Forms Of Advertising?

[Pauly]

There was a similar thread on how you (your company) advertises.
But this is more of a direct question.
Which forms of advertising do you believe works best for you?

 

[Pippin Decals]

Facebook business page 99% i get from Facebook and word of mouth from seeing my page on there. the rest is seeing my work around town etc.

Update after reading others about Facebook only landing mediocre jobs.......... For me it has landed 4x8 sign jobs ,back-lit sign jobs, Partial wraps , and many many decals and that does very well. I dont do Printed Vinyl or printed anything,If my customers need Print i go to A local friends shop ,but everyone knows i'm a non printing business and i get tons of it........ Last month i got an order from an institute of Technology Nursing program for 500 decals which landed a very very nice chunk of change and then i just landed a back-lit sign job that turned into t shirts,Business card design and logo design for their Product manual of LED Products that sell world wide..
I am now their go to designer and decal guy for everything And this has been all from Facebook. So for me Facebook business page is the best go to at least for me over my website.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

At the moment, word of mouth is giving us more work than we can handle.
Once clients learn that we don't half-ass things like a lot of the other locals, they realise a quality product and keep coming back for more.

 

[visual800]

I have tried every method out there known to man.

The one that has worked for the past 20 is word of mouth. however as I get older the word of mouth is not getting it any longer. Facebook has helped land some good ones and facebook has generated a lot of BS jobs. (can you wrap my bassboat? can you make decals for my motorcycle, blah blah blah)

I still cold call and that brings in the big jobs. Last year we were on several websites that contractors bid for jobs on projects. That was a huge headache and lots of wasted time. We have since removed out company from the sites, "dodge report" and "ldiline". Contractors care about one thing, "who is the cheapest."
i had to get away from that. A couple have already emailed us to update our profile and I asked to not be contacted any longer. I alos removed my compnay from SAM the govt bid site, waste of time.

Hopefully I can save someone some time if your a newbie wanting to generate business.
1-Chamber of Commerce-Dont waste your money, you are not in their interest, unless you enjoy rubbing shoulders at those coffee meets.
2-Yellow Pages-Dont waste your money on large ads, if you need listing get small one. This just gets tire kicker calls to you
3-BBB-Dont do it, means nothing any longer and really never did
4-Cold calls- If you see someone breaking ground or a sign that says coming soon, follow up on it, you will be surprised
5-Visit neighboring small towns, its worth a shot, some may not have sign company
6-check your local towns city planning commission website and see whats being planned (excellent source)
7-check local commercial real estate websites in your area, sometimes they update who bought land from them (excellent source)

One thing that has really killed me on large projects is the builder and architect handling all signage. This gets them more money and takes from us.
Gemini selling to contractors and architects pi$$es me off as well as other interior sign system companies but what can you do? Nothing. I miss the good old days when a sign company felt "needed"

 

[legacyborn]

I have had slightly different experiences than some, but I'll break it down. Number are rounded.

The following I completely avoid so can't really speak to, but they always feel off to me.
- Paid Yelp Advertising
- BBB
- Diamond Certification
- Angies List

The following has produced little to no results for me (less than 1% annual sales or no substantial results in calls)
- Yellow Pages
- Cold Calls (I don't think I'm very good at them)
- Radio Advertising (While it did help with brand recognition, it never really generated leads directly)
- Google Ads (I got one job from 6 months and $1800 worth of google ads, it was in texas (Im in california) and it was for $170) I have since tried again with another company and got similar results. I won't be doing them anymore)

The following have done fairly well for me
- Word of Mouth (nothing beats Raving Fans! ask for those referrals and reviews. About 50% of my annual new business is from WoM)
- Vehicle Lettering on my truck (1 truck gives me about 20% of my annual new business)
- BNI/Referral Networking Group (A referral networking group is worth every Penny, we got a little tired of BNI's corporate shenanigans so we started our own. But BNI is an excellent, non-negative way of starting out in referral networking. If you thrive on negative reinforcement (fines) join Le-Tip instead, This generates about 15% of my annual new business)
- Internet Advertising (This includes Facebook, Website, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. I lump them together because I work on them all at the same time. Posting from one to another. About 5%)
- Yelp (I don't pay for it, it just happens. I have some good reviews on there and I get business, never expected it but they come. Get several positive reviews on there and you will see leads. About 3-5% depending on the year)
- Chamber of Commerce/Mixers/Shows (If you do the chamber you really should join the ambassador program and give them a year worth of service. There is nothing like running a booth or the bar at a mixer and having EVERYONE come up to you and speak with you. In the year I did it I probably generated 10% of that years new business, but it's been a couple of years and all of these put together are about 5% at this point)

Hope this helps, I know it doesn't all work for everyone, but this is what has worked for me. I'm sure if I could cold call like others all my numbers would drop as that would increase my overall sales.

 

[bannertime]

Word of mouth for the past 25 years. Spend less than $250 a month on google/facebook ads. Updating our SEO has helped a bit. We've done the ad newspapers, magazines, school sponsorship programs, but nothing has worked more than a referral. We nailed a really good customer in the early 90s and we still get calls from people that worked as interns and moved into other marketing companies or gotten refereed to us from them. I've noticed that a lot of my customers seem to know each other.

