Advertising: What Do You Do?

[Jason Laws]

I typically run a newspaper ad for about 39 weeks straight each year, during the spring/summer/fall, plus a few business card directories that they put out, too. I also have website through houzz.com. Running ads in the winter has been a waste of time. The newspaper ads have worked very well but they were taken over by a larger newspaper in Bangor, which now owns most of the newspapers in Northern Maine. This year they have increased their rates $200.00 per (13) weeks (this is all Black+White), which is how you pay for them at a time. What a huge jump! Never mind that when I run a color ad that they make it look really bad......

I hate to give up or cut back on my local ads that work, but that is a big increase, for me. I am thinking of maybe adding a website that is not connected to Houzz, so I can control things a little more my own way.

So, for those of you that do advertise, what do find that works? What hasn't worked?

By the way, I am not suggesting that you have to advertise, this is just how I am doing things.

[LIHR50]

No paid advertisement here except business cards that I order once every couple years. Don't give many out, but they do make good micro shims for tile work.

My work all comes from trade relationships and a long tail of repeat customers.

I did advertise once in a local paper. I was totally against it but my former partner insisted we advertise. First customer we get we both go to the first meeting. Within ten minutes I know I don't want to work with this person. My partner didn't see it the way I did so we take the job. Long story short my partner walks off the job with about 3 days of work left. He couldn't handle the stress from the customer. I read the customer the riot act (tactfully) finished the job and got paid in full.

I do believe you need to determine the makeup of your ideal customer and target that type. General advertising could be a big waste of time when dealing with all those leads. You really need to have yourself set up with a process to weed through them quickly. This is where charging a preliminary fee comes into play

[dgbldr]

So you weeded out the partner as well, eh?
:)

[LIHR50]

So you weeded out the partner as well, eh?
:)

two actually. You think I would have learned my lesson the first time around. On my own now and all for the better

[Jason Laws]

Today, the folks at the newspaper came back with a new rate of only $20.00 more per 13 weeks, as they said that they don't want to lose me - I was happy.

Anyone else out there who advertises?

[m beezo]

I do not advertise and never really have. Probably my closest thing to advertising is the local town I live in has a city wide business phone book that is about the size of the farmers almanac. In it there is a list of all the folks in our town who have a business license and we are listed by catageory. You can get in there under a couple of different groupings if you tell the folks you can be put under say painting, carpentry, handyman and get put in 3 or 4 different places. Just a listing is free but if you want you can pay something like $50 and have a credit card size ad put in there. That gets me a couple of calls a year.

Most of my other work that might be somewhat advertising comes from the local hardware store. I get referred several times a month sometimes for things like a faucet installation, a motion detector, painting. The guys in the hardware store I have know for all of my 30 years in business and they will put out my name several times then pass out someone elses name. I am not their only contractor that gets mentioned.

I have also bought an ad in a local high school program for a small theater group once or twice. That never brought in anyone at all.

I have a website and it is really not panned out to give me very many leads. I do not really maintain it, have not added pictures in a number of years, etc. I do use it as something that I can direct folks to look at if they are wanting to know about me and my company. Other than that I do not really know what to think about it.

I also get calls from the plumber who will send repairs and sometimes demo work my way as well as entire kitchens and baths. Some of them have panned out, others not so much.

[Jason Laws]

Thanks for the info, Beezo. What is your website address, if you don't mind? When someone posts their website here, I try to go and take a look - I like to see what everyone is doing for projects, etc.

[m beezo]

Jason it is homesweethomeproductions.com.

I traded a customer who does website development the painting of a room to set it up for me. She did the entire thing for the cost of my painting and we were both done in about the same amount of time so it was a good deal for me. I had spent a few hours giving her an outline of what I was interested in saying and then she ran with it and tweeked it so it sounded better. She had some good ideas.
Truthfully before I had he do it I looked at just about everyones website that I could. Borrowed/stole a few ideas from one or two here and there mostly in regards to looking at their pictures and then comparing it to mine. I decided that some of mine either needed to be eliminated or have some explaination. Just because I see the rotted board did not mean someone visiting my site might. It was surprisingly hard for me to write things down because like everyone else out there I want folks who look at it to think I am the best there is and who they should be hiring. How many times can you say some of the same things that everyone else is saying and make yours stand out.

Take a look and let me know what you think. I actually need to take a look because it has been maybe 3 months or more since I last looked at it.

[Jason Laws]

Take a look and let me know what you think. I actually need to take a look because it has been maybe 3 months or more since I last looked at it.

