Advertising

[Dogg]

I know this topic has probably been beaten to death, but what is the best way to advertise your new business? I have signs for my van, and I also advertised in the local news paper (services section). If remodeling/light construction and service work is my focus right now, would realtors be an option? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Dogg

 

[480sparky]

Here's my canned response:

First and foremost, you need to create, and then spend the money on, an advertising budget.

Join your local builders associations. Attend the meetings and other events.

Visit home shows and expos, with a wad of business cards in your pocket. Don't be shy about introducing yourself. And don't give out cards one at a time.... give each person 3 or 4: they're cheap, and you don't know who those people know!

Get on your local Craigslist site. Look for builders and handymen there who advertise "It's OK to contact them with other services or commercial interests." (This will be at the bottom of their listing) Drop them a short, simple email to introduce yourself. I've gotten one builder, two remodelers and two house-flippers this way!

And my favorite method: whenever you go to the Big Orange, Big Blue, or even the local hardware store (Ace, True Value, whatever) look for the trucks and vans that have "Fred's Home Improvement", "Handy Dave, Dan's Older Brother" or "Quality Construction" on them. And not just 'builders', .... landscapers, painters, roofers, drywallers, plumbers.....ANY construction trade lead can pan out. Stick a business card in the drivers window. The worst that can happen is they throw it away.

Real estate agents are another 'forgotten' source. Many people who buy an existing home immediately want to change it, so if you buddy up with realtors you can be 'first in line' when it comes to the new homeowners' upgrades.

If (or should I be more positive and say when) you do find a builder, remodeller or flipper, be sure not to forget the person or people who are paying them.... the owners. Make contact with them, introduce yourself, and by all means, give them a card.

Want to start doing commercial? Drive around town and find all those little strip malls and see if there are any empty bays. Contact the name & number on the sign (after all, it is for rent, isn't it?), and find out who owns the property. Contact that person, introduce yourself, and simply ask if it would be possible for you to submit a bid when a new tenant is found.

Many local stores have bulliten boards you can put a small print ad (easy to do today with computers and printers) or a busniess card. It's free, and you never know.

Be persistent. Be sociable. Be friendly. You will not get every lead, you will not get every bid. And you will need to learn to deal with rejection.

But most important: create an advertising budget. And stick to your advertising plan. If one method doesn't seem to work, drop it and spend your money on other ideas. Business cards are the cheapest form of advertising, and the easiest to use. They fit in your pocket, so there is no excuse for never having a card to hand someone.

It WILL take some time, but if you do quality work at a reasonable price, you'll keep busy. And by reasonable, I mean fair and profitable. DO NOT try to comptete on price alone. DO NOT promote yourself asWal-Mart Electric. If you do, you WILL fail.

 

[Rewire]

Here are the ones that have worked best for me

1 Radio ; this can be expensive but will reach the largeest market I advertise on the "oldies" station targeting the 30-50 market because they tend to be the homeowners and business people

2 local news paper; many papers have a "services" section you can place a repeate add in

3 Phone book: Place a large add but keep it simple don't try and list everything you do.

4 Chamber of commerce; join your local chamber this an excellent networking tool

5 community involvement; join clubs and civic organizations meet the leaders of the community

 

[ohm]

Great comments by 480 & rewire (even printed them out).

Just a few things I can add: wear a nice shirt with your logo and leave a business card with your (nice) tip at dinner etc.

If the local bulletin board (and every place you spend money) will alow it make up a detailed list of what you do and a bunch of mini tear-off business cards along the bottom. Be sure to have your phone numbers in the text above, if all the tear-off's are taken. Also, include a nice picture of your best truck in the flyer.

If you drive by a construction site or remodel-in-progress drop in and chat with the boss/lead man. They may not be happy with their EC and give you a chance on the next one.

 

[Dogg]

Thanks 480, Rewire, and Ohm-some very good ideas in there to try out!:smile: I contacted the local yellow pages and it seems I have to wait until next year to run my ad. The phone book has already been printed. Anyway, I am going to start with busniess cards and sling them to everyone 480 mentioned.

 

[Dnkldorf]

I know this topic has probably been beaten to death, but what is the best way to advertise your new business?
Dogg

There is a difference between marketting your business and advertising your business to your potential customer base.

Marketing is the message, the logo, the shirts, the van, the fridge magnets, business cards.... the atmosphere, attitude...ect

Advertising is placing that message where your target customer will see it.

Marketing comes first.

IMO


What type of budget do you have?

Who are your customers?????

 

[Dogg]

Dnkldorf,

Most of my budget for now is getting tools, inventory, etc. I don't have an incredible operating budget as of now (because I am part-time). However, my target customer base is primarily residential homeowners looking for service work and remodels, maybe even realtors.

Thnx, Dogg

 

[resistance]

Real estate agents are another 'forgotten' source. Many people who buy an existing home immediately want to change it, so if you buddy up with realtors you can be 'first in line' when it comes to the new homeowners' upgrades.

I agree with all of them accept this one. Be careful dealing with realtors. They can break you, because their main objective is to sell a house, not get you business, "Trust me!" They will have you running around doing estimates so they can close a deal. It took me a few realtors and a wise old man--who owns an electrical contracting business for over 25 years-- to figure this out. When they call, I always ask for money before going to any of there closing deals. This shuts them-up quick! I'm sorry, but I believe Realtors are worse than a used car sales person!! Upside, if you can get to know a realtor (Honest. One who will respect your business). Then I'm sure they can be a good source!!

