Small business advertising advice needed

papink

This is my first post here, so I'll give a bit of background info first. I'm a sole trader and run a computer repair firm. I work mainly with home users and other sole traders/very small businesses.

Over the past 10 years my customers have come from Yellow Pages ads, word of mouth, flyers and my website. The business is at the point where most customers now come from word of mouth (which I'm very happy about). I also have a steady stream of repeat clients.

I'm after some help because over the last year or so the new clients have been dropping. I know where this leak is, but not quite what to do about it. The problem is with the Yellow Pages ads. I used to average about 20 - 30 new clients a month from my ad, which cost around £500 a year. It's slowly dropped and now I'm lucky to get 5. Other than word of mouth, my flyers draw in the most work now.

I can think of a few things to try, but was hoping for some guidance and a nudge in the right direction. I was thinking that it may be worth trying Google Adsense or similar, but I'm just not sure.

spacey2012

Local facebook selling pages are dynamite .

papink

That's interesting, do you mean paid for ads through Facebook. I've had a company Facebook page for a while but don't do anything with it. Plus I've never found anyone interested in it. I'm going to have a look now. Thank you for such a quick response.

papink

Okay, I've just realized what you mean. I should have known as I've just had a client want a website made who was using one before. I really hadn't thought of that as a possibility.

phill99

Your business Facebook page will bring in work if you know how to manage it correctly. Like you I had a Fb business page and did very little with it. I attended a Facebook marketing seminar in November. The way I run the page is now completely different and I get work now directly from Fb - not from people that have pressed the 'like' button, but from strangers (actually, friends of people that have pressed my 'like' button).

Search out in your area if there is such a course in your area and it will pay dividends.

papink

Thank you, I went to a seminar on Twitter marketing once but wasn't particularly impressed. I should probably give Facebook ago as I've really neglected it over the years. I've had a look but cannot find anything local, so shall have to look further afield.

nickj_2

have you tried local papers , i would think that for a lot of people that would be their 1st port of call if you take out a regualr ad , people know it's there and where to find it rather than plucking a name from yellow pages , also my village has a quarterly newsletteer that goes to every house ,

terra_ferma

It's worth trying adwords, you can set a small daily spend just to try it out and see what the response is.
They have some localisation settings too, you can target a specific locations (not sure how far you can narrow it down though, but should be at least city).

papink

For a quick update, I've been working on my Facebook page today. I'm going to try and keep it active for a while and see where that takes me. I'm considering paying for some ads on Facebook once I've used it for a while longer. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is it a good idea?

I'm definitely going to try a small Google campaign, I just need to make sure I target the right people.

Sadly the local newspaper has been money drain in the past. I had small ad in the classified section for several months and only got one reply. This cost around £200 a month and just isn't sustainable.

The village magazine a great idea, I tried a parish magazine a while ago and it seemed to gain some interest. I suspect the way to go with this is find several and advertise in each one.

Thanks again everyone for the replies, they're very helpful.

fiscalfreckles

I'd look into any local magazines as I tend to use those as I prefer to use local people. Or perhaps you could try contacting local organizations & soicieties, they often have a newsletter or a website where you could advertise for free or a small fee? Schools? Churches? Or use local noticeboards & do some posters. Word of mouth should then spread in the community.

Lighthouse_in_the_dark

Papink firstly I would consider scrapping yellow pages, 5 conversions for £500 a year, is each client worth more than £41 to you once you factor out expenses.

the other alternative is to optomize your yellow pages ad, calling your self AAAAA computer repair for example.

twitter is good, when your after a global or national audience when your a local service niche its not such a great marketing tool.

facebook is at a crossroads at the moment, its ethier going to be around for the next 10 years or its going to die sooner rather than later, my 90yearold grandfather has set up his own facebook!,
everyone uses it but not as much and alot of people are going ad blind to ads AND like status's

right i would personally leave the online marketing on hold for this niche, why? i imagine the majority of your customer base are elderly.
best bet would be good old fashioned boot on floor flyering, and parish council newsletters, (they are crying out for ad money usally). work out a deal with areas that cater the eldery, 10% discount to your local bowls members, rotatry clubs you know all that jazz.

remember if someones computer has broken chances are they are less likely to go online to look for the service.

offer subscription services, a pc health check basically run a virus scan on there comp update adobe flash and java make a back up blardy blardy bla. you could even do this remotely aswell.

enthasis the danger of hackers, everyone likes a good scare story, how they could be at risk of identity fraud.

an emergency repair insurance, aka if your computer breaks down we wont charge you a fortune in an emergency call out charge, (what british gas are doing but with pc's)

if you were really crocked your could even set up your own adjacking software on there machines so you profit from all the ads they click on.