I like your website, Mark. Lots of good info and pictures. Plus, I think that it paints a good, positive picture of you.

The website that I have through Houzz works fine, for now. I might try sometime a paid for website, where I can adjust things more. For instance, I had to replace a rotted subfloor and took pictures of the process. My pro listing there shows it as a before and after picture, but on the website it can't do that and so I had to pull the picture - it made it look like that was the kind of work I do!!

[m beezo]

Jason.thanks..Some of the things on there are what I wanted to convey without sounding like I am the only person in the construction trades with any scruples, who does good work, who tries to be fair. But there are downsides to just about any advertising that I could do.I am not sure it shows the full scope of work that I do over the year. but is a good representation. Part of the reason for some of the different pictures is I did not want folks that would look at it to think I only do kitchens or baths or painting. I know that works for some folks but even after 30 years in business I am still not the go to guy for only one type of project. So if I get a first time customer to use me for any job I try to visit with them a bit and make sure they know I do other things than the one job that they called me about.

For me one of the worst things that I take pictures of is painting. I might show the rooms walls with some scuffs and dings but the don;t always show up well, and after the repair and painting unless you have something that is a definite marker that shows you are for sure in the same room and on the same wall it is hard for me to make the pictures look right. I know a pro photographer can do it but that is not going to happen on my jobs.

And there are sometimes things that I take a picture of and show my wife and ask, what do you see, what do you think, should it be on my website. Sometimes she can tell it is rotted wood or a broken pipe, other times she has no idea what is the problem if it is something like black wires tied into white wires or no wire nuts on the splice. So what I think is neat and should be shown gets nixed. Plus I cannot tell you how many times I have done a job and thought "why didn't I take a few pictures of that as I went along" My hat is off to Allan who keeps us up to date with current pictures.

[Jason Laws]

Mark (now that I saw your full name it is hard to call you Beezo!), I wish that I had more pictures, too. If I had been allowed to use a camera while Amish, there would have some neat things to take pictures of. And I agree, with the pictures that are at my website, I don't want people to think that I only build sheds or something, and so I have an odd collection there. If some of my estimates come through in the spring, then I can get some better framing pictures in there. The cargo container house that I was working on looked so bad at times, and especially the framing, that I pulled the pictures.

I try yo put forth what I can do, but I hate those adds in the newspaper where they pretty much will do anything, maybe even shine your shoes - seems kind of desperate.

[Shawn Van Dyke]

We get lots of traffic with our website www.finishpointtrim.com
We also post to facebook
A few employees post our work to their own Instagram accounts
We also use instagram
we sponsor local charity events
and we sponsor holiday home tours when house that we have trimmed are included.
We run Craiglists ads for carpenters/employees.
We use Houzz and pay for ad placement there.
All of these work well for the investment in time and money, but sending out regular Thank You cards to current and former clients (homeowners, contractors, and vendors) gives us the highest ROI.

[Jason Laws]

We get lots of traffic with our website www.finishpointtrim.com
We also post to facebook
A few employees post our work to their own Instagram accounts
We also use instagram
we sponsor local charity events
and we sponsor holiday home tours when house that we have trimmed are included.
We run Craiglists ads for carpenters/employees.
We use Houzz and pay for ad placement there.
All of these work well for the investment in time and money, but sending out regular Thank You cards to current and former clients (homeowners, contractors, and vendors) gives us the highest ROI.

Good info - thanks! I checked out your website and it very nice - good pictures and info.

How expensive is ad placement with Houzz?

I like the thank you card idea, as I have though of something like that - something to show appreciation and at the same time, keeping you in their thoughts for the future.

By the way, why not turn your company name in your signature, into a direct link? You never know who is reading your post....

[Shawn Van Dyke]

Jason,

We opted for the $2400/yr option with Houzz. We pick up some likes and followers there, but they range from local folks to other trade professionals all over the place....but all it takes is 1 kitchen or custom built-in to return that investment. We also view Houzz as a place you just have to be to do what we do. We find that when we get called to a job where a designer is involved and we point them to our Houzz page, they use our images to show to clients.

We have developed a database of birthdays, graduations, grandkids births, etc. of our clients, vendors, and other subs. This is any easy way to put the soft touches on auto pilot. We also send out lots of Starbucks cards every time some one pays us a compliment.

Oh and send chocolates to all the admin staff of any contractors you work for. You want to keep your A/R short...small gifts like that put you at the top of their list.

About the link in the signature...just missed it. Thanks

[Alan Montgomery]

The best place to spend marketing/advertising dollars is Facebook ads and SEO. Those two, done well, have made me a lot of money.