Advertising

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1793 said:
When I started my own business I made post cards, Vista Print, took the local paper on Sunday morning looking for properties that recently transferred ownership, entered the address in Excel spreadsheet and printed mailing labels mailed them the cards.

I had about a 6% success with this method.
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6% is very good. That said, people are programmed to ignore or avoid advertising. They don't know who to trust. This is why word-of-mouth referrals work so well. If you ask a friend, family member, coworker, other tradesman, etc. for a recommendation, you're very likely to trust that recommendation. Networking groups take advantage of this by enthusiastically recommending other members in the group and having their business cards on hand to give out. It's also a very inexpensive form of advertising.
 
Home Adviser

Home Adviser

Just got a cold call from Home Adviser. Anyone ever work with them. He said the lead fees were $20.
 
Saturn_Europa said:
Just got a cold call from Home Adviser. Anyone ever work with them. He said the lead fees were $20.
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Can you afford to have $20 extra overhead per job? Some jobs may be well worth it, others, might be 20-50% of total invoice (without their services anyway). They don't guarantee you won't get "deadbeat client" either - one that won't pay the bills or bounces checks, etc, or for that matter send you to a neighborhood you might otherwise want to avoid.

The most desirable clients to work for likely don't go looking for an anonymous contractor they know little about, if they are trying someone new they likely will have found out about you via word of mouth and recommendations from people they do know.

JMO but if I were the one looking for a contractor they would not be high on my list of places to seek a contractor, you don't know what you will get, and any rating system they use is likely easy to get good ratings published if one pays for the rating.
 
hbiss said:
Google them and see for yourself what other contractors have to say. I think Angie actually did just avoid jail time.

-Hal
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They are about making money, for however long it is easy to make that money, and don't really care about the homeowner or the contractors. Sort of like matchmaking sites, if you are going to use one proceed with caution, site owner wins whether users win or not.
 
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Sorry, hit the button to fast. The above screen print was right from the site. I was with them for 2 years. They are a horrible company. Please ..... stay away.

Jim


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Saturn_Europa said:
What does every one do besides referrals? Website and google search optimization?
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I use NextDoor.com, which is free. I find it to be a great alternative to Angie's List which costs $1000 a year. I've gotten more business from NextDoor than I have from Angie's List.

Another way I've been getting business lately is to go to local open houses after church on Sundays, and pretending to be interested in the house. Instead, I would do a quick electrical inspection, and place a business card magnet onto the service panel in the basement if I feel it needs to be upgraded. I also hand the realtor a business card, and ask if he/she needs an electrician in case they run into clients who have an inspection that calls for electrical repairs.

I also have my email set up to receive all listings in Livonia as they come in. I look through some of them with the pictures, and I've even made appointments to see some of the houses that appear very outdated, and do an electrical inspection and put a magnet onto the panel. I have my own real estate license for this purpose, so I don't have to waste any realtors' time looking at houses that I don't intend to purchase.
 
I think your money is better spent on having a booth at a home show or similar event, having your business information printed on things you can give away like pens, pencils, cups, clothing, etc. I once had a parade entry where we not only threw out candy for the kids but also threw out pens with company information on them. This works real well in small community parades and similar events, can't speak for those in metro areas on how good of an idea this may be, but don't think it could hurt much either. Even in those areas you still have smaller subdivisions within the metro that each have their own local celebration events from time to time.
 
Saturn_Europa said:
Just got a cold call from Home Adviser. Anyone ever work with them..
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Home Advisor, formerly Service Magic, acquired Angies List. Weeks after the Merger last year, Angie was still doing commercials for the brand.

In the recent past, complaints against these and similar lead-generation services have included: failure to cancel membership upon written request, resulting in unauthorized credit-card charges for disputed leads --months after written cancellation-- and sending all transactions to collections when banks block vendor access to the credit card.

The bad practice may be permissible, since any unauthorized charges in dispute become retroactively legal --genuinely liable--, if you contact the unsolicited leads sent after the cancellation date. The unsolicited leads appear as a free lunch after lead membership was cancelled. So folks bite on some unsolicited lead, then become legally liable for all prior membership & lead charges. Contacting the unsolicited lead = legal acceptance of all related fees, and therefore the legal-cancellation date is extended to the last unsolicited-lead accepted.

Sending unsolicited leads, after membership cancellation requests, has lucrative rewards with very little risk of being prosecuted as a high crime, much less expensive-regulatory fine. Exploiting human nature is legal, and few regimes legislate against such predatory fishing, or advertising. Perhaps some private class actions have prevailed against the practice, but that risk vs reward remains a business decision.

Not getting screwed is a full time job, miss a day and your business folds.
 
Angie’s list took money out of my account without my permission. Even the contract said paper check only. I ended up having to pay with gift cards,. And replacing my credit cards so they didn’t have access to them.


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I am a former member of Home Advisor, and they ripped me off. I will never go back with them again, nor recommend them. As for Angie's List, I'm currently a member with several months left on my contract. I have no plans to renew the contract when it expires, because it costs $1000 a year. I have been getting a lot more business from the Facebook group "All Things Livonia", the website NextDoor.com, as well as a few guerrilla marketing techniques (all free).
 
So not for a business, but for a four day event we put on, we spent $12,000 (four months) on radio and computer ads. Our numbers were actually down this year. The biggest problem is that since we have all volunteers working for us, we did not really get a good feel for how people knew about us. So in the big picture our numbers could have been worse without those ads, but they needed to generate 1700 people from them for the cost to be justified.

You also need to track where your business is coming from, you might be surprised to find that it's word of mouth more than anything else.

When I was president of the local Little League we would print our flyers in different colors, (Sent to schools, handed out, gave to existing members) and then put a discount coupon on them, that way we knew where we got the most bang for our buck. We also have a magazine put out by the park district twice a year, that goes to every house in the city. A full page ad was $600 we thought that was a lot until we got smarter and figured we only need that add to bring in 6 kids and it paid for its self.
 
I've used a "Refer A Friend" card for marketing & it's worked great. When anyone needs a contractor, they usually ask a family member or a friend who they should use. We printed up a flyer with 5 coupons on it. We give one to each of our customers after completing a job & let them know, they will get $20 cash for any referral they provide that uses our services. The end user also gets a $20 discount coupon applied to their service call. We also offer them a family plan which has an annual membership fee, but gives them discounted pricing on our flat rate pricing plus an annual in home "visual" inspection of their electrical system.
 
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