Marketing! How do you market your business?

[Thesignexpress]

How do you market your business?

Do you have a Marketing person outside the office?

Do you have a Sales Person that goes out of the office?

 

[Z SIGNS]

How do you market your business?

Do you have a Marketing person outside the office?

Do you have a Sales Person that goes out of the office?

We market ourselves through our reputation and providing a level of service that is hard to compete with.We avoid clients that are new and shopping for a sign based on price and focus our efforts on the good ones who are willing to pay more for our expertise.It may take some time but do good work and word of this will travel quickly.

 

[Thesignexpress]

We market ourselves through our reputation and providing a level of service that is hard to compete with.We avoid clients that are new and shopping for a sign based on price and focus our efforts on the good ones who are willing to pay more for our expertise.It may take some time but do good work and word of this will travel quickly.

Thank you for the feedback!

 

[d fleming]

Agree with Z Signs. My rep and level of craftsmanship put me above the majority of competition. Someone tells me the shop down the street does something cheaper I send them to it. Providing quality work and customer service is the best advertising you can have.

 

[TheSnowman]

Same as these guys. Family owned and been around since 1980. I've owned the last 12 years, and I think I've advertised one time, I know my grandparents did it very little in the years before that. I'm only a one man shop, so it doesn't take a lot to make me busy, but what these guys said, customer service, and teaching customers that you're more valuable than a cheaper price.

I used to think I had to land every job that walked in the door...nope. I turn stuff down all the time now if they're just shopping for lowest price, I even tell them sometimes I'm not gonna be the cheapest if that's what they're looking for. Best move I ever made. Now I have way better clients, most are weekly or monthly repeats that come in the form of an email, and I drop it off when it's done. Hoping in the next 10 years to have enough repeat work each week that I can abandon the "retail storefront" setup that I have now.

 

[visual800]

word of mouth and I personally go after the large jobs myself. No advertising at all. Waste of money

 

[melissa16diaz]

Agree with Z Signs. My rep and level of craftsmanship put me above the majority of competition. Someone tells me the shop down the street does something cheaper I send them to it. Providing quality work and customer service is the best advertising you can have.

Yes. That's right.. Quality work and perfect customer service will be the best advertising.. Along with these, I believe Online Marketing by having a website showcasing your service and expertise will also help in advertising for online customers.

 

[Pauly]

I have a niche market, Specialising on printing onto glass. But we are a service and we need clients who we can introduce this service too. We would research who we can target and go out and see them personally and hand them samples ect. And a lot of them would come back to us with work, either looking for someone new in the industry as there's a few of us doing it as most are not happy with who they're dealing with and they turn into repeat customers. From that turns to word of mouth.

From a lot of feedback, we seem to be the better company around for this type of work which is what i'd like to hear. So from that, word of mouth again.

Yes we try to please everyone, as it's more of a personal thing for the end customer. But our prices don't move regardless if it's more expensive or not.

 

[iam808]

The most effective form of marketing for me has been a quarterly Constant Contact type email. The one with the best response rate is for general printing - like banner stands, A-Frames, easel signs, etc. In spring I like to go with the banner and coro sign reminder for all the golf tournaments, 5k runs and such. Late fall is the wrap up blog type email that showcases 3 or 4 of the jobs that I think are most impressive. Last one usually is a sort of holiday thank you. This only goes to existing customers, as a gentle reminder that I still exist. As far as getting new business & large jobs, it's typically word of mouth.

I'm also a big fan of the branding sticker on the back of the signs. It's especailly useful for organizations that have a high turnover rate.

 

[jkdbjj]

Well I have tried sales people and not had the best of luck.
I decided to focus on Google ranking and that seems to have paid off well for us.
I re-positioned our image to look more high end, and like others I tend to avoid smaller more price focused jobs so I have more time for better paying projects.

I think Google has made great strides in become a place user can find very relevant search results, and has leveled the playing field for anyone that delivers compelling content. A small company that delivers top content can compete with the big guys online.

