Need some advertising advice for new construction company?

[McMike]

Well it's like you said Caryn, you need "professional advice!" lol. I think I can offer you some basic info that'll help you out though for the time being.

First, and this is not to complicate the matter because as you said, they started the business 6 months ago but I need to tell you that in all reality, most start-up businesses go under in the first 5 years and a lot of it has to do with lack of planning and just playing everything by ear. Not a good approach. This is not to freak you out either but it's so that you can do something about it NOW.

2nd, there are some questions that need answering before you start on your marketing campaign since advertising is just one element of it all. But, since you don't know a whole lot then no need to panic about it either. Just keep it simple for now and start doing a lot of reading and get ready to put in the hours because if you want this tough business to succeed and be profitable then you're going to have to put in the time.

Questions that need answering are: What is your target market like? is it business or residential? low income or high end customers? what about other demographics involved? how much is your advertising budget? Simply putting out ads in Craigs List or Facebook is not enough, or flyers. You could do all that and waste your entire time. If you have more information then you can plan and strategize how you're going to go about it all. You can decide how small of a job they're willing to do to make it worth it, travel, expenses etc. It's really not that difficult once you get at it everyday until it becomes natural.

I would suggest you either consult with a professional firm that can give you a complete outline of how and where to start or get to the library and start cracking the books on advertising and marketing (there is a big difference). There's a lot more to it and your chances of success will be a lot better then simply making ads out kind of like throwing darts at a board and hoping you hit the center.