how do you advertise your business??????

[Nigel Fraser]

yeah youre right mate, i think it’s come up once or twice on the boards 😉
I use yp and word of mouth only – both generate a mixture of small and decent leads. But word of mouth leads are much easier to convert into jobs so i always try and leave everyone feeling like they’ve been well treated !

Nigel

[Carrie Brown]

:lol1: Yes there have been quite a few discussions on advertising before, but it never does any harm to go over it again 😀

I’ll start the ball rolling …well thats if no-one else posts first while Im typing 😕

For us and this our own opinion and personal preference 😛 Word of mouth, Yellow Pages and our Van. We find YP attracts both small businesses and larger jobs, but I also know that it can depend on where you are situated.

I know others make magnets and give out as an addition, not so long ago there was a post about it.

Carrie 😀

Edit: :lol1: Nigel beat me to the post by a nose 😛

[eddie cotter]

most of my work comes from word of mouth! tried the local papers & stuff
but, business people with vans & shops dont get time to read the paper
so it didnt work, i tried direct mail letters & flyers with a stamp
they got on to the bosses desk, i got loads of work from it straigt away
i will never advertise in a paper again, unless i decide to sell washing machines to house wifes!!!!! eddie ps i had to stop sending out flyers as i couldnt handle the work! 😉

[Robert Grant]

I have yet to get up and running with vinyl cutting but a few years ago when I was printing business cards and leaflets etc I hung boards on motorway railings and on poles. When I put a lot of boards out the phone never stopped and apart from the minimal cost of making the boards it was free. It was a hard slog going out in the dead of night but worth it in the end

[Bill Dewison]

In less than a fortnight of being published I’ve had enquiries and submited quotes for vans, shop signs and various print items from a thompson local advert. I was lucky as I managed to afford a full colour one that I designed myself, so it kind of stands out a little 😉

Before that I relied mainly on word of mouth, but I’ve also done big leaflet drops around 3 local towns, direct mailed various industries enmass and made friends with the just-out-of-town traders, all of which have built up to a steady flow of work.

I’ve yet to put a decent amount of signage on my shop other than my main window graphic and business name, and I haven’t lettered my vehicle yet, so I don’t know what will come of that. For the moment the methods I’ve employed so far have worked out okay.

Rodney Gold wrote a thread (I know I keep mentioning this) but its really useful. Gives a really good marketing plan for any business and some of the ideas in there are fantastic for drumming up business both short term and long term. I have it stuck on my office wall, its been my marketing/advertising bible for the past 8 or 9 months. Well worth a read, I’ll post it up again when I can find it (I really should bookmark it, I refer to it enough 😉 )

Cheers, Dewi

[Bill Dewison]

Found it, http://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?p=26601

Cheers, Dewi

[Nigel Fraser]

… you get up early on Sundays don’t you mate ! :sleep3:

well done for finding the thread though 😉

[Richard Urquhart]

get up early no !!!!
dewi just got in the stop out!

[Jill Marie Welsh]

I’ve probably already posted on that thread Dewi dragged out of hiding.
But it’s easier to just repeat myself.
Letter your vehicle, then no matter where you go, you’re advertising.
(even at the bar or the strip joint so be careful) 😉
Put a sign out front that’s really kick-ass.
Put a signature with your phone # on it on all of your work.

All of these are low-cost ways of advertising.
Most of my stuff is word-of-mouth.
I get a free 1-line YP ad for having a business line.
All that brings me is tire-kickers and price-shoppers and an occasional pervert.
Maybe try to get involved with a community group like the Chamber of Commerce.
I’m the secretary of ours. That way you are exposed to other local businesses
who may not have been aware of your services.
I also sometimes do a cheap or donated sign for the local fire company,
church, boy and girl scouts group. I let them know its true value.
That’s another good way of getting noticed.
Love….Jill

[Bill Dewison]

quote creativesign:

… you get up early on Sundays don’t you mate ! :sleep3:

well done for finding the thread though 😉

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: Thats the time I got up this morning. I had to finish cutting some vinyl at the workshop, so I thought if I got up nice and early, I could crack on and get through plenty of work before I went out fitting at 11. Thing was, I was having problems waking up properly so I thought I’d search out Rodney’s post whilst I was having a coffee 😀

Rich, my days of being a stop out are over I’m afraid, I’m always at work! :lol1: Still here now designing an Aboard for the barber shop I’ve just finished, I’m addicted to signmaking it seems 😉

Cheers, Dewi

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Dewi:

