I need some advertising sugestions

[JLD984]

My business has practically doubled since starting a facebook page and regularly posting photos, people don't realise how many different things we can do these days so this lets them know. Share your best posts on your personal page too.

Another huge boost was when I started sending a monthly special to everybody whose email address I have. Advertise one different thing per month (I've got a list of 24 specials which nicely spaces them two years apart), again this is more about showing what you can do but is aimed at businesses rather than friends. Nobody ever takes advantage of the specials but the email reminds a lot of customers that they hadn't got back to you about a job, or reminds them of a job they'd been intending to contact you about.

 

[particleman]

To continue from Hicalibersigns post, I also googled for "401Graphics Road Island" and I can't find your website. If I can't find it, yes you basically don't have one, it is not created correctly.

I did find your facebook page - 574 likes, not bad. Consider this, you can essentially say whatever you want to 574 people for free on facebook. Additionally for VERY LITTLE money you can run a small ad campaign and get your message in front of them and their friends. I've had lots of good experience running facebook campaigns lately. My advice come up with a compelling promotion of some sort (% off X, or get a free X with Y), utilize the facebook offers feature. Black Friday is coming up, I have a client that routinely generates 2-3 weeks of sales on black friday through email/web promotions.

Now, back to your website. I did end up finding your website actually. I build websites so here is some advice. I have a feeling you are probably one of a few sign shops in your area. You are simply leaving money on the table by the way your site is constructed. Build your website like below you'll show up up for local searches for free.

Your site needs the following:

1. A page for each town in your service area (think "Areas we serve", but don't over do it) summarizing the products and services you provide to that area, preferably with pictures and unique content. Purpose: when someone googles "shirts in cumberland" or "banners in X" X is some surrounding town you'll likely show up.
2. Contact page with contact form
3. a page for each type of service you provide (banner, signs, side walk signs) with pictures and content!
4. Store hours
5. a link to your facebook page, hopefully a facebook like widget
6. a newsletter sign up form
7. Your address on every page (preferably the header/footer) Google will associate your business to the address and show in searches
8. Register on Google places, google plus

It is funny, I wrote this post assuming you didn't have a site, then I ended up finding it and editing some things. You are neglecting to mention your physical location on your site (or anywhere me and google can find it). So, when someone very specifically google's your company they can't find it. You either need to add the address if nothing else or create a separate "local" version of your site incorporating some things I mentioned above.

Another thing the site you run now seems very targeted towards race style vehicle graphics a niche market for sure. If your reaction to that is "We do much more than that locally" then you need to consider how you are presenting your business. If I want to buy some shirts for my ball team from you and visit your site they are definitely 3rd class citizens on your website (at the bottom in navigation and front page). It is no secret the shirt business is not small (especially locally).

 

[401Graphics]

To continue from Hicalibersigns post, I also googled for "401Graphics Road Island" and I can't find your website. If I can't find it, yes you basically don't have one, it is not created correctly.

I did find your facebook page - 574 likes, not bad. Consider this, you can essentially say whatever you want to 574 people for free on facebook. Additionally for VERY LITTLE money you can run a small ad campaign and get your message in front of them and their friends. I've had lots of good experience running facebook campaigns lately. My advice come up with a compelling promotion of some sort (% off X, or get a free X with Y), utilize the facebook offers feature. Black Friday is coming up, I have a client that routinely generates 2-3 weeks of sales on black friday through email/web promotions.

Now, back to your website. I did end up finding your website actually. I build websites so here is some advice. I have a feeling you are probably one of a few sign shops in your area. You are simply leaving money on the table by the way your site is constructed. Build your website like below you'll show up up for local searches for free.