 

[resistance]

Dnkldorf,

Most of my budget for now is getting tools, inventory, etc. I don't have an incredible operating budget as of now (because I am part-time). However, my target customer base is primarily residential homeowners looking for service work and remodels, maybe even realtors.

Thnx, Dogg

Then you may want to stay away from the yellow pages. They are expensive.

The others are the ones I would recommend--loving 480's recommendations. Yet I don't recommend realtors--unless you have established an honest, respectable relationship--or the Yellow Pages. Once you get yourself established ( a reputation for doing good work), most of your business will come from referrals. Currently, this market is suffering. I get one phone call per week, and as of this week, we haven't received any calls--accept from Yellow book, and The BBB wanting us to advertise with them.

 

[active1]

"Would realtors be an option?"

More often if you got them to call you it would be a waist of time.
They all want a free written estimate for the buyer or seller for negotiating.
Sometimes for the insurance or finance company because of safety concerns brought up.
Almost nothing gets fixed unless it's only a few bucks. Even then they may call you back to fix that double taped breaker or what ever. You think your done but they'll ask you to fax a copy of the invoice here or talk to the other party's attorney. You can make some money doing this. But you really have to think out you plan it out such as charging more for service calls or statements written. That's what they really want is paperwork from you. Depending on the party some will want high numbers while others want low numbers. But in the end you may have to do the work for those numbers. I developed special policies for these cases.

I remember one time a elderly customer of mine that lived down the street was closing on his house. He drove one Saturday to my house, missing the drivway when he pulled half on the lawn. Went to my door asking for me to install a pair of missing coach lights that were promised to the buyers. I meet him there as the buyers are just moving in. Look at it and the boxes & wiering were never there. Just holes in the vinyl sidding. It was not that big of a deal so I give the sell a price and he agrees. An hour or two later I was done and the seller was long down the road to who knows where. That's when I remember those old stories he would tell me about how he was a builder. I did track him down thru his family that I did work for and got paid. It wasn't so much the money. Just the feeling "I've been had by a feeble old man".

Most of the advertising done by EC is what I would call passive advertising. Meaning they're not tring to convince a consumer to get electrical work done. Examples would be the phone book or internet. More just for the consumer to chose them when they are looking for it. With passive advertising is you have a limited potential customers in your market area. It works great in areas where there is more work the EC can do. More often I believe it's the opposite especially in urban areas. Then your compeating with more EC then you have work. To get new customers from advertising you get in a money race with the other EC. The winners are the phone books, news papers, etc. It gets to the point where you have to say let the other EC spend $50 or more per new customer. Think of it as a barrel of 20 fish, with 30 people tring to get those fish.

If you try to compete with the word of mouth advertising another EC that have a micro advertising budget can afford to price way below you. To make things worse with unemployment high some electricians will do cash jobs for next to nothing as a supliment to their unemployment. From personal experiance a customer will almost always chose and pay more for a contractor referred to them from a person they know.

In the higher end resi HO tend to know more people in their area that had or are having some project done. They can be great repeat customers. In the lower income areas I noticed HO's use the phone book more. I figured they don't have friends or neighbors getting regular work done, don't use professional services unless an emergency, and are unlikely to be a repeat customer. Middle class are somewhere inbetween.

The other form of advertising is what I call active. In this method your company is convincing a person to have electrical work done or at least pushing someone that is on the fence about. An example would be direct mailings or flyers on doors. You goal is to convince the HO to install cieling fans, can lights, atic fans, etc. If you sell them on the idea, well you company is listed on the ad they most likely will call you first. You don't have a customer with a phone book full of 100's of EC's thinking why should I go whith this place, maybe someone elce will do it cheaper, or can schedule it at a better time.

The market different market areas is the reason you will have one EC saying 2 full pages ads are the best thing, where others have had a poor return compaired to the money spent. Also figure some areas only have 1 book form one company, where other areas can have 10-20 books covering different towns from different publishers just for a metro area. Also don't believe those phone book reps that have their marketing numbers. They will try and say this big ad has shown to generate 100's of calls a day, where the smaller one get's 20.

New contractors that have large circles of friends, involved with many events, big extended families, part of local oganations, have kids etc. seem to do better because the key is word of mouth. It's had to do all that and work for yourself.

 

[ohm]

I had to remind a real estate agent who had me go out to a house to correct some electrical issues for her seller that were caught by the buyers inspection, before the house could go to closing..in a few days, that she was responsible for the bill.

Closing was the next day and still no money so I e-mailed her and her broker saying the bill needed to be paid before closing or fraud would be committed if the seller signed all bills were paid.

Got my money within the hour.

 

[Rewire]

I had to remind a real estate agent who had me go out to a house to correct some electrical issues for her seller that were caught by the buyers inspection, before the house could go to closing..in a few days, that she was responsible for the bill.

Closing was the next day and still no money so I e-mailed her and her broker saying the bill needed to be paid before closing or fraud would be committed if the seller signed all bills were paid.

Got my money within the hour.

We always send our invoice to the Escrow company.We deal with several realtors and find it to be a profitable relationship.