Advertising

Spectral Swallow

Okay I'm self employed(appliance repair) and one of my main sources of advertising has dried up(they changed from being delivered to people have to pick them up) so now most of my buisness is from referals and repeat customers, which is well and good, but I've been doing some online advertising(craigs list, postaroo) is there any others I should know about or is this about it?

beebs_basic

Spectral Swallow wrote:

Okay I'm self employed(appliance repair) and one of my main sources of advertising has dried up(they changed from being delivered to people have to pick them up) so now most of my buisness is from referals and repeat customers, which is well and good, but I've been doing some online advertising(craigs list, postaroo) is there any others I should know about or is this about it?

Try and get your business card or a coupon in the Welcome Wagon package, if there's a Welcome Wagon in your town. New people moving in, new house, new appliances (or ones dragged across town/country in the back of a pick-up...) might be just up your alley as far as establishing a new clientele pool.

Szechuanosaurus

A lot of small business in our area just go door to door shoving leaflets through our letterbox. I don't know if you're allowed to do that where you live but I don't see why not. Just set aside one afternoon a month to canvas a neighbourhood. I'd imagine getting into your Yellow Pages would be a good idea as well, but I'm not sure if that is prohibitively expensive.

Seattle Thread

You do have to have a permit to shove those leaflets everywhere. Otherwise, it's litter.

I worked for a small plumbing company for a year and a half. We has the Yellow pages ad, but about halfway through the owner stopped it entirely--most of his business was coming through his website, and a local ad in the neighborhood newsletter (the Queen Anne Times).

This is how he started, originally. Just a small ad in the Queen Anne Times, which eventually made him the plumber that people in Queen Anne call. The ad, coupled with that word-of-mouth, has expanded his business to the extended neighborhoods around us.

If your neighborhood has a community newsletter, by all means get some ad space. You will be surprised how many people will call based solely on that, and if you're genial and know your shit, they will recommend their friends/acquaintances, which will expand your business even further.