Best forms of Advertising

[ullevi83]

Dear All,

I am looking for advice from someone with good advertising knowledge.

Basically, I have so far tried Promotional Cards, Business Cards and Direct Mailing. Ive not had much response from this, maybe that tells me my product is either not cost effective or Im do something wrong, like targeting the wrong audience. I know the pricing is correct, it is very competitive and I know that the work that I am doing is of a high professional standard.

Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks.

[BIZAL]

Sorry to say this because ours is also not that clever but your website is very off putting and usability is very low. Due to what you do I would start there.

yeeks again v sorry for being hard

[ullevi83]

Thanks for your honesty Bizal, had some positive comments towards the website, but I am currently working on Version 2.0 of the site, which will be much more customer focused and useable.

[Material Girl]

Hi, I apologize in advance if this goes against the forums rules.

Im sure this isnt gona be liked but I find that repetition and catchy logos or pictures/colour/humour make more of an impact than someone handing out a card etc

Ive always thought that toilets would be a good place to advertize, on the backs of cubicle doors/walls in establishments whicha re frequebted by the kind of people youd like to attract
.I know its not very classy but we all go there a few times a day and (forgive me)wether we are in there for a little time or a long time we will all read something if we see it.

I think a logo with your site address will be enough to get you lodged in people minds without you forever being associated with toilets.And if you can mix the logo with humour it will be even more appealing.

Once again,totally sorry.

[peterjhale]

It's ALWAYS good to hear other peoples point of view so keep 'em coming

Trouble with toilets is folks tend to write messages on your ads

I notice more ads in the washing areas in motorway service stations these days - not sure of the returns though

But you're right - you need to raise awareness in places where your target customers frequent

[BIZAL]

Not sure about that. All it would take is some smart alec to write something like "going down than pan" , does that company talk Sh*t or what etc.

[Material Girl]

I see what you mean but I think that says more about the person that writes the obscenities on it.

[davidhorn]

When you say you've 'tried' business cards, direct mail, etc. ... your vocabulary suggests (to me) that it hasn't been part of an integrated strategy, or campaign - but more of a series of one-off efforts. If you can consider them as elements in your greater marketing plan, they all have a role to play whether as an ice breaker, a prospect convertor, a sales generator, a lead qualifier, etc. etc.

Consider what you want to achieve with each marketing method, and set reasonable goals for each element before you asssess whether they've been successful or not.

I try to think of my marketing efforts in a couple of different ways:

- background noise. General advertising that I 'have' to do - yellow pages, local press, national directories, etc.

- out from the crowd. Targeted web adverts - google ads etc. ... things that I can do cheaply that have an element of people 'selecting' me purposefully, rather than a number from a phone book.

- closing the deal. Marketing elements that I anticipate will lead to direct sales - e.g. direct marketing, telesales, email marketing etc.

Each element has a different ROI (return on investment) expectation - background noise, very little, up to the closing the deal elements which I have high expectations for. The point is that they form a pyramid of performance, with the background noise stuff forming a wide base, and everything else on top of it - they support each other.

When you're starting out, the best form of marketing you can do is networking - really working your peer group, whether that's online or offline - building that personal network is the key to success. Once you've got the ball rolling, maintaining the background noise becomes vital though.

Anyway, as far as specific action points go for advertising, try incorporating some of these into an overall campaign:

- Google Ads
- posting on small business forums offering your expertise to people in need (!)
- multi-element direct mail campaign (targeting the same group of people with perhaps 3-4 pieces in a teaser campaign over a period of, say, 8 weeks)
- attend networking groups
- join a small business mailing list discussion group

All the above have worked for me since I started my web design business,

Good luck,

David

[ARTzWeb.net]

Well if you spend some time on improving your website and putting the search engines into consideration, you can have a good marketing machine which generates quality leads for your business.

The website, although it looks nice, it is very slow when loading which by itself turns people away. I think you need to have a site which loads the content within 10 seconds. After this the visitor will go away.

With 80% of all Internet traffic coming from search engines, you just can't ignore them.

As for the other offline advertising methods you mention can't really say much cause I haven't used them. You might also want to take a look at my own Internet marketing articles and tutorials.

[ullevi83]

Thanks for you ideas guys. Very interesting indeed. I agree with the ideas on networking and getting your name out and about, its very important indeed. I am currently looking into speed networking events and other small business meetings in the Edinburgh and Lothians area, Google Ads are something else I have been looking into. I am just going to hold off until I have finished my new design for the site, it is very dated and the new look and feel of the site is really good (if I do say so myself ). I liked the toilet idea, nothing to apologise for, different ideas are what make people different and I have noticed that a lot of pubs (mostly chains) have some sort of advertising in their toilets now. The other marketing/advertising ideas that have interested me are local newspapers, bus advertising and a new idea called big banner, which is a huge banner that drapes over scafolding in city centres, a noval idea and certainly gets noticed, not sure of the expense though. Found the following links to do with the above, washroom advertising etc, click here. Hopefully it will help someone.