Paul Gallagher
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| 30 Oct 2010 03:30 AM |
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I would like to know how you currently advertise your businesses and how you track your success? You don't have to be specific. Just looking for generalized responses and what have you tried and what was your level of success.
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| Owner FireUps(R) |
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Andy Graves
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| 30 Oct 2010 04:25 AM |
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Word of mouth is really the best way to achieve success. Spend a little extra satisfying your customers and they will spread the word. |
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andy@thefabricatornetwork.com
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Paul Gallagher
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| 30 Oct 2010 12:03 PM |
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Andy, of course that is a great point but it does not really answer the question. I asked about advertising initiative not referrals.
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| Owner FireUps(R) |
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Lenny E
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| 30 Oct 2010 01:03 PM |
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Marketing- Word of Mouth.
Success Tracking System - Bank Account Balance.
Level of Success- Excellent
Anything else I can help you with?  |
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Paul Gallagher
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| 30 Oct 2010 03:38 PM |
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maybe i was not clear in my question. I asked about advertising.
Like newspaper, tv, radio, internet, Billboard, Storefront(Location, Location,Location) Flyers/Posters as in the other thread, etc.
Word of mouth is more marketing, customer retention, customer satisfaction..
Some people have referral programs that help drive word of mouth. Business cards with a place for referrals on the back for writing down the referrers name and offering kick backs. I saw this at a local car dealership $200 bucks! If they did a good job I would have used it but to your point I was not happy with the service and in this case word of mouth did not work to their advantage.
As i understand it, some of you work with contractors, kitchen shops and box stores so you may not advertise.
but thanks for your feedback.
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KCWOOD
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| 30 Oct 2010 04:13 PM |
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Posted By Paul Gallagher on 30 Oct 2010 07:03 AM
Andy, of course that is a great point but it does not really answer the question. I asked about advertising initiative not referrals.
Paul are you kiddin? It amazes me how those in advertising have the answer to everyones business problems, and how well they can help us out. We are seeing how excellent advertising is doing right now in this political season.  I have been in business since 1982 and it was only only from a slick ad salesman that I spent any money on a large yellow page ad about 3 yrs ago. For the next year, I made it a point to to ask everyone new that called, where they had heard about me, and not one said the yellow page ad. $800 wasted. Everyone had mentioned someones name, either I had done work for, or they knew the person I had done work for. No, advertising people does not acknowledge referrals, because it is something that is 100% effective, does not need tracking and something they cannot bill for. Sure some businesses, need all the bells and whistles of a good ad or web company... for me... referals have been enough. Ever hear of Northwestern Mutual Life, I forgot how many years, they never ran one ad. It was only a few years ago, did they start, and that was after they got into mutual funds. Their entire system was setup using referrals, that is why they were know as "The Quiet Company" |
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| 31 Oct 2010 01:35 AM |
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Paul:
To answer your question, I've been a member of servicemagic for several years and have not found a more cost efficient method of advertising. Without question, the best thing about servicemagic is where they give customers the chance to review the contractor. This ties into the referral thingie. If you don't have the time to read my reviews, I don't have the time to bid your job. We aren't right for each other.
Let me take a minute to refute the myth that referrals are free. Nonsense. You've worked your ass off to earn those referrals. To describe them as "free" denigrates the efforts of those who have paid the price to earn them. When a kid works in your shop, you owe him money. When I provide excellent value, you owe me a referral. At least a nice thank-you.
Joe |
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Paul Gallagher
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| 31 Oct 2010 01:47 AM |
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I will acknowledge referrals right now. No advertising will generate a better lead than a referral. Hands down cannot disagree. If you can continue to run your business 100% on referrals .. Good For You!  Thank you for your story about yellow pages.. this is what i was looking for.I am not here to solve all your business problems, I don't even know what your problems are. I am here to spark some conversations/topics learn from your answers. If I can share some knowledge as well and add value to the forum I will. |
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Paul Gallagher
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| 31 Oct 2010 02:03 AM |
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thanks Joe,
I have talked to a few people that do service magic and i hear mixed reviews.. you either love it or hate it.
