kat74

One poster mentioned a website - I think this is a requirement nowadays.
I always check out companies this way - and plenty of people I know look for companies and tradespeople on the internet in their lunch hour at work.
You can do them yourself, using template-driven sites, so you don't need to be too computer literate. You can get free ones (though these often have adverts on them) or pay just a few pounds a month to get an advert-free one.
It only has to be a couple of pages, nothing fancy.

hayley11

Word of mouth has been the best marketing tool for me.

Set up a Facebook Page and get all your friends to "like" it and keep it updated with prices, contact details, offers, your credentials etc.

Twitter is also a great tool, not just for getting jobs but also for information and contacts.

Linkedin is ok but I don't find it as useful as Twitter and Facebook.

A simple website with decent SEO (google that if unsure, it isn't as hard as you might think) will get you showing up in Google which could result in jobs.

Use as many free sites such as Gumtree as you can.

FatVonD

I've picked up tradesmen's cards at places like B&Q and Homebase before, I doubt it's cheap to place cards there but you do know that 100% of the people visiting that store are in the process of some kind of redecoration/renovation work and while they may be DIYers they may not be confident in taking one electrical work.

Before shelling out for any kind of advertising ring some of the other people using that same avenue (maybe not another electrician but a plumber) and put your cards on the table and ask them how successful it is for them. They may tell you to bog off but they may say as someone did to me years ago when I rang another graphic designer when I was considering placing an ad in Yellow Pages, 'I with I'd thought to do what you're doing before I parted with my money'

ESKIMO

Don't forget your free listings in the Yellow Pages (but do be aware that this is more of a marketing gimmic so they can forward/sell your details on to other parties).

pitkin2020

Micky_d wrote: »

Once again, thank you to all who have contributed to my thread. I have some fantastic ideas to start with, I am going to put a marketing plan together using your ideas. I will give an update over the coming month. You have all been a great help

I forgot all about this thread. Wonder if the OP has any updates??

Charityworker

Personally my small business has picked up a lot since I had a facebook page.