Your site needs the following:

1. A page for each town in your service area (think "Areas we serve", but don't over do it) summarizing the products and services you provide to that area, preferably with pictures and unique content. Purpose: when someone googles "shirts in cumberland" or "banners in X" X is some surrounding town you'll likely show up.
2. Contact page with contact form
3. a page for each type of service you provide (banner, signs, side walk signs) with pictures and content!
4. Store hours
5. a link to your facebook page, hopefully a facebook like widget
6. a newsletter sign up form
7. Your address on every page (preferably the header/footer) Google will associate your business to the address and show in searches
8. Register on Google places, google plus

It is funny, I wrote this post assuming you didn't have a site, then I ended up finding it and editing some things. You are neglecting to mention your physical location on your site (or anywhere me and google can find it). So, when someone very specifically google's your company they can't find it. You either need to add the address if nothing else or create a separate "local" version of your site incorporating some things I mentioned above.

Another thing the site you run now seems very targeted towards race style vehicle graphics a niche market for sure. If your reaction to that is "We do much more than that locally" then you need to consider how you are presenting your business. If I want to buy some shirts for my ball team from you and visit your site they are definitely 3rd class citizens on your website (at the bottom in navigation and front page). It is no secret the shirt business is not small (especially locally).

The .com site your talking about I don't want to be related to my local business. Yes it shares the same name, and the .net goes to my facebook page. People know me locally as 401 Graphics. If anything needs to happen, it is that the .com name needs a totally new name so i can keep 401 graphics as a local name.
But this is kinda going off topic now. PM me to discuss further.

Back to the great marketing ideas.

 

[bikecomedy]

401 Graphics did you wrap your vehicles yet?

 

[401Graphics]

401 Graphics did you wrap your vehicles yet?

Negative. Most likely this winter. Currently moving my shop in a new place with attached garage with heat. So I'll have time to work on the truck during the slow winter times.
Every time (such as today) I park my suburban in a parking lot near a major intersection i say to myself, "i wish i had my truck wrapped".

 

[particleman]

The .com site your talking about I don't want to be related to my local business. Yes it shares the same name, and the .net goes to my facebook page. People know me locally as 401 Graphics. If anything needs to happen, it is that the .com name needs a totally new name so i can keep 401 graphics as a local name.
But this is kinda going off topic now. PM me to discuss further.

Back to the great marketing ideas.

That is sort of what I wondered, which is understandable for a lot of reasons. Although, it would be worth your time building out using a new domain name or re purpose that one for your local searches like I suggested.

 

[bikecomedy]

Excuse me for being blunt 401 Graphics..... Many suggested you do this right away, wrap your vehicles. My personal experience is 3 or more customers a day from mine. Darn thing is a great conversation starter. Exactly what I want an advertisement to do. Create the conversation giving me the chance to see if I can generate some business now or in the near future.

Working on a second vehicle to move around town. Should be done in a few days. Then wrapping everyone in my families cars and trucks too. Seems to be working quite well for the time being.

I will say this, helping you on yours caused me to re-brand my business and image again.. thanks for that.

 

[401Graphics]

Excuse me for being blunt 401 Graphics..... Many suggested you do this right away, wrap your vehicles. My personal experience is 3 or more customers a day from mine. Darn thing is a great conversation starter. Exactly what I want an advertisement to do. Create the conversation giving me the chance to see if I can generate some business now or in the near future.

Working on a second vehicle to move around town. Should be done in a few days. Then wrapping everyone in my families cars and trucks too. Seems to be working quite well for the time being.

I will say this, helping you on yours caused me to re-brand my business and image again.. thanks for that.

Awesome! Cant wait t get mine done. I have just been super busy remodeling the new shop top to bottom, and keeping current customers happy by getting their stuff done on time.

 

[Angela]

How we did it through google adworks.