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Norm Walters
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| 31 Oct 2010 04:04 AM |
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Joe, you are in a niche market with repairs using service magic. For most other trades it's a dog eat dog way to go. |
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KCWOOD
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| 31 Oct 2010 12:01 PM |
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Paul, I have heard many other stories about the yellowpages on here, same result as I have had. I am a small business, in a small town, referals work fantastic here.
In fact, most calls I get come to my home phone, they don't remember my business name, but they remember my name.
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| 31 Oct 2010 12:18 PM |
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Posted By Norm Walters on 30 Oct 2010 11:04 PM
Joe, you are in a niche market with repairs using service magic. For most other trades it's a dog eat dog way to go. Norm: I agree. Joe |
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Paul Gallagher
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| 31 Oct 2010 01:59 PM |
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Posted By Kelsey Crisp on 31 Oct 2010 07:01 AM
Paul, I have heard many other stories about the yellowpages on here, same result as I have had. I am a small business, in a small town, referals work fantastic here.
In fact, most calls I get come to my home phone, they don't remember my business name, but they remember my name.
Yellow pages is dying fast. They have the paddles out and are doing whatever they can to try to add services to add value. I got my yellow book the other day, it sat on my desk for a week and then hit the trash can.. never even opened it. With that said, you want to at least have the free online listing with them linked to your website. Some day they will learn how to monetize the information they have gathered.. They should talk to me I have an idea |
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Andy Graves
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| 03 Nov 2010 08:31 PM |
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I see what you are saying. Marketing is a tricky concept because most seem to believe it has everything to do with advertising, creating a sales piece, designing business cards and logo, creating a nice little catch phrase and then of course getting your name out their to the masses.
We take a bit of a different approach. We believe that if you say hello, put down tarps to protect the floor, sweep up after your finished, tuck in your shirt, comb your hair, drive up in a clean vehicle, and do more than is expected can be much more valuable than the traditional marketing.
Of course doing all those extras cost additional resources, either training, purchasing shirts for the employees and so on.
To answer about advertising, I would say internet is the best although we really have a tough time knowing. We have tried special toll free numbers, and discounts based on whether you print out the coupon but many customers are just unsure where exactly they found us.
Newspaper ads, if done on a regular basis is effective means to get customers, but I often question the ROI.
To solve the problem, tracking is the best way to spend your adverting money, because if you actually knew what would bring in the business, you could focus on making that form of advertising all that much better. |
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andy@thefabricatornetwork.com
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Paul Gallagher
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| 04 Nov 2010 10:31 AM |
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Andy .. Great Stuff. "Your approach".. your talking about branding.. you are branding yourself with your presentation and customer service policies.. That's really important and a great way to show professionalism. more referrals!
"To solve the problem, tracking is the best way to spend your
adverting money, because if you actually knew what would bring in the
business, you could focus on making that form of advertising all that
much better."
- Could Not have said it better my self ;)
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Reuben Hoff III
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| 04 Nov 2010 11:40 AM |
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Paul,
Interesting question.
I have been struggling with these same issues. We have tried a few things such as a billboarb sign, even some package deals for a reality agent to give to homeowners when they purchased a home from them. I asked people about these and the billboard just brought about name awareness which is good for helping brand yourself. However it did not get them in the door it was the referal they sited the most. The reality flyer ad got zero, I thought it would do better but I think it was much like your yellow book, by the time they got moved settled or whatever it wond up in the trash.
Newspaper has gotten us nothing that we can see and it is to expensive to run a consistant basis.
Radio has been our best so far and interesting enough it has not been the 30 sec ads.
We have done a couple 3 to 5 min call in shows and that has seamed to been the most effective way soo far, but I am sure that will change once we get through those groups of listners and they either need what we have to offer or not.
I have found tracking it to be the hardest thing becouse they do not remember for sure when asked and most just seem to say I heard about you or I saw your showroom so we stopped in. I to wish I had a better way to measure sucess from advertisement, but I think it all has to balanced properly and you have to have great referals no matter what, but most of all it all has to tie to branding yourself and getting to be first in peoples minds for the services and products you offer and sale.
This last part is hard especially when you add things to what you have done like we have and the new products are tough to get people to remember us. We have no problems gettting them to remember we do countertops, but we have added cabinets to the mix over the last three years and we still are not close to the top 1/3 of people in our area as a place to stop, that even includes the contractors we do countertops for and I have talked to them several times about what we offer and yet when they mentioncabinets to their clients it is not us first, that is the part that gets frustraring.
