What Kind Of Advertising Material Do You Prefer?

[Gemma Rowlands]

Getting new clients/customers is obviously vital to succeeding, but how do you make sure that potential clients know you exist? I have tried a number of methods in the past, including:

- Social networking
- 3rd party service providing websites that match clients to companies
- Flyers
- Local press
- Local radio
- Posters in schools/public places

I have found that the local press advertisements have brought the most rewards of all of the advertising, however I still strongly believe that I have gained more clients from word of mouth and talking to people myself! One of the things I do is book editing, and whenever I mention it in conversation, people always seem to say "oh, I'm writing a book/someone I know is writing a book, your services could definitely be helpful" because I'm much cheaper than a publishing house, and by the time people get to the editing stage they're fed up of the sight of their own work, so are more than happy to pay a little bit for someone else to do it for them!

What do you find is the best way to get word of your business around? Have you ever tried any methods that you're definitely not going to bother with again?

 

[sandra]

Word of mouth is definitely the best. When you've got someone recommending you in it makes the sale SOOOO much easier. I'm seeing social media a bit like that as well. I've picked up a couple of small bits of work recently from people who've simply picked up a tweet between me and someone else. Amazing really.....

Yellow Pages - I spent over £1000 a few years back. Never again! Complete waste of money and yielded little if any results.

Sandra x

 

[Gemma Rowlands]

Word of mouth is definitely the best. When you've got someone recommending you in it makes the sale SOOOO much easier. I'm seeing social media a bit like that as well. I've picked up a couple of small bits of work recently from people who've simply picked up a tweet between me and someone else. Amazing really.....

Yellow Pages - I spent over £1000 a few years back. Never again! Complete waste of money and yielded little if any results.

Sandra x

I agree! Sometimes I get emails from people who have been recommended from clients who I worked with two years ago, and it's great that they're still recommending my services. Yellow Pages is definitely a no-go.. I have a pile of those things in my house that I haven't used (ever) because it's so much easier to pick up my phone and type something into Google if I want it. Admittedly my parents still use theirs but it's definitely much less common than it would have been in the past.

 

[Pete Brindle]

We use word of mouth more than anything at the moment, because the children who enjoy their lessons will go on to tell others, and we put concerts on to show what we do. I occasionally take out ads in the paper when we're running low on numbers but luckily that isn't necessary a lot of the time as we do tend to tick over quite nicely.

 

[justDAJ]

I agree with everyone above -- There is a lost to be said for Word of Mouth recommendations.

 

[Gemma Rowlands]

We use word of mouth more than anything at the moment, because the children who enjoy their lessons will go on to tell others, and we put concerts on to show what we do. I occasionally take out ads in the paper when we're running low on numbers but luckily that isn't necessary a lot of the time as we do tend to tick over quite nicely.

Local papers or national? Mind you I suppose you wouldn't really be targeting anyone other than locals, would you? The good thing for you is I guess it's kind of like a progression. I'm sure you mentioned teaching adults as well? Do you get many adult learners?

 

[Pete Brindle]

Local papers or national? Mind you I suppose you wouldn't really be targeting anyone other than locals, would you? The good thing for you is I guess it's kind of like a progression. I'm sure you mentioned teaching adults as well? Do you get many adult learners?

Local. We got a good deal with them as well because of contacts, so we're more than happy to use them whenever needed.

 

[andybrowne]

Local Radio and word of mouth are best ways of advertising .

 

[Gemma Rowlands]

Local Radio and word of mouth are best ways of advertising .

Out of interest, what kind of business are you in?

 

[Mike Turner]

We have leaflets that we leave in a few local shops (with their permission, obviously) and we also have two posters up in the town where we're based. It works well enough, and we have a steady stream of business, which is exactly what we're after.

 

[Gemma Rowlands]

We have leaflets that we leave in a few local shops (with their permission, obviously) and we also have two posters up in the town where we're based. It works well enough, and we have a steady stream of business, which is exactly what we're after.

I'd never thought of leaving leaflets somewhere. Where do you think potential authors hang out? Libraries maybe? Hmmm. It might be worth a try, I know it doesn't cost all that much to print the leaflets, so maybe it would be something that would be worth doing.

 

[Lauren Turner]

We have lots of photos on our Facebook page, and have a stall at arts and crafts days. Usually, that's all we need to be honest, and it works well. We do sometimes put other posters up around Christmas, but I haven't found that they impact our sales all that greatly, so there isn't very much point. They sometimes get us one or two new customers, though.

 

[MapleTree]

Social networking has played a massive part in my business' success. Facebook in particular. I also got a lot of business through word of mouth. I get talking to people whenever I go out and end up getting new customers as a result.

 

[Allegrif]

I've tried leaflets before, and my return on investment was diddly squat. Perhaps I was just doing it wrong? I thought they were nice looking and to the point though, and the areas I chose were carefully selected. Still nothing.