marketing ideas

cavesrus

Hello all,

im new to the forums, and well im sure this question has come up a lot. but here goes anyways.

What are your marketing ideas in your areas.

We are referal based big time. In biz for over 30 year same name same owner.

We do our chamber of comm.
The small phone books
web site etc.

Looking at new things IE PPC or even the SEO to put you in google maps(egumball)

Has anyone used these if so how much has it help if any at all.

I havent dont Direct mailing but looking at doing some of that this spring with roofs i do in a area.

I have not done any Big book Greater metro area advertising Att big book $25k to $35K for a full page and i think a full page is needed. to compete with some of the other but lot of cost for not sure the return.

Thanks

cavesrus

didnt see the market tab will be reading that next

Sheppy

I have the perfect combo for you. Would you like to talk?

Ansel

Content ... write little info pages for your website ..... Do a page on your typical day, include things like:

"went to check out a roof leak in a house in the Oakwood Subdivision in the beautiful town of Wonderwood. The subdivision was built in 2003 and we have received several calls from homes in the area complaining of roof leaks. Funny thing is, according to our database of tracked calls, we only get calls in the winter ...... "

etc ..... content is KING on the web ... put more info - original info on your site written geared to your area and watch your site come up in the keywords you select .....

Ansel

Another idea we use is disposable job signs ..... We buy a wire frame and have a bag sign that slips over the frame .... they cost us about $1.75 each .... we put one or two on every job and just leave them when we leave ....

I just went by a commercial job where our sign has been since September 2009 - So for under $2 we have gotten a ton of exposure ... Often times I see our signs on jobs we have completed months earlier, this happens most in the winter time - in the summer the signs usually stay until the homeowner mows their yard ....

sometimes we get calls to come pick-up and we simply explain the signs are disposable and ask if the owner would mind removing for us .... We have only had one homeowner insist we come back and pick up in 8 years ....

For just a little money you can have signs all over town .....

Next biggest thing is clean and nice lettered trucks ....

Market back to your existing customers another good way to generate new business ....

As for $5K here and there on advertising - I'm not in that camp .... We have one of the smallest yellow page ads yet we are the largest reroof / retrofit contractor in our area ... and all we have done is what I posted above ... plus GREAT WORK which trumps everything ....

Hope this helps,
Ansel

Ansel

Direct Mail .... Use a very targeted to the five to seven houses or business next to the one that you just did with a photo on the front of the job you did ..... easy to change photo once you have template ....

It costs a few bucks to set-up and you need the right content / action for them to respond, it can be very tricky .... but only very targeted direct mail works .... the shotgun blast we will send your info to 5 million people does not work ....

In direct mail figure on mailing at least five times to same address before you get response - very tough biz to get right .... but if done right the rewards can be huge, personally I have only had very limited success and the more I try the lower the success rates seems to get so I for one am not exploring this option anymore ...

Grumpy

Ansel got a link to your bag sign supplier?

__________________
-Grumpy
Chicago Gutters Chicago Roofing

Ansel

No I don't .... been awhile - we ordered 1,000 last time we did .....

google search of ...

plastic bag signs

brings up plenty - have to shop for them - make sure you get both sides printed, ours is very basic - name with phone number .... think we have the 16" by 24" with wire frames - they are black inside to prevent light from going thru them .......

garabar

I would suggest setting up a blog through Wordpress. This is ours and it does well. Make sure you post often.

Roofing Contractor Florida

ApexRoofingDDN

About SEO. I didn't know about it until a HS friend told me what it was. He has done work for me over the last 10 days and ALREADY has me #1 on Yahoo for a few keywords. I can't wait to see all the results but going from almost non existent on the web with a website to now being #1! ....if you want his info just shoot me a message.