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Paul Gallagher
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| 04 Nov 2010 12:56 PM |
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Tracking the effectiveness of your advertising comes down to planning/Marketing.. nothing is an exact science but here is my take on it. - Start with the website.. this website need to reflect your sales process.. it must speak the same language and present your values in the same way your sales team does. This is intended to shorten the sales process.
- Monitor the effectiveness of the website... visits, page views, bounce rate and trends over time to ensure that the website continues its effectiveness as you advertise.
- Use tracking number for Call to actions on various channels as well as vanity Urls that drive business.
- Use a Lead tracking system that collects information from every call, email and walkin.
Results will show something like: 50 calls from website + 30 emails from website = website sales 15 20 calls from billboard = billboard sales = 1 30 calls from radio = radio sales = 3 20 calls from newspaper = newspaper sales = 1 20 walkins = 5 sales This example reflects that your website/walkins are the best converters but take into account that the other mediums will drivethese results as well. Now that you are tracking installs we can then back into a CPI (Cost per install). You have a number you can work with.. You know that it costs you $154.50 to generate 1 sale last month. Does that number work for you? if you are comfortable with $200 than add another channel.. TV spot.. How did we do now? You added $3000 to our advertising costs and you added 3 more sales over last month... your cost per install went to $250... Before pulling the plug on the TV spot maybe you want to wait another 30 days if you are still in the black .. but now you are tracking  You can really start dialing in your business and control business month to month... test promotions.. test product lines.. and educate your local public about the services you offer with less guess work. Keep in mind that most people wont nessesarily call from a billboard or even radio unless that is your intention and you are clearly calling for a call to action from those spots.. these will however drive to your website where your conversions will typically be highest. People will typically research you online before walking in the door or even picking up the phone. This is not to say you should stop other traditional means of advertising but when you are tracking your website data and if you drive the audience their you will be able to attribute the increase to these advertising efforts. Your website is a great traffic funnel and free tools are available to monitor this such as google analytics.. you just have to learn how to interpreter the results. Hope this helps to point out that putting in place a marketing plan/process will help to measure success and provide you with the knowledge you need to grow or maintain your business. |
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Paul Gallagher
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| 04 Nov 2010 05:59 PM |
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Andy,
Do your guys wear those boot socks? you know the slip over ones over your work boots? My wife is a fanatic about cleaning the house and she goes Nutz when service people come to the house and wear shoes in the house..
I guess traction could be an issue when you are carrying some pretty heavy stone.
I find that detail really makes a difference at least at my house.
I know its a pretty small detail but it shows respect for someones home that you are going into whatever the conditions of the floors or footwear rules that the customer may have in the home.
-pg
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John Christensen
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| 04 Nov 2010 09:17 PM |
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I am just about convinced to jump into the web advertising barrel. It is all very interesting, but for a newbie like myself, a bit overwhelming. I understand the value of having multiple routes to your website and tracking capabilities. Calls to action and coupons or promotions...
My question is this. What is a reasonable ratio between sales revenue and the cost of aweb marketing campaign. I would like to hear from any of you who have ventured into this arena, both successfully and maybe not quite so much. What were your actual ROI numbers like?
Johnny C
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Andy Graves
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| 04 Nov 2010 11:26 PM |
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Posted By John Christensen on 04 Nov 2010 04:17 PM
I am just about convinced to jump into the web advertising barrel. It is all very interesting, but for a newbie like myself, a bit overwhelming. I understand the value of having multiple routes to your website and tracking capabilities. Calls to action and coupons or promotions...
My question is this. What is a reasonable ratio between sales revenue and the cost of aweb marketing campaign. I would like to hear from any of you who have ventured into this arena, both successfully and maybe not quite so much. What were your actual ROI numbers like?
Johnny C
Johnny, I think you should determine what your overall advertising budget is based on sales and then determine what is already used in other areas. The reason I suggest this is because online advertising with either google or bing is very affordable and can be adjusted down to as little as you need. In fact you can adjust it on a daily or weekly basis if you needed. Probably wouldn't change it that often but you could. Other forms of advertising are longer terms and typically pay up front. |
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Countertop Company - www.OliveMill.com |
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