When the economy got hit in 08, we lost over 50% of our sales ( mostly construction related here in so. ca.) We had to boot-strap everything and almost went out of business We evaluated everything we did and cut every possible thing we could. It still didn't help and new customer were not comming in the door. We had to do something and that's when we turned to Google Adworks, just to try it out of desperation. I believe after many different advertising campaigns, that this one was the best.
I called google, and they helped me set up a geographic area in which to target ( it's about a 25mi radius around our shop) About 250k population. I set a limit on how much I would spend per day. At first, I set my limit at $10 a day on 20 business days a month. So I got $200 worth of paid advertising on google. I set my bid per click to the automatic bidding and if it hit my $10 limit per day, I was taken off. And...I was off by noon each day, but was placed in the #1 advertising slot when people googled for different signs in my area. My avg ticket is $250 at an 85% gross margin. If I did just one, I'd break even, well I got 5 the first mo. and 11 the second month. I upped the amount I spent to $500. I am now after 5 years ( started early 2010) spending over $1000 a month with google and it has paid off. And here is the kicker, Sign customers are like an annuity, some come back once a year, some come back every six mo's and so on. As time goes on, I'm building my customer base on repeat business. The second time they come in, I'm not paying google. So a $250 job for a first time customer turns into actually more in the long term. Sales have tripled in 5yrs. Maybe during one of the worst economic downturn. I am a big skeptic by nature, but this my fellow signmakers works. Forget Black Hat SEO guys. play. Hope this helps.

 

[Rick]

When the economy got hit in 08, we lost over 50% of our sales ( mostly construction related here in so. ca.) We had to boot-strap everything and almost went out of business We evaluated everything we did and cut every possible thing we could. It still didn't help and new customer were not comming in the door. We had to do something and that's when we turned to Google Adworks, just to try it out of desperation. I believe after many different advertising campaigns, that this one was the best.
I called google, and they helped me set up a geographic area in which to target ( it's about a 25mi radius around our shop) About 250k population. I set a limit on how much I would spend per day. At first, I set my limit at $10 a day on 20 business days a month. So I got $200 worth of paid advertising on google. I set my bid per click to the automatic bidding and if it hit my $10 limit per day, I was taken off. And...I was off by noon each day, but was placed in the #1 advertising slot when people googled for different signs in my area. My avg ticket is $250 at an 85% gross margin. If I did just one, I'd break even, well I got 5 the first mo. and 11 the second month. I upped the amount I spent to $500. I am now after 5 years ( started early 2010) spending over $1000 a month with google and it has paid off. And here is the kicker, Sign customers are like an annuity, some come back once a year, some come back every six mo's and so on. As time goes on, I'm building my customer base on repeat business. The second time they come in, I'm not paying google. So a $250 job for a first time customer turns into actually more in the long term. Sales have tripled in 5yrs. Maybe during one of the worst economic downturn. I am a big skeptic by nature, but this my fellow signmakers works. Forget Black Hat SEO guys. play. Hope this helps.

There are a lot of great ideas here... I live in the same area as Angela, though we do different work. You are the sign company that comes in on top... You get them to your site but with no portfolio, does that hamper your ability to get them in the door? Gigi busted her tuckus designing a sweet website and we are starting to target a specific companies dealing with our specialty... none of the companies are local, but there is a lot of apartments coming in local and may attempt to get the design work. We are also designing individual sites for graphic design for local and national companies. Using Google ads has been discussed and we are still thinking about it. We have some pretty good competition here... like http://www.magneticcreative.com

401, I saw your site and Facebook page... very hard site to read. I get what you are doing but it's too much to look at.

I believe that a portfolio should have your best work, BUT you're selling signs to muggles - so showing basic signs are a must. I would still try to show the best of the basic signs.

 

[401Graphics]

Muggles. HA! :ROFLMAO:

 

[jtinker]

Plan a vacation even if you can't afford one.
That always brings in jobs, particularly the rush kind.
Same as when you pour milk on a bowl of cereal, it always makes the phone ring.
Love....Jill

lol totally agree with this.
Even if your customers were thinking about something in the back of their head they are going to want to get it done before you leave.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Learn something new every day!

Give tours of your shop, even if it isn't that impressive. It will encourage you and your people to get better and will help let people know what you do. We tour our shop all the time and I learn more from guiding the tour every time.

