Small marketing budget help

[darren atkinson]

Hi everyone,

Hope business is well.

I would love to hear your low budget marketing ideas for my fledgling business.

I offer a wide range of IT related services both to businesses and home users in my area.

So far the marketing methods I have used are:

- Website - slowly beginning to get me clients as I rise in search engines.

- Direct Mail - I sent a few hundred direct mail outs to businesses in my area, I then followed up with a phone call. Feedback seemed okay but I have not had any real clients from this method. These were sent a few months ago.

- Leaflets - I am in the middle of leafleting quite a decent area where I live, the leaflets are aimed at home users, and so far I have posted 1200 over the last week or so and have had a few jobs from them.

What would you suggest to increase my marketing?, I really only want to spend around £200 at the moment, I realise this is very small but its all I can stretch to at this time. Any further money earned for the next month or so will all be put into this marketing fund.

Let me have your ideas, or has something worked for you before?

All help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Darren

[ebonybailey]

Get a couple of teenagers wearing tshirts with your logo on it to spend saturday handing out leaflets in the local shopping centre/just outside.

[telemax]

Hi Darren

Arm yourself with leaflets or business cards and call in person tooffices and industrial pemises in your area. No hard sell, just an introduction. Even if you don't get past reception, try to get a compliments slip and a name.

I know it sounds basic, look the part, suited and booted and have a nice case to hold your information.

Allways follow this up with a phone call. I have got fantastic results from this in the past and its really cheap.

Jonathan

[directmarketingadvice]

- Direct Mail - I sent a few hundred direct mail outs to businesses in my area, I then followed up with a phone call. Feedback seemed okay but I have not had any real clients from this method.

What was this "ok feedback"?

Are they going to use you when they've got a problem/need?

- Leaflets - I am in the middle of leafleting quite a decent area where I live, the leaflets are aimed at home users, and so far I have posted 1200 over the last week or so and have had a few jobs from them.

Has this returned a profit? If so, is there a reason why it wouldn't return an even bigger profit if done on a larger scale?

(i.e., if it's working keep doing it)

You say you've had a few jobs already, do you have a referral system in place?

Steve

[DavidHorn]

All good suggestions.

If you're getting clients through your website, then why not spend a bit of money getting more traffic to it - Google AdWords campaigns (or the Overture equivalent for MSN / Yahoo) would be a good place to start. Or pay for some advertising in places where your potential clients hang out ... check out www.adbrite.com for some ideas.

Leaflet in college canteens, or other typical gathering spots.

it's the basics, really, identify who is most likely to spend on your product, and go to them with whatever means possible.

Good luck!

David

[puravida]

Sounds like you have tried quite a few tricks already!

I would suggest you take a step back and look at your offering and the message you communicate before you spend more cash.

Make sure that the service you are offering is one that would be of interest to the customers you are targeting.

Also - make sure the key messages in you communication are simple, clear, demonstrate the benefit of your services and give then a reason to want to pick up the phone to call you.

I like to use the "So What?" technique -

eg - your leaflet says "Installation of home PCs".
ask yourself - "So What?"

Then change your message to "Installation of home PCs - to save you time and hassle installing yourself"

or for bigger businesses the "so what" may be that you are smaller, local and independent AND SO THE BENEFIT TO THEM IS.. you are availble at very short notice 24 hrs a day for emergencies and you will cost less than the big boys as you do not have their overheads.

[DuaneJackson]

It's a hard market to get established in becuase it's so crowded. I'd suggest DIY PR and targetting some geographic search terms on Google Adwords.

[darren atkinson]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

ebonybailey: This is something I have though about. Do you usually get a good response rate from this type of marketing? When I am in town and people approach me with leaflets, I generally try to head the other way. Maybe I should make more of an effort as they are most probably people like me.

telemax: That is a good idea, I will look into this and try to identify the best areas to start with. When you say fantastic results exactly how fantastic? :D

SteveGibson: With regards to my direct mailouts, some clients indicated they would keep my details on file for future problems, maybe I should work on a follow up to these clients?

The leaflets are profitable just, but literally have only just gone out, I feel that I will need at least a week or so more before gauging the response rates properly.

I don't have a referral system as yet, but it is something I am looking into for my home users.