We've started giving unsolicited Chic-fil-a meal cards to customers that gives us a referral.

 

[Bly]

Referrals and website work fairly well to date - we've been in business for a long time now.
But we don't seem to be pulling many new clients these days so am thinking our online marketing needs polishing.
I'm going to talk to one of my clients who runs a marketing business and see if they can recommend some more effective ways to drive sales.

 

[Pauly]

A good amount of suggestions!
Seems a lot of word of mouth, which is what we've been doing.
I am currently in the middle of updating our pretty basic webpage. Just updated our business cards.
We like to go visit people who we think that would be interested in our work (glass) and it does work, But we want to expand more.

We're also based in an industrial area so we don't get the random walk ins.

 

[Bly]

99.99.% of walk ins are time wasters.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Website and free Google listing have been great. I am a small home-based vinyl shop, so referrals from other large sign companies in which we don't compete with are another source. Word of Mouth is good too. I get nothing from Facebook. Sometimes I cold-call on depressed looking signs and that works better then I expect.

 

[legacyborn]

Facebook takes a very particular form of advertising. You can't sell your product you have to sell yourself. We have a local insurance agent that is amazing at facebook advertising.

Another one I've thought about was creating a custom post-it style note that says something like "We noticed __BLANK__ So will your customers!" And fill in the blank with their damaged sign or peeling vinyl, then you could just put it on the door. A sales person could do several of these a day before businesses open.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

For what it's worth I'm at a 50% close rate on cold-calls for depressed signs. ( I know if your 10% your doing good )but I try to target small business in which I think the owner is in and can make a decision. I also target the easy signs! Pick the low hanging fruit, (or low hanging signs)

Also, if I'm doing a tenant panel and there are other bad panels on there, I'll go around the complex and tell them "Hey I'm doing so-and-so's sign and if we lump your panel in together we can waive the typical $xx install fee" I also knock some off the original customer's bill the more we get on-board so they have incentives to talk to their neighbors.

For the people getting business from facebook, could you share your facebook profile link so I can see what your doing? I post finished jobs and pictures of the "production process" and mostly my existing customers and church family are the only ones that see it. I too thought that if I boost a post it would not target the kind of business we desire.

 

[mark galoob]

best bang for my buck is the giant banner sign i have on my box truck out front.

 

[printhog]

if youre a small shop, advertising isnt really what to do.. marketing and networking is. more one on one. financially there are reasons for this. If you want those PM me and I'll explain and we can work thru it.

as for ads, avoid any trade you're in competition with for the clients ad dollars. Signs should drive the prospects to the website, and the website should drive the prospect into the sales channel. the sales channel could be an online store for simple stuff, or a contact form for custom work.

Offsite signage has far better exposure than any other ad forum. find a place to put up a billboard to pint folks to your door. You'll get 50% of your clients from your signs, and so will your clients. 85% of your clients will come from a 5 mile radius of your shop in a typical retail operation. (on that - create a local impulse item that you can market with door to door coupon drop offs, maybe a banner for $2/psf. You want them to try you out.)

Google adwords does drive sales if you geographically focus it and dont try to be-all do-all sell-all. You do need to have a good web site that shows what the client wants to see.. remember - THINK LIKE THE CLIENT, NOT THE SIGN PROFESSIONAL. what do they want to buy? how do they want to buy it?

WRAP your truck/car/dog. Keep it simple and very legible. show off your skills, but have friends offer insight. if it cant be read at 250 feet, or in under 3 seconds, re-do it. keep copy to a minimum. we use just website and bold colors. If you cant get business from your own vehicles, you wont convince anyone to buy that product/service from you. spend good money on media to make your vehicle look nice.

WRAP yourself - create a shop uniform, be bold and wear it everywhere. Youre in the identity business after all . One shop i know used tiedyed shirts and a tiedyed car wrap to get great marketshare. An embroidered polo with nice pants can make a good everyday look. Also have something thats for higher end meetings. I knew one fashion district shop that dye sub'd fabric to be used in lined suits made for sales staff. For high end meetings we embroidered our logotype in a discrete matching color thread on striped long sleeve dress shirts, $85 a pop. I had logo cufflinks for me ($125) and logo earrings ($400) made for my female CFO. Our sales reps had embroidered ties. Yeah it sounds absurd, but it got compliments in almost every meeting we attended. And that brought business.

tip = Do not wear a polo or tshirt to a meeting with a person who is likely to wear a suit if youre bidding a major job for them.. perception of your status is still very important in business, and you'll feel and seem out of place. The dividing line seems to be about $10,000 in sales.

Then chamber of commerce.. go to the mixers, meetings and shmooze the people. Always wear your best uniform or suit. I use a lot of give aways there. We made alphabet keychains engraved with our name and phone number out of .080 aluminum as giveaways one year, people later came in and bought them they were so popular. We pad printed led keychain flashlights and gave them out with a blister pack that had our business card printed on reflective vinyl. also popular. pens, notepads, etc all work as giveaways, but people are picky about the swag they get. If you dont like doing it, having a give away is a great ice breaker. If still uncomfortable - have your wife/kids/employees/dog do it.