This and trying to find partners and complimentary companies online that can help share your articles and pages makes a huge difference.

 

[visual800]

Well I have tried sales people and not had the best of luck.
I decided to focus on Google ranking and that seems to have paid off well for us.
I re-positioned our image to look more high end, and like others I tend to avoid smaller more price focused jobs so I have more time for better paying projects.

I think Google has made great strides in become a place user can find very relevant search results, and has leveled the playing field for anyone that delivers compelling content. A small company that delivers top content can compete with the big guys online.

This and trying to find partners and complimentary companies online that can help share your articles and pages makes a huge difference.

Google can suck it. Google is a sell out. You got money you got google.

Zillow is the absolute WORST website out there for homes. Inaccurate information, outdated information...they dont care because if you go to google and type in any address your going to get 2 pages of hits from the top 3 crap real estate websites....ZILLOW, TRULIA and REALTOR.COM.

 

[Sign.ed]

Agree with Z Signs. My rep and level of craftsmanship put me above the majority of competition. Someone tells me the shop down the street does something cheaper I send them to it. Providing quality work and customer service is the best advertising you can have.

One of my favorite phone calls "I saw this at SO&SO for less, can you match that?" or "But online I can get them for $20/ea."

"Okay, You can have Cheap, Fast, and Quality. You get 2 but not all three, I like to provide the best quality as fast as I can."

Nearly every call I have had specially the ones where they refer to online being cheaper, comes back and regrets going somewhere for price.

 

[Billct2]

Like others I have said, we rely on repeats & referrals. But that doesn't work for a new business and marketing has certainly changed since I started. If I were to start over now I would make sure my website was great and that I was connected to all the social media sites and keep a constantly updating. I'd do the B2B circuit in whatever way is available through the Chamber of Commerce etc. I'd spend some time going out and finding places that needed signs redone. I may try some targeted marketing via email or even snail mail. If there is a local business magazine I'd give that a shot too. If you have a visible location make sure you have great signs and a showroom that shows off your products. Company vehicles should be have well designed graphics.

 

[jkdbjj]

Google can suck it. Google is a sell out. You got money you got google.

Zillow is the absolute WORST website out there for homes. Inaccurate information, outdated information...they dont care because if you go to google and type in any address your going to get 2 pages of hits from the top 3 crap real estate websites....ZILLOW, TRULIA and REALTOR.COM.

I respect all views.
I don't care for corporations myself including google. However I make my living by being found mostly on Google. I was able to do that by myself, so I spent time working on it.

On average I get from 300k to 1million worth of quotes a year from just ranking well and have a likable website.

I'm not sure you need to like Google to use them.

I tried sale personnel route before and got burned more than I had success. I went all in with online marketing and it works for me at least.

 

[visual800]

On average I get from 300k to 1million worth of quotes a year from just ranking well and have a likable website.

ok so how many of these quotes turn into profitable jobs

 

[Gino]

Ya know, for most businesses, they consider themselves lucky, if they turn 25% to 30% of their quotes. Being competitive and tech savvy, generally yields those numbers when quoting. Doesn't sound like you're quoting enough.

For us, a great deal of our work is repeat work from our great customer base. Quoting is fun and we generally quote out an average at around $50 to $75k in a week's time, but the vast majority of our work is not even being quoted on...... as others have already said, reputation goes a long way and they just trust you to do a great job for a fair price. New customers find that out after the first order.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

word of mouth and I personally go after the large jobs myself. No advertising at all. Waste of money

I just want to point out the irony of a Sign Shop owner preaching that advertising is a waste of money. I wouldn't use that line with prospective customers...that's for sure. LOL
I get what you're saying though.

 

[boxerbay]

You guys giving away the Crabby Patty secret recipe that easy? Plankton would be impressed.

We have a 24 foot yellow dancing banana guy out front. haha.

 

[Levis]

You also can promote your business and services through these free or cost-effective methods:

Inexpensive promotional products
Provide useful information
Contests and giveaways
Create valuable content

you can be marketing your business on a limited budget. you just need to get creative.