Ideas for marketing my business?

[mikenovak]

Hi

I have recently started a small business - grave tending and floral tribute delivery service called 'Still Remembered Grave Tending Services'. I have advertised locally in newsagents, supermarkets and community centres, have started advertising in parish magazines and small local magazines (business magazines) and the local newspaper, have registered with yellow pages, Thomson local and a whole host of internet directories. I have posted on forums for ex-pats and on local forums for the area, have given brochures and business cards to stonemasons, undertakers, florists etc, have sent out a mailshot with brochures and business cards to a number of residential care-homes in the area too. I have had an article in the local press about the business (1/2 page article) and now will possibly be having a slot on local BBC radio in the coming weeks.

Anyone got any other ideas for how I can get the idea across to the public of Coventry and to ex-pats? - I'm just trying to be pro-active and get the message across to as many people as possible, so would appreciate any further ideas that can be suggested that I can try (taking into account I have near enough 0 money left to spend on advertising!)

Many thanks

Mike
www.stillremembered.co.uk

[Sam Barona]

Hi Mike, you seem to be doing everything right. Rather than try to find new ways to achieve exposure, my focus would be on consolidating your findings and identifying which ones are working best for you.

Your focus should be on increasing your ROI, so you need to test different mediums with different messages, different styles, etc. Once you have consolidated your figures, then you can look at optimising your communications to achieve your best result per each channel you have chosen.

ITs only then that you will know which channels are really effective. If you dont test with different styles and messages, all you're achieving is finding out that a particular style, message was not suitable for a particular medium.

Good luck

Sam

[www.infoebookstore.co.uk]

Originally Posted by Sam Barona

you need to test different mediums

Considering the business this guy is in is that the best advice?

[Sam Barona]

Absolutely; Mike's business is not just about flowers for those who have recently departed, but also offers a grave tending service.

Unless you are in a particualr medium for a substantial time, you will not find out what the real potential ROI of each piece of media is. A 1 -3 add campaign will only serve to bring out the low-hanging fruit; but nothing else.

Even if its just the floral tribute side of things, you still need to effectively test each media channel to identify what the ROI is for each one.

With this information, you will then identify which ones work the bet for you, which then allows you to test other chanels that match the readership of the successful ones.

Mike is trying a substantial amount of different channels at once, so it makes sense to consolidate his efforts to those that are the most effective, thus, increasing the ROI on his overall marketing investment. This can only be achieved through methodical testing of media.

Yes, this is the right advice for Mike's business.

Sam

[mikenovak]

Sam

I think the last posters comments were meant 'tongue-in-cheek' when he referred to your comments

Originally Posted by Sam Barona

so you need to test different mediums

(being that mediums communicate with those that have passed away..!).

Don't worry - I take these comments in good humour - I probably would have said similar myself before starting this business!

Regards

Mike

[Sam Barona]

Originally Posted by mikenovak

Sam

I think the last posters comments were meant 'tongue-in-cheek' when he referred to your comments (being that mediums communicate with those that have passed away..!).

Don't worry - I take these comments in good humour - I probably would have said similar myself before starting this business!

Regards

Mike

LOL. OOOOPS. Temporary humour displacement alert!

BTW. I would also look at SEO marketing and testing google adwords. You can be very specific in terms of localisation, as well as determining your budget.

Sam

[mikenovak]

Originally Posted by Sam Barona

LOL. OOOOPS. Temporary humour displacement alert!

BTW. I would also look at SEO marketing and testing google adwords. You can be very specific in terms of localisation, as well as determining your budget.

Sam

Sam - that's ok, I smiled when I saw it and your response as I knew you hadn't realised what the poster had meant.

You will have to excuse my lack of knowledge on business terminology here - this is my first attempt at running a business of my own. Could you explain what SEO means? I assume ROI is return on investment?

I have just tried to work logically through all the options that I thought I should try to utilise with advertising. It had crossed my mind that I would give each medium up to 3 months to see what returns I received from each one (with the exception of the local newspaper - as there was quite an immediately positive return so far on the investment from using that medium).
If there was no return, then forget it and move on. But I had already looked at changing the both the visual, and written types of advertising with each one during those 3 months to see if the responses changed at all. At the moment, they are all still under review.

Not sure about Google adwords - had conflicting evidence of their success.

Many thanks for your advice - its very much appreciated.

Kind regards

Mike

[Sam Barona]

I know, I did a virtual blush when the penny dropped.

SEO: Search Engine Optmisation

The reason that I favour these is due to the nature of the buying process for this type of offering.

Buying behaviour, in simple terms can be described as follows:

1- Realisation of need/want: this is where conventional marketing works to stimulate demand for a product; thus, your add, press release, etc will have the impact on a segment of those listening of: "wow, I should do that for Peter's grave", etc.

2- Evaluation of options: this is where most of your business will come from. this is people that are already primed to buy your type of offering; thus, as soon as they see your add, etc they will be ready to either make a purchase, ro compare you with the other alternatives that they are reviewing.

Of course the whole is far more complex, but essentially, it can be sumarised as above.


Hope this helps

Sam

[mikenovak]

Originally Posted by Sam Barona

Buying behaviour, in simple terms can be described as follows:

1- Realisation of need/want: this is where conventional marketing works to stimulate demand for a product; thus, your add, press release, etc will have the impact on a segment of those listening of: "wow, I should do that for Peter's grave", etc.

2- Evaluation of options: this is where most of your business will come from. this is people that are already primed to buy your type of offering; thus, as soon as they see your add, etc they will be ready to either make a purchase, ro compare you with the other alternatives that they are reviewing.

Of course the whole is far more complex, but essentially, it can be sumarised as above.


Hope this helps

Sam

Sam

The major problem I (and others who run a similar service) face, is that this is not a 'historically recognisable' service (i.e. it's not one that has been around before generally), so people really struggle to understand what it is you are offering as a 'service'. The response I normally get is "your doing what?", but when I explain, everyone without fail has said it's a fabulous idea and definetely something that the public would want to use. In fact, a local radio DJ on BBC wants to do an article on it and has said she "would definetely use this service herself too".

So the problems I have faced (and the reason why I have tried a lot of different mediums for advertising) is to let people know that i'm there, where historically there hasn't been anyone before, and also what it is specifically that I am offering. Once they know what the service is, I am hoping that they then see how it will relate to their own lives and also see the benefits it can bring them.

Many thanks for your help - it's very much appreciated.

Kind regards

Mike

[UKRobin]

Local radio stations love stuff like this, i'm sure you have a few stories to tell to make them want you on their show throw in a few but get your message out at the same time.