How do you advertise your business?

[sy76uk]

I've been using Yell.com. I only started up properly on my own trying to target the domestic game about a year ago. The results so far haven't been great.

My renewal with them is coming up but before I go back with them for another year I thought I'd ask you lot how you advertise and see what result's you get from it?

Thank's in advance.
Sy

[Tony McC]

I read a narticle a couple of weeks back which argued that Yell/Yeller Pages and Tkompson Local are effectively dead as advertising media.

At their awards bash last month, Brett revealed some research they'd undertaken regarding how residential clients had selected their contractor, based on feedback from BAI cusomers, and nearly 40% had relied on t'internet to identify potential contractors, then drilled down looking at individual web-sites for the candidates, and from that created a shortlist who were invited to price the work.

However, even in this age of complete inter-connectedness, the biggest source of work was still......word of mouth. And rightly so: nothing does your chances of winning work more good than having previous customers bigging you up to friends, family and on social media.

[Kuts]

Jobs I get from the net are all about price, they get maybe 5 quotes and nearly always go with the cheapest.

I get "cheap paving can do it for £700 less than you but if you can come down £700 you can have the job"

[Dave_L]

I use Yell.com, costs me about £2k p/a and it does bring me work but I'm increasingly using our search engine optimised website and Facebook for our online presence.

Also smart lorries and equipment are a way of getting ourselves noticed.

And remember, word of mouth and recommendations by others are the best form of advertising; you're only as good as your last job, never forget that!

[GB_Groundworks]

signage on jobs in progress and completed

happy customers number one though

good website and facebook etc

im in the process of rebuilding my website as i havent touched my old one in 3 years

still get lots of queries from it, think my google ad words spend is about £40 a month

[r896neo]

The best is word of mouth as often clients who come through a recommendation sometimes won't even get a 2nd quote.

I have to say a decent website with a bit of SEO work has been brilliant for me. The quality of your site will determine the type of client in my opinion. I have got numerous big jobs from it since setting it up 2 years ago.

Almost as important though is a google places listing.

Its much more effective if you live in a small town rather than a city so you rank higher.

If you search for Landscaping holywood in google I rank No.1 both in organic results and google places listing.

This means people on i phones etc can just scroll to the google places listing and call your number without even visiting your website if its for something small or if they are after something bigger can get a look at your website.

Select photo's of a few previous jobs of each variety and thats all it takes.

I did my own using wordpress which is free and simple enough if your ok on a computer.

At the very least get yourself a google plus page and use it as a mini website.

[lutonlagerlout]

word of mouth 90% of the time and 10 % of the interweb
LLL

[London Stone Paving]

I have had a brick layer doing some work at my house for the past couple of weeks. He has being doing a lot of work on the front and he has picked up 4 jobs already just in our street. WOM has got to be the king

[sy76uk]

Thank's for all the replies. I agree word of mouth and building a good rep is king but you need customers first so they can tell there friends. That's where my problem lies. Having come from a commercial paving background most of my work has been away from my home town so I didn't get the chance to make a name for myself in the domestic game before I started for myself.

I have a decent website It's www.sampaving.co.uk if anyone want's to critique it. It doesn't show up on the first page on google search though and I need to get more pictures up my recent work. I have a heavyweight package with yell.com. My van is sign writen, I have cards in shop windows, I've been building relationships with local builders and I have a nice A board.

I can't think of anything else to do to get my phone ringing more without going down the ad words route which for a start up business is not economical.

I have picked up some work from the internet but no where near enough to keep me going. One of the customers I picked up from the net passed my number on to his mate and I did his driveway last week, look's really nice too as do all the jobs I've done since starting up on my own. I always get an unexpected bonus, bottle of wine or something. It was a bottle of remi martine last week and that went down very well.

I think I'm on my way to building up a good rep but until that happens I have to rely on good advertising. I think I'm going to stick with yell for now because I can't afford ad words. I've been thinking about the truster trader type sites too. Anyone have any experience with them?

[KLS]

If you've got the money about, get a load of leaflets done up and get them delivered. The take up rate isn't great but it should be good enough to get you going. It's what i do every now a d then.

[r896neo]

How much is your YELL? Any figures i hear from people using them is frightening.

Low value but well used things like parish magazines etc can be great. I have an ad in mine for 80 quid a year and got lots of enquiries from it.

[Kuts]

you've got a good site from yell so id imagine your spending a few quid.

maybe try a £30 a week ad-word campaign on Google. if you spend £100 you should get a fair few enquires....

pm me if you want any tips on SEO.

Matt

[specialbranch]

Your coming up to the best time of year for generating work now, people will be out in the garden this weekend coming up with ideas. Id invest in adwords. I put £150 into it last april and got £12000 worth of jobs straightaway. I then got repeat work from those clients and their friends and my A board to keep me going most of the year. My other half stuck me on netmums f.o.c And that brought in £5000 last year.

[sy76uk]

Leafletting my area is something I need to do. I've only lived in the area for a year and although I know all my nieghbours and have already done next doors driveway and a couple of patios I'm not that well known in my area as a whole.

I tried ad words before yell. I need to pay in excess of £2.50 a click to get near the first page. It's too much.

My yell package including the site is around £74 a month. For the amount of work it generates I don't think it's worth the money but it seems the most economical way to be seen on the net and I can't rely on word of mouth yet.

Luckily I have a flexible full time job as a roofer/general builder so I don't have to rely on paving work but I'm a paver and always have been a paver. I love it and get a real sense of satisfaction from making gardens look nice so regardless of how long it takes to build up my business I'll keep plucking away.

[lutonlagerlout]

I find that a lot of *cold * leads tend to be price lead
this leads to a lot of wasted time going to look at work,supplying samples etc and then not even getting a reply to the quotation because billy messer is doing a crap job £500 cheaper
word of mouth is IMHO best and also repeat clients and we have a fair few of them who keep coming back
LLL