youngsplumbing
03-31-2008, 12:23 PM
Thought I'd start a thread on how you market your business...
Our company has been is business for over thirty years and most work is referral. Work of mouth is definitely the best advertisement out there.
Our company is what I would say is a mid sized service business...we have 4 trucks and offer complete plumbing service including drain cleaning; we contract out our jet work at this time.
The economy here is Michigan is the worst in the country and its a slow time of year so we are having trouble getting everybody their 40 hrs. With the big three(American auto makers) laying off and buying out employees in droves business is scarce and very competitive.
The owner (I'm not the owner) doesn't believe in the yellow pages as they are so expensive and he has been able to get by to this point without them. Plus in our area there are multiple yellow page directories...how do you know which to advertise in...which one will customers keep, which one will get trashed? We have just hired a company to create a website (I'll post a link) and will be submitting that to the net search engines...I think this taking the place of the yellow books anyway.
Another form of inexpensive advertising we have found is church papers. Good return on investment and quality (God fearing...LOL) clientèle.
We've also dabbled with ads posted at country clubs/banquet halls, fitness clubs etc usually with minimal results.
We recently handed out fliers door to door to a neighborhood with new city sewers being installed...response has been ok.
Other opportunities have been advertising on coffee mugs in local restaurants and joining business networking groups (anybody had luck with these?)
I'm just curious how you spend your marketing dollars, what is the best return on your investment, what amount (dollar or percentage) you spend on marketing.
I'd love to be able to tell everyone here we are so busy we have to turn work away but that's just not the case in Michigan at this time.
JSP
www.youngsplumbinginc.com (http://www.youngsplumbinginc.com)
This is our site...very basic (our first effort) and still under construction. We try to come across as a sincere, honest company who builds relationships with customers rather than the one time gouge.
Our company has been is business for over thirty years and most work is referral. Work of mouth is definitely the best advertisement out there.
Our company is what I would say is a mid sized service business...we have 4 trucks and offer complete plumbing service including drain cleaning; we contract out our jet work at this time.
The economy here is Michigan is the worst in the country and its a slow time of year so we are having trouble getting everybody their 40 hrs. With the big three(American auto makers) laying off and buying out employees in droves business is scarce and very competitive.
The owner (I'm not the owner) doesn't believe in the yellow pages as they are so expensive and he has been able to get by to this point without them. Plus in our area there are multiple yellow page directories...how do you know which to advertise in...which one will customers keep, which one will get trashed? We have just hired a company to create a website (I'll post a link) and will be submitting that to the net search engines...I think this taking the place of the yellow books anyway.
Another form of inexpensive advertising we have found is church papers. Good return on investment and quality (God fearing...LOL) clientèle.
We've also dabbled with ads posted at country clubs/banquet halls, fitness clubs etc usually with minimal results.
We recently handed out fliers door to door to a neighborhood with new city sewers being installed...response has been ok.
Other opportunities have been advertising on coffee mugs in local restaurants and joining business networking groups (anybody had luck with these?)
I'm just curious how you spend your marketing dollars, what is the best return on your investment, what amount (dollar or percentage) you spend on marketing.
I'd love to be able to tell everyone here we are so busy we have to turn work away but that's just not the case in Michigan at this time.
JSP
www.youngsplumbinginc.com (http://www.youngsplumbinginc.com)
This is our site...very basic (our first effort) and still under construction. We try to come across as a sincere, honest company who builds relationships with customers rather than the one time gouge.