Along these same lines, knock on doors. By visiting customers, you'll learn alot, even if you actually sell a job. Listen to what they have to say and what their challenges are. The more you know about your customer's challenges, the more you'll be able to offer in terms of solutions.

 

[DravidDavid]

It's a little extra effort, but we've recently found a business with poor/damaged/faded signage and essentially completely re-branded their company with a fancy visual and artwork.

The company we pitched it to jumped on it. You can also play it one of two ways. Pay for art on acceptance, or take the job and say the artwork is on the house. Often the job is so big the time spent on re-designing their sign is negligible anyway.

We recently did signage on a van for a startup company. We had some extra room on corflute for a few jobs and threw some corflute signs in for free. He came back with a $400.00 order for corflute signs the next day.

Our most recent freebie is paper stickers. We did a corflute sign for a school and supplied a sheet of pre-cut stickers with their logo and artwork on it from their other job. It cost us next to nothing to do! It took maybe 5 minutes, from computer to sticker form and packaged it with the corflute job. We received an order for 2000 stickers a few days later and there are more large jobs coming.

Honesty and good information is key. If you're going to up-sell someone, make sure you have a rock-solid reason as to why the extra money is worth it.

 

[D2S]

did we ever discover a full proof way to get rich? Could use the help right now

 

[Jwalk]

For certain type of industries email marketing with follow up calls have worked for me. But with niche markets I find you cant beat seo. SEO is long term but in this day and age you cant go wrong.

 

[401Graphics]

Its that time of year again. Lets hear more of your great ideas! :U Rock:

 

[Andy D]

1st off, there is nobody that is easier to sell to than someone who is already your customer, you have their contact info, and their logo.
They already know you and, hopefully trust you.
Our customers have a warped idea of what a sign shop does, if they got a banner from us,
chances are they think we're a banner shop and are surprised to learn we do trade shows signage, wall paper, etc.
It's important to keep yourself in there minds from time to time, meaning, have a sale on new products via email a couple times
a month, just make sure it's easy for them to opt out.
My venders send me Friday specials, and I love it, it's a great way to stock up and save some $.
Also, If you don't know how to up-sell you need to look into it you can increase every sell by asking a few question while your customer is in front of you.

2nd Mailer are effective if they are very specific. I like to target seasonal business because they have no problem spending $400 - $800 at the beginning of the season.
So for example, if I was doing a mailer now, I would target businesses that specialize in Christmas decorations, next month it would be businesses that do Tax returns,
spring would be lawn care businesses.. you get the idea. Put together a couple packages, like 10 coroplast signs a 4'x 8' banner and a set of magnetics for the reduced price of $$$
and you will have more work you know what to do with.

 

[The Hobbyist]

BUMP

Any more suggestions from other signs101ers?

Make small lawn signs that read:

"Please walk carefully across our property. Bacon grease is slippery."

Given the current state of things, you'll sell a million of them.

 

[The Hobbyist]

Go to every show possible and bring samples of your work. Couple months ago, we went to a horse show with nothing but samples of canvas prints. These people love their horses. We made some very good money there. We also got some nice jobs in town by being nice. I drive around and when I see a business starting to move in or get the place ready, I bring a simple coroplast sign that says Opening Soon. Tell them there is no charge and to call me once they are open and I will come back and pick up the sign. So far, everytime I get the job for their main sign and more. Being nice goes a long way.

Ah ... psychology!

I used to deliver pizzas years ago. When I would walk up a flight of stairs that had an apartment door on each side ... if the pizza was going to apartment 'A' I would first knock on apartment 'B'. The moment they opened the door, I'd peel the bag open and let the pizza smell into their apartment. "Okay! That comes to ... Oh, I'm sorry to bother you. This Godfather's super combo pizza goes to apartment A. My bad!" I cannot COUNT the number of pizzas I sold, by returning to apartment B 20 minutes later!