Thats the time I got up this morning. I had to finish cutting some vinyl at the workshop, so I thought if I got up nice and early
Cheers, Dewi

that was early………i thought i was doing good getting to my workshop for 7.30 😮 i was cutting signs for a hairdressing salon, and thought the same as you dewi………….nice and early..but your early is tooooo early 😉

Nik

[Roy Roffey]

looks like i started something here

1st working on a Sunday!!!!! not much of a night out then!!!!

great to hear that everyones on the same par when it comes to advertising. Having been in the trade for 16 years i have seen a load of different ways of getting your name across, although when its your money being thrown in to advertising it becomes a different matter.

i seem to spend a great deal of money with the local paper but it seems to be the smaller one off jobs i get from it, don’t get me wrong – its money in the bank but not regular work.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when the yp comes out in Jan

thanks for your posts guys

roffs

[Stephen Ingham]

in response to the original post “how do you advertise your business?”

we started by word of mouth, then we took a small advert in the yellow pages.

as we progressed we tried advertising in local papers and car mags (max power and redline racing) and even on the back of buses

we have a web site and we hand out complimentary key rings (produced by us) when giving a card.

unfortunately there is no sure fire way of successful advertising, we have to try what we can, any ideas are always appreciated

good look to all

cheers
stephen

[Mark Ford]

Hi everyone,

I’m new to this board, I don’t class myself as a signmaker as such, promotional merchandise is my main line of business. I thinks it’s fair to say that we all get our best business through word of mouth, I decided to take it one step further and join a local business breakfast club. I can honestly say it’s the best money I’ve ever spent. I used to run a full colour ad in the YP but have pulled it all together now. We are all in a business which is easy to refer other businesses to us so I would recommend taking a look if you haven’t already.
I’m a member of Business Network International (Wrexham) & Business Referal Exchange (Chester).

Mark

[Peter Normington]

Hi Mark.
Welcome to the boards.
I dont thing the say hello section is available at the moment, because of maintenance.

I had an experience with a breakfast club, I was invited by a customer of mine to see how it worked. First week seemed fine with everybody standing up in turn, introducing themselves, and exchanging biz cards etc.
Second week similar sort of thing, Someone gave a presentation about their business. The firm that was running the club extolled its virtues about the benefits of networking and even offered to put me in touch with the chap that bought their signage, Great! Any way to cut a long story short, after talking to their chap, found out that they used a sign firm who wasnt even in the “club” and the weren’t interested in changing supplyer.
After the third week I was expected to subscribe, but declined. thought the firm were charging a lot for supplying in effect, just a meeting point and little else.
Funny thing is the customer who invited me, went bust a few months later,
These clubs may or may not work, but I thought it an expensive way of getting leads. I think the subs were about £600 pa And you had to pay for breakfast. And guess what, the caterers who supplied the food wern’t in the “club” either.
I think these type of clubs came from America and what works over there does not always work here (Isnt that right Jill)
Your club may be different. Just my experience.
Sorry if this is a bit heavy for a welcome chat, But you did bring the subject up.
Peter

[Bill Dewison]

Never heard of breakfast clubs before 😮 Well apart from a teen film & song in the 80’s by Simple Minds 😉

There’s quite a few evening business meetings that go on around here, mainly to do with working with the police/council, but some are designed to advertise members etc. But as Peter has pointed out, often suppliers to these types of meeting aren’t actually members, which is just plain weird. It also seems like alot of effort to network with such a small group of ppl, there are much more effective ways of getting business.

Cheers, Dewi

[Peter Normington]

Dewi. Have you tried to start a new subject yet, I tried and couldn’t.
Very Quiet here tonight. Fancy a game of cards?
Peter

[Bill Dewison]

:lol1: :lol1: I’ll give it a go Peter

Cheers, Dewi

[Robert Lambie]

funny enough i was invited to a breakfast club yesterday by a financial advisor. about 6 months ago i was invoted to same thing by my bank manager, they said it starts 7am in glasgow some nice place.. seeing as i dont get off the boards till about 6am i thought i better give it a miss. :lol1: i dont fancy the breakfast clubs, i can see how they may work for being refferred, but i think it works better in office work like banks, mortgage advisers, insurance and the like, i could be wrong though of course…

we advertsie in YP spend about 5grand a year in it and it does give us work & plenty of enquiries. we advertise with 3 phone numbers from 3 different locations. we find many folk call their local shop, (like dewi has just prooved with thomson local) sooo.. what we did was register 3 numbers of surrounding areas and put them in the one advert. (adverts a 1/4 page) we now get lots of calls from various locations and from time to time when we give a quote over the phone, only for the phone to go 5 minutes later from the same person saying, “hello, i wonder if you could helpo, i need my van signwritten?” :lol1: unaware she may have called a different number but still gets the same place. 😉 works a treat!

something else we used to do a while back, we had some cheapy floppy plastic folders made with our logo on the front. inside it it had a pocket with a pouch. we had a small notepad in it with our logo on and number.
we had a cheap plastic ruler and pen, again with number on it. we also had a small window ice scraper and a compressed sponge, yes… with our name and logo on it.
every time we put graphics on a van we stuck one of these folders in the glove box, every time someone paid a bill in person, we handed over the car kit. because it ahd some many little handy things for the car they tend to keep them rather than toss it. 😉

regarding the “new post” i just clicked it mate and didnt have a any probs? 😕
do you mean you cant make a fresh post mate?

