Marketing?
- Thread starter A-F-E
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Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
We are mainly a service company so advertising is our life blood,we have found that radio gives us the best return on our investment. We are positioning ourselves with our 24 hour emergency service. We have a 1/4 page add in the phone book that promotes our emergency service .We run a continuos add in the business section of our local paper.We also advertise with "City magnet" a company that makes refrigerator magnets with various business on them along with police and fire dept phone numbers these are distributed to every person in our city once every two years. We have our logo opn our vans as well as on our shirts and hats. As you can see as a service c ompany we have probably done alot more advertising than the guy who just wires houses.This year we are supplying mini footballs for the cheerleaders to toss to the fans when our local High School Team scores a touchdown. Go Mustangs
Dnkldorf
Senior Member
You know, in your position, sponsorship of Little league teams is a great bang for your buck.
And make sure you get a sign in center field.
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
I just sponsored a T-ball team this year along with it I get a banner at the ball field ,my youngest boy is playing this year he asked if I was coaching but I just will not have enough free time but I will be at all his games,perk of being the boss.
Dnkldorf
Senior Member
highendtron
Senior Member
Aside from the efforts already listed...networking through business groups, chamber of commerce membership, and rotary involvement help get your business name out. We also have a great web site!!! The best thing we offer is dependable service at a reasonable cost...your reputation will precede you!!!!!
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
shucks I was hoping to take a look at your site..we haven't had ours up and running for long and we are still making changes
Rewire- thanks,lots of good stuff there.
Dnkldorf- The type of work I’m currently going after is service work due the fact most contractors are bidding jobs with 10 or more contractors and if I wanted to gamble I’d go to Las Vegas. Now I still bid jobs here and there, just not my focus right now.
Dnkldorf- The type of work I’m currently going after is service work due the fact most contractors are bidding jobs with 10 or more contractors and if I wanted to gamble I’d go to Las Vegas. Now I still bid jobs here and there, just not my focus right now.
Dnkldorf
Senior Member
What kind of service work, and who is your customer?
Beleive it or not, once you really define this, it will lead you into how you should market your company.
Advertising can be a huge overhead cost, which drives your price.
You can spend $10K a year advertising on the back of grocery store reciepts.
Then we will welcome your posts here on how trunk slammers, hacks and side jobbers are cutting your throat. Only then you might realize that your marketing efforts are targeting the wrong customer market.
You can spend alot of money taking out expensive phone book adds, and wonder all day long why people won't pay your trip charge, and hear you blame all the free estimate guys for your shortcomings......
It can go on and on.....bottom line is, first define your customer, then that will define how you should market to them, once you find them.
Unless you have a boat load of cash burning a hole in your pocket, then you can do whatever you want.
Dnkldorf
Senior Member
I know your going to hate this, because you may be looking for easy answers, but there are none.
First, hotels and resi service are two different animals.
resi can be broken down to price conscious shoppers, and those driven by service.
Price people only care about price. They don't care if you show up in a gold plated van, with fancy smancy booties, and crisp uniforms with US flags on them. They really only care about the bottom line. Advertising your company on grocery store reciepts at Shop-rites and Pathmarks might work better than at Wegmans.
On the other hand, if your selling on service, and not so much on price, the opposite might be true.
(for the most part, IME) Hotel owners and such, want stuff fixed now. They are not shopping for the best price, they want they best service......and they want it NOW.
Same thing can be said about small commercial mom and poppers.
Some want service, some care about price. Some don't even know what they want.
Your biggest and best advertising is your vehicles, they are moving billboards that 1000's of people see very day. Keep these simple, and pro looking, avoid cluttering the outside with too much crap. People can't read it all when your doing 60mph down the road.
I have no idea where you are located, but if you buy some inexpensive mapping software and do some research, you can determine where the best homes are at, which areas of your town make the most money, and which ones to avoid when spending marketing
money.
There is a whole lot more to this, but it should get you thinking.
First, hotels and resi service are two different animals.
resi can be broken down to price conscious shoppers, and those driven by service.
Price people only care about price. They don't care if you show up in a gold plated van, with fancy smancy booties, and crisp uniforms with US flags on them. They really only care about the bottom line. Advertising your company on grocery store reciepts at Shop-rites and Pathmarks might work better than at Wegmans.
On the other hand, if your selling on service, and not so much on price, the opposite might be true.
(for the most part, IME) Hotel owners and such, want stuff fixed now. They are not shopping for the best price, they want they best service......and they want it NOW.
Same thing can be said about small commercial mom and poppers.
Some want service, some care about price. Some don't even know what they want.
Your biggest and best advertising is your vehicles, they are moving billboards that 1000's of people see very day. Keep these simple, and pro looking, avoid cluttering the outside with too much crap. People can't read it all when your doing 60mph down the road.
I have no idea where you are located, but if you buy some inexpensive mapping software and do some research, you can determine where the best homes are at, which areas of your town make the most money, and which ones to avoid when spending marketing
money.
There is a whole lot more to this, but it should get you thinking.
Rewire
Senior Member
- Location
- Lake of the Ozarks
You want to look at how you are going to position yourself in the market,look at grocery stores one will advertise as the best meat one will advertise as the freshest produce one will advertise as the largest selection of can goods they all sell the same thing but they are pushing just one thing, the idea is don't try to be all things.If you are doing service how are you going to position yourself against others who are doing the same thing. We are positioning with our 24hr service .We want this to stand out in our add copy.You may want to be the "on time' guy or the "fastest response" guy . When we decided to go with radio we sat down with the marketing specialist at the station and they helped us create an add campaign that would carry over to other media. We looked at the demografics of the station to see who their listeners were you may like headbanging or Rap but you need to realize the twenty somethings and teenagers have no disposable income.We looked at the 30-60 crowd they are the one who were the homeowners and business people that were the only ones who could afford me for lack of a better way of putting it.
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