What is the best form of advertising in your opinion?

[Adam]

hi all, i have recently set up my own company and although i have a fair ammount of work , its not constant, i know it takes time to create a good customer base but i am looking into different forms of advertising to help get the ball rolling a little more.

it would be great to hear what you guys think is the best form of advertising, i have tried local papers ect.... but not alot came of it. i was thinking of parish magazines aswell, i have herd they are quite good.

 

many thanks

adam

[redmoosefaction]

sign write your truck! Best money spent to come back ratio. IMO

[Brushcutter]

Well Sign written truck. When you do a job people can see who you are and how to get hold of you and the quality of your work. Only down side of having one is when people come and knock on your door when the thing is parked outside your house. If you have a dedicated works vehicle then get proper signs made up if it's a dual purpose vehicle well made magnetic signs are good.

[dandkgroundcare]

local magazines produce more work for us than others

[Yorkshireman]

A happy customer

[Gareth Smith]

A happy customer

[johnty]

In my area parish mags are a waste of money. Word of mouth, a smart looking truck with easy to read sign writing on it, company uniform and we seem we seem to get quite a lot from the local free paper however i feel £130 per month is a little expensive.

[arbclimber]

Its not so much about where you advertise, but how. A properly designed advert will work better, in a much less popular medium, than a poorly designed advert, in a popular one.

 

Think about, your target audience, targeting a specific niche in that market, and then how best to 'talk' directly to them.

 

All adverts need a message. Forget taking up half the advert with your business name and details. What you need to concentrate on is direct response not flashy brand advertising.

[BTS]

Sign writing your truck and the best for me has being parish mags always get very good response

[mdvaden]

Small newspaper ads worked great when I started out in the 80's. Then after we moved back to north Oregon, and I tried that again, couldn't put my finger on one call I got from that in 10 months. Years ago, I got 10 customers per month from a small ad.

 

You ever thought about flyers? Not neccessarily just for walking a route.

 

I put flyers at about 4 houses on either side of where I'm working. Takes just a few minutes. One thing of many.

 

Lately, instead of business cards, I've been giving out 4 x 6 photos with just my name and website. Last week, a techie engineer guy who works for Intel, says that if I had given a business card, he'd have just tossed it. But that he would keep the photo.

 

For my cards, I put the same size of magnets on the back, and people usually keep them that way.

 

Below is my new large photo card.