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What different ways do you know of marketing a business?
04-01-2014, 11:24 AM
Post: #1
What different ways do you know of marketing a business?
I'm a plumber and I've been set the task of coming up with 12 or more ways of marketing my business, one of which I'm going to try and then monitor every month for the next year. The idea is that if 8 fail I'm going to get pretty good at 4 ways of marketing!

So far I've got: web page, referrals, advertising in magazines and newspapers (this really didn't work!) and even parking my sign written van outside the local supermarket for the full 2 hours they allow in the hope that someone will write my number down.

I'd like to hear from you if you can come up with any other ideas or anything that has proved successful for you in the past.

Many thanks!

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04-01-2014, 11:28 AM
Post: #2
 
There are few marketing techniques that can work

Online marketing:

web page [which you got], social websites [facebook, twitter...etc], mass email

Mass Marketing:
ads in magazines, newspapers, TV, billboards,

Direct Marketing:
mail flyers to home owners

WOM which is wold of mouth which is one of the most powerful marking techniques. Have your family and friends and co workers try to somehow include your services into a convo for example "the other day my pipe started to leak and this awesome pluming company fixed it up"

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04-01-2014, 11:43 AM
Post: #3
 
I found a very effective method is to create content related to your business as far as how it solves a problem and pass it out for free in an ebook format. This may at first sound complicated but trust me it is extremely easy...just study the reference source below as it also includes the tools you need to do this quickly.
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04-01-2014, 11:46 AM
Post: #4
 
- Directories like google local business search

- Yell directory

- Twitter

- business card flyer's

- landlord targeting

- - Search optimisation against post codes

- key rings

- Partnerships with other tradys

- classified 2 line adverts (start by using A if alphabetical)

- Get more appealing van signage
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04-01-2014, 12:01 PM
Post: #5
 
Think it would be really helpful for you to find out where your existing customers come from - try and break them down and see if there is anything similar or different about them - e.g:

1) You might find 20% customers come from word of mouth - so adopt technique to build on that by providing business cards to your customers to hand out, or encourage then with a 10% discount if you refer us etc

2) You might find xx% use you because you provide 24 hr service when others book the next day - build on that by telling everyone you provie this value added service

3) You might find it people in one area who know you - find out how they know you and copy that in other areas

4) Maybe a lot of your customers are elderly (they can't do DIY) or maybe they're young professional (don't have the time but do have the money) - Just try and think of ways you can find more of that type of person.

This will save time and money on doing "marketing stuff" because with this info you will now know what you need to do, when and how much it will cost. Just ask every customer from today on, why they chose you, how they found out about you and ask if they would chose you again!
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04-01-2014, 12:16 PM
Post: #6
 
I have a couple of suggestions for you:

1) Ask all your happy customers to give you the names of two referrals that you could contact to do their plumbing.

2) Ask any satisfied customers to write some testimonials that you could use in any promotional materials.

3) Try to build some relationships with local realtors/estate agents who are likely to have contacts with Landlords and may even know some that would be interested in having some work done.

4) Finally, make the most of free advertising online. Here are a few suggestions:

gohuman,com - usually very good if you want to target a market in a particular zip code
Craigslist- good to target a city - but your advertisements have to be renewed regularly and there is a lots of spam on the site. Your advertisement only appears on the top until the next person places a listing, causing yours to drop lower down on the screen.
Classifieds,org
sell,com - mostly paid advertising, some free available
oodle,com -looks pretty good, but I haven't tried it myself
backpage,com : I've been told this is good, so it's worth a look

And here are a couple of others I've just come across -- I haven't looked at them, but you might want to.
adpost.com
epage.com

The first one, gohuman,com is really good because you can link your listing both to a category and a zip code so it gets targeted at the particular area you want it to be seen. I hope you won’t mind me suggesting that you get your existing customers and friends to post an endorsement on the site to make potential customers a bit more comfortable with you because they will see you have a good reputation.

When you sign up, please mention you saw this on Yahoo Answers!

Good luck,

Jo
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