Small business advertising advice needed

Savvy_Sue

papink wrote: »

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.

I'm not a bit surprised by this, I've always found the local paper is ludicrously expensive for adverts!

papink wrote: »

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.

I don't know if you mean church parish, but church magazines are a good way to go if they accept advertising and go into a wide range of places. Also any free magazines: you could offer a regular column if they don't already have one.

I think the key thing here is to keep the advert going: I know when I wanted a builder I remembered those whose adverts I'd seen regularly in local mags. Obviously you need to decide how long to keep it going for, AND make sure you are tracking where your new customers are coming from!

fiscalfreckles wrote: »

Schools?

'Satchel post' can be effective, but ask if they produce a programme for their summer fair, and see if you can advertise in that. Could you sponsor a competition, or offer a raffle prize? It all gets your name out there ...

Lighthouse_in_the_dark wrote: »

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

Good point!

Lighthouse_in_the_dark wrote: »

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.

Is that legal? If not, we don't offer that kind of advice on MSE!!!!

And remember that while some people won't notice, they may have visitors - younger family members if we're talking about older people - who use their computers when visiting, and they may WELL notice!

nickj_2

Lighthouse_in_the_dark wrote: »

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.

that is terrible advice , if someone found out your reputation would be in tatters ,if you're getting someone in to fix anything in your house trust is the top factor , that they will do a good job, know what they are doing

heart_free

Redirect your yellow pages budget to online advertising. whether that facebook ads or googles adwords. You'll get a better ROI. If I'm looking for a business these days google is my first port of call, I wouldn't even think of the yellow pages.

paulwf

Don't just go ahead and use Google...get the deals first! I got a free voucher (think it was £50 or £75) when I opened a business bank account and just this week they sent me an offer where they'd match my spend this month with the equivalent free next month up to £200. Ask around (perhaps on here) and I'm sure you'll get a deal or just call them up and see what they'll do as they've been offering free tasters for years.

Don't forget with Google it really helps to get your Google Local (i.e. Google Maps) listing completed and verified and your Google Plus business page completed and then verified.

Since Facebook "turned the volume down" i.e. less people see each post you send it seems to me to be pointless to pay to attract new members to your group as those members then hardly see any posts. I now pay to promote posts but that is very rare, I only use it for very special events. Your mileage may vary...a trial is very very cheap, you are in control and can pull a campaign at any time and get good monitoring tools. Much better than paper advertising where you put all the money up front in one lump then don't get to see where it goes.

terra_ferma

paulwf wrote: »

Don't just go ahead and use Google...get the deals first! I got a free voucher (think it was £50 or £75) when I opened a business bank account and just this week they sent me an offer where they'd match my spend this month with the equivalent free next month up to £200. Ask around (perhaps on here) and I'm sure you'll get a deal or just call them up and see what they'll do as they've been offering free tasters for years.

Don't forget with Google it really helps to get your Google Local (i.e. Google Maps) listing completed and verified and your Google Plus business page completed and then verified.

Since Facebook "turned the volume down" i.e. less people see each post you send it seems to me to be pointless to pay to attract new members to your group as those members then hardly see any posts. I now pay to promote posts but that is very rare, I only use it for very special events. Your mileage may vary...a trial is very very cheap, you are in control and can pull a campaign at any time and get good monitoring tools. Much better than paper advertising where you put all the money up front in one lump then don't get to see where it goes.

How do you find conversion rates for FB compared to Adwords?
I keep hearing that people on FB are not that interested in buying stuff but just want to socialise, and are less likely to buy.
I don't think it's going to be around for long, just enough time to make as much money as they can while people get more and more fed up with being treated like targets for advertising, but it's just my opinion.

leavingalegacy

Hello Papink,
Welcome! I have tried FB ads, not sure if they're the same as fb pages, but although I got a huge amount of likes from 30 odd to well over 2,000 Nov. 2012 in a week (and still growing), I never got customers which was my reason for using FB in the first place. Google ads/ adwords I found, were only profiting Google and what little money I made is held because it hasn't reached their threshold. What I know does work is meeting your customers where they are and I found some cool marketing tools, but as a newbie not allowed to post here. So feel free to privately request the link which I would be happy to send to you.

Hope this helps?

terra_ferma

leavingalegacy wrote: »

Hello Papink,
Google ads/ adwords I found, were only profiting Google and what little money I made is held because it hasn't reached their threshold.

Hope this helps?

Are you referring to Google adsense (where you get paid to display other companies' ads on your website) or adwords (where you pay for Google and other websites to show your ads/links)?

nickj_2

Lighthouse_in_the_dark wrote: »

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lighthouse in the dark
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.

Is that legal? If not, we don't offer that kind of advice on MSE!!!!

And remember that while some people won't notice, they may have visitors - younger family members if we're talking about older people - who use their computers when visiting, and they may WELL notice!


Legally its a very gray area, you would have it in your terms of service that to subsidise the work we install a security software, this also my change advertisments on other sites etc etc.

what people get caught up on is they use a botnet to run it, (the easiest option but very illegal. what usally happens if you get caught is the big guns sue you for damages and even if your water tight there main trick is just to price you out of court. (A major income revenue for facebook is sueing spammers).

it can be insanley lucrative though, look at lillyjade, he was and still is a mug for going public but was making $50k a day! He !!!!ed alot of people off as he shone media attention on the industry.
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/05/facebook-takes-aim-at-cross-browser-lilyjade-worm/

anyway this is going a bit offtopic and to be honest if you can code effective under the radar adjacking software you wouldnt be in the pc repair game!

that is not security software , anything you install should be for the benefit of the customer , not to line your pockets with cash .

enjaypcbee

Hi - I'm a newbie here too! Having started my own small business recently I can recommend a couple of things that worked well for me. If you have a local parish news/mag that is circulated to homes in your area you may be able to get some editorial coverage especially if you offer a discount for the readers. You could write an editorial article and see if you can get any local papers interested in your story - you'll need to have a story rather than just be trying to promote your business but its worth a try. We wrote an article and sent it to 5 local papers - two days later we were arranging the photo shoot and then we were in the next week's edition! The small glossy magazines targetted at communities are sometimes very reasonably priced - from £10 - so they are worth a try and we've found that people do read their local mags and refer to them for trusted local services. Have a look at freeindex.co.uk as that might be worth a go too. Good luck!

Short-n-Sweet

I use facebook and twitter to help network and promote my Business. I also do flyer drops to local companies (baring in mind I produce signs, printed clothing and banners) so have a fairly wide target group. I would also suggest gumtree, yell and any other free classified websites. Make sure you have some keywords on your website. Listing on more places will eventually get you in google. You could also add yourself to google maps this has helped get a few jobs in the past as you come up on the top of google locally when people google your service.

Make sure you have clothing that advertises so whenever your on the move your name will be seen and people will remember. (I can provide this service) Flyers in local shop windows or petrol stations can also work and local notice boards. If you have some money for paid advertising have a look around at figures see how many people on average would see your advert and compare the prices. (some local papers may offer free listings for local businesses)