The members of those groups will connect you to others. Other local groups are also good, get involved and support pta, athletics, merchants assoc, Rotary, any place that gets you involved with the demographic that will buy from you.. Occasionally give a banner to their cause.. offer free banners as door prizes for their bigger meetings (i do 2x4 and 3x4), that gets you a free contact with a client face to face and theyre likely to do business with you. Ive even had a signco win the door prize, and he bought about $3500 a year from me after that.

The facts are simple, networking is what builds customers on a small budget. Looking great in your fleet and your crew reinforces your professionalism and skills in this industry.

 

[Pauly]

best bang for my buck is the giant banner sign i have on my box truck out front.

I'll be doing this in the next few weeks.

if youre a small shop, advertising isnt really what to do.. marketing and networking is. more one on one. financially there are reasons for this. If you want those PM me and I'll explain and we can work thru it.

as for ads, avoid any trade you're in competition with for the clients ad dollars. Signs should drive the prospects to the website, and the website should drive the prospect into the sales channel. the sales channel could be an online store for simple stuff, or a contact form for custom work.

Offsite signage has far better exposure than any other ad forum. find a place to put up a billboard to pint folks to your door. You'll get 50% of your clients from your signs, and so will your clients. 85% of your clients will come from a 5 mile radius of your shop in a typical retail operation. (on that - create a local impulse item that you can market with door to door coupon drop offs, maybe a banner for $2/psf. You want them to try you out.)

Google adwords does drive sales if you geographically focus it and dont try to be-all do-all sell-all. You do need to have a good web site that shows what the client wants to see.. remember - THINK LIKE THE CLIENT, NOT THE SIGN PROFESSIONAL. what do they want to buy? how do they want to buy it?

WRAP your truck/car/dog. Keep it simple and very legible. show off your skills, but have friends offer insight. if it cant be read at 250 feet, or in under 3 seconds, re-do it. keep copy to a minimum. we use just website and bold colors. If you cant get business from your own vehicles, you wont convince anyone to buy that product/service from you. spend good money on media to make your vehicle look nice.

WRAP yourself - create a shop uniform, be bold and wear it everywhere. Youre in the identity business after all . One shop i know used tiedyed shirts and a tiedyed car wrap to get great marketshare. An embroidered polo with nice pants can make a good everyday look. Also have something thats for higher end meetings. I knew one fashion district shop that dye sub'd fabric to be used in lined suits made for sales staff. For high end meetings we embroidered our logotype in a discrete matching color thread on striped long sleeve dress shirts, $85 a pop. I had logo cufflinks for me ($125) and logo earrings ($400) made for my female CFO. Our sales reps had embroidered ties. Yeah it sounds absurd, but it got compliments in almost every meeting we attended. And that brought business.

tip = Do not wear a polo or tshirt to a meeting with a person who is likely to wear a suit if youre bidding a major job for them.. perception of your status is still very important in business, and you'll feel and seem out of place. The dividing line seems to be about $10,000 in sales.

Then chamber of commerce.. go to the mixers, meetings and shmooze the people. Always wear your best uniform or suit. I use a lot of give aways there. We made alphabet keychains engraved with our name and phone number out of .080 aluminum as giveaways one year, people later came in and bought them they were so popular. We pad printed led keychain flashlights and gave them out with a blister pack that had our business card printed on reflective vinyl. also popular. pens, notepads, etc all work as giveaways, but people are picky about the swag they get. If you dont like doing it, having a give away is a great ice breaker. If still uncomfortable - have your wife/kids/employees/dog do it.

The members of those groups will connect you to others. Other local groups are also good, get involved and support pta, athletics, merchants assoc, Rotary, any place that gets you involved with the demographic that will buy from you.. Occasionally give a banner to their cause.. offer free banners as door prizes for their bigger meetings (i do 2x4 and 3x4), that gets you a free contact with a client face to face and theyre likely to do business with you. Ive even had a signco win the door prize, and he bought about $3500 a year from me after that.

The facts are simple, networking is what builds customers on a small budget. Looking great in your fleet and your crew reinforces your professionalism and skills in this industry.

This is the best response. Thanks for your time typing this up. Ill try put most of this to good use.

 

[Johnny Best]

Join a golf club or yacht club and rub elbows with the movers and shakers with money and projects.

 

[Z SIGNS]

It's simple..Just do good work and outshine anyone around you.The customers you want will find you.

 

[Pauly]

It's simple..Just do good work and outshine anyone around you.The customers you want will find you.

That's usually word of mouth

 

[BVG]

There are many ways of advertising or promoting the business with some business Gift, Personalized Promotional Item, Keychain Custom Logo etc. I really like to use the Custom Bulk Keychains from Sunday Promotion. They are giving world wide shipping with offer price.

Subtle.... /s