[Peter Normington]

Hi rob
Cant start a new topic in any of the forums exept the ones that are current on the front page, on the left hand side. If iI click on the forum box it just reverts to the main page.
Peter

[Robert Lambie]

ah yeh, i know what you mean. you must be clicking on the image link rather than the small text link just above the forum image in the index?
use the text link as the images are pointing to uksignboards.com and it hasnt become active yet so your getting sent back to old boards 😉

[Mark Ford]

Going back to the breakfast clubs, it takes a little while to build trust and relationships with other members, after all they need to be happy that you will fullfill the requirements of the people they refer you to.
I have also found (and this seems to be the general rule of thumb) that the amount of business you receive increases the longer you have been an active member.

A good example, a bni member referred me to his neighbour to put some vinyl onto the panels of his van. Job done, happy customer. This week I get a call from a local training company for pens, the referall was from a jeweller. Great, did the quote and got the order. The same company calls me up today about embroidered polo shirts, no problem I said, we embroider in-house. I know she replied, you did my neighbours van and he recommended me to you. Small world, but networking pays.

I don’t promote signs at my club as my membership profession is as a corporate gift supplier, but I do see other signs companies receive good work from it. Personally it has led supplying companies such as Kelloggs, MBNA and AXA on an ongoing basis so I can’t complain.

It’s not for everyone, you have to get up early one day a week, every week, its about giving as well as receiving but my annual dues and cost of 12 months breakfasts, this year brought in 14 times the sales for my equivilent spend in YP.

Mark

[Stephen Ingham]

Hi chaps, on the note of these breky clubs, we have a local bradford chamber of commerce and industry organisation that runs something similar

the last one i went to was a “safari lunch” bit like speed dating (unfortunatley no luck pulling)

you basically sit at a table with about 5 other business types and have 2 minutes to tell everybody about your business and then hand out a card.

then a bell goes and you then move to another pre- arranged table and start again

great idea, bit intimidating, but pretty good for contacts

stephen

[Bill Dewison]

quote ste68blue:

you basically sit at a table with about 5 other business types and have 2 minutes to tell everybody about your business and then hand out a card.

Wouldn’t take most of us that long….

Hi, my name is Dewi, I make signs… anyone know where the bar is?

:lol1: 😉

Cheers, Dewi

[Peter Normington]

Thats the way to do it dewi (new slogan?) 🙂
Works everytime, Trouble is Im too busy working to go to the bar, or make any money.
Peter

[Roy Roffey]

the brekie club is a new one to me, the only brekie club i go to is up me local cafe!!

[ian hobbs]

bni breakfast club was very good for me..infact so good i had to leave as i just could not spare the time…and they only let one of each trade join locking out any competitors..

worthwhile investment as far as im concerned just need more staff to cope and ill try and join again when if ever im back on top on things..

go along the u get 2 trial visits.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

While in theory that breakfast club sounds like it might work,
in practice, this is what I think would happen:
The people who you befriend through it, while nice,
may already have signs. If and when they need new ones,
I think they’d expect a discount from you because you are their pal.

I have been the secretary of the Mars C of C since 2003.
I have gotten ONE tire-kicker in two years.
All the other people already had signs, some from me,
but most from a shoddy licky-sticky shop.
I still say the best way is letter your vehicle,
make yourself visible (I like to take my truck to car shows and parades)
and also put a sign in your yard or in front of your business.

Love…..Jill

[ian hobbs]

i agree but bni is about networking, who do u know?

i asked for specific referals ie architects / designers and yes the signs u do for people in the group u can discount but it works both ways..

i get cheaper insurance premiums, pc / computer parts discounted / discounted printing for stationary and business cards / cheap mobile phone rates and domestic electric and gas the list goes on.

i think its a form of contra but suits me since i had lot of really useful leads.

but it doesnt suit everyone.

u pays ur money and takes your choice..

and i only have a single line in the Yp coz i blew my budget on the bni. but i dont think i would have got the sort of work im looking for from there.