best place to advertise???

[ktguk]

After reading the section on marketing on setting up on your own.i was wondering What type advertising have you had most success with?(other than word of mouth) and what was a waste of money.

thanks

 

[Ash]

Be careful, you'll start getting phone calls everyday from various people saying they can put you on the front page of google and similar things. They make it all sound good but it's mostly scams and even the legitimate ones feel wrong too.

You can put a free advert in the yellow pages and Thomson local on their websites.

 

[sellers]

yourself! costs nothing! anywhere I go, I make a point of asking who does your electrical work? whether I'm meeting a plumber on a job or getting my van mot'd, usually pass over a card and then they'll usually say, 'actually while your here can you give me a price for this'

 

[Evans Electric]

I'm in two areas of Yellow Pages and get very, very little comeback.

We've done reams of stuff on this subject if you have a search, by the way.

Anyway, for domestic work, local paper, local freebee papers, and the side of your van .

Most Commercial work in my experience is recommendation from other companies or trades.

 

[S60TEM]

i've just done a covering letter today and went on yell.com to get the names and addresses for all the local estate and letting agents in and around my area. Gonna cost me a few quid for stamps but I might get some work out of it, who knows.

 

[baldelectrician]

I have decreased spend with Yell / Yellow pages by 70% this year.

I find yell extremely poor value for money and also find them quite arrogant

I had a rep tell me (18 months ago) that she 'wasn't going to waste any more time on me' after me telling her that I wasn't interested in meeting (wanted to do it all via email and over the phone), knew what ad I wanted and wasn't signing anything on the visit

I am out of yell.con (spelt the way it should be) and I have found that my sales / marketing calls have dropped by 80%

I find word of mouth keeps me ticking over now, so I have cut back on my advertising

 

[mattyevz]

The best advertising for me is google, my site is number 1 or 2 in most instances for my area. It hasnt cost me a penny but takes alot of time and effort.Worth it in the end.

 

[rugbymacc]

get your vehicle signed up.......

this will help get you locally recognised.

 

[JamesM]

There are 2 types of advertising you can do these days online (website) and offline (van signage, leaflets, business cards). If you want to get new customers the best way to do this is with a website. Think about how new customers find you - they will google "local electrician'.

So if you want the people who are Googeling the word "local electrician" to be you next customer you have to have a website and the site has to come up on the first page of Google (otherwise no one will find it!)

Websites are fairly easy to setup you can build you own which is quite easy these days or you can pay some one to do it - which will cost anything form £250 to £1,000 (also websites cost about £70 per year to run). I will say that you get what you pay for in this department and the better the website looks the more likely people viewing it are going to get in contact with you.

Once you have a site there are really 2 ways to generate business. SEO (search engine optimisation) this is a way to make your website appear in the top 10 results when some one searches "local electrician". The good thing is that once you are in the top 10 results people will come to your website and get in contact with you and it won't cost you a penny. The problem is that it is difficult to get into the 10 ten results and it will cost you time and money to get there (i would recommend employing a professional to do SEO because its a difficult to get right and you will save a lot of time and money by employing some one to do it for you).

The second option is called PPC campaigns this means pay per click. So when you search google the top 3 results that get returned are paid for adverts. So as a business you can say if some one within 30 miles of my business address searches Google for "fuse box replacement" you want them to see your advert. The great thing about this is you can specify the work words you bid on. 

This is a very brief overview - so don't this as the be all and end all but it is a brief description of the two options available for online advertising.

 

[Duane B]

Would agree on above comments. Van signage. Word of mouth. Website and promote  it right. 

Get out there but don't work for nothing.as some do these days as I seen. 

 

[eodneil]

Google is the best for me but I am in a different business to you.

Like others have said you have the old school marketing e.g. word of mouth, leaflets paper etc and then the online marketing campaigns e.g. google.

A lot of my friends who are working in the construction industry still say the old school methods are the best especially word of mouth, What @Sellers said above is very effective in my eyes and I still do it now, each time I see an Electrician in public, I introduce myself and my business even if I am in Tesco shopping and an Electrician is carrying out some maintenance. One little trick that I know a friend of mine uses is a Fridge magnet with his Company details on it, this is great if you are a relatively new business trying to build awareness. 

Online marketing is getting bigger all the time and its definitely worth having a small website, which is Optimised well for the Search Engines (SEO). You can show off your business here and give a customer some reassurance of your work standards by showing customer reviews and photos of completed work. If you can get onto page 1 of google in your local town then you should generate a good amount of small - medium size work. Facebook is another good source of advertising and it can be free to set up and you only have to pay for sponsored advertising. Facebookers love seeing photos, so if you are occasionally posting photos of your work and tagging people, it will almost work like word of mouth.

I would stay away from the paid directories such as yellow pages etc and never go with Yell.com or HIBU, those two are the worst marketing companies I have ever bothered with and will take your money and tie you in to a contract. If you want to pay for a website and have it Optimized (SEO), try and get it done by someone you know and who can also give you customer reviews etc.

One of the biggest things in my eyes, is how you Portray yourself to customers. If you are smart, polite, follow through on your promises and have the highest standards of work then you will always do well.

 

[Essex1]

Also little thing like always answering the phone.  Nothing worse than phoning around and getting answer machines.  

 

[Ray66]

the thing with google is that if you type a search for electrician in say london bridge all the top none sponsered results are none electricial companies. i have been advertisig with yell.com for less than a year a get about 3 days worth of work a month. I also signed up to yell connect which was my bigest mistake. £31.00 a month for something what would take a short time to do myself. i think if you are just starting and don't have a full diary then keep cost down by doing your ground work. there are plenty of learn how to videos to build a website or do self SEO. if you learn it yourself you will benefit go round to local high street get talking to shop owners offer a new deal you have. try get to get on your local town chat forums