DavidHorn: I have thought about Google Ad-Words, I am currently working heavily on my SEO with some good results for niche terms related to Hull. I am working on the more generic computer terms for Hull but it is taking some time. If I don't start jumping up those rankings soon, I will defo move to adwords.

puravida: Thanks for the advice, I do try and keep my marketing messages simple. I explain the benefits of using my service on all literature.

DuaneJackson: I know its a tough market to crack, when I do get clients they seem to indicate that there is a lack of quality in this area. This is what I am focusing on.

Again thanks for all the advice offered so far.

Darren

[confused]

Hi,

As you know from our previous emails etc, I am in a similar business although it appears that you seem to be targetting home users more and corporate market less where as I am the other way about.
I have tried the methods you describe, leaflets are a pretty good one, but for some reason, if I put out a couple of thousand, I seem to get as many calls as when I just put out 10000 ! That said, the smaller amounts were better quality leaflets, the 10000 were cheapos, I plan to put out another few thousand of decent ones soon and try and monitor if it is indeed the cheapo leaflets that put people off. Of course just a couple of drops isnt conclusive.
I am also in the process of preparing (or having prepared... ) an intro letter and some nice glossy flyers to go out to local schools/companies in a mailshot.
I'm still tempted to nick some of your text on your site but I wont lol. One thing I would say, is rather than "I can do this, I can do that" is change the I to WE.
I agree there are now loads of computer fix it guys around, but there are also a lot of those that have a bit of knowledge and can actually sometimes work in our favour, I'm sure you've hear "was all working fine, then my mate who knows all about computers...." The problem is, as I'm sure you will agree, with the advent of XP it has made life much easier for non technical people to be able to do things, no more deleting inf files or removing phantom devices in safe mode in order to get a device working for example. That said, there is still a need for a decent techie in smal business and schools, but whatever you do, if you arnt sure, then dont do it! (please dont think I'm implying that you dont know what you are doing by that statement, I hope you get what I mean)
I cant remember if I meialed you my leaflet for some ideas? it might have been someone else, anyway here it is: front (http://www.calvsplace.co.uk/datacomuk/flyer_front.jpg) and back (http://www.calvsplace.co.uk/datacomuk/flyer_back.jpg)
Flyer was one that I did initially but looked a bit naf so Jaqui at creocom made it look better for me.

Since we are basically in the same job, and not direct competition then I have no probs discussing ideas etc over email/msn or whatever.

CALV

[directmarketingadvice]

I cant remember if I meialed you my leaflet for some ideas? it might have been someone else, anyway here it is: front and back

One free pointer:

You should change the font on the back of your leaflet as it's difficult to read.

It may look "computery", but a hard to read leaflet's going to cost you sales.

Use the type of fonts that newspapers use. These fonts are used because they're easy to read and people are used to reading them.

Steve

[confused]

Thanks for the feedback, it is a lot clearer and easy to read on a higher quality image/paper, I agree that on the images above it is a bit bad on the eyes.

[directmarketingadvice]

it is a lot clearer and easy to read on a higher quality image/paper, I agree that on the images above it is a bit bad on the eyes.

That'll make it easier, but it's still a font that's difficult to read (though difficult for fewer people).

Remember, there are people with poor eyesight. They might wear glasses, but don't have their glasses on when they pick your leaflet up from the mat.

If you use a hard-to-read font, these people are less likely to be able to read it and they're more likely to chuck it away unread.

Now, had it been easy to read for them, some of these people may have ended up becoming clients.

There's a lot of people with bad eyesight out there and there are a number of people (like me) who are dyslexic.

To assume that they can read things as easily as a non-dyslexic person with excellent eyesight is typically an assumption that costs the advertiser money.

(particularly when selling B2C)

Steve

[sjbeale]

You need to do lots of business networking - events happen at all times throughout the day - breakfast, lunch and dinner, depends whether you are a lark or owl. Talk to your local Chamber or Business Link to see what they are running and to advise you of other groups in your area.

Networking is the personal approach and you can't be it. For most people cold calling and leaflet dropping does not work. Give it a try. You can check out my website www.lightningconnection.biz as I run speednetworking events - relaxed, informal and great fun.

[a3venltd]

Think about marketing in individuals and local organizations at no cost.Make them identify the nature of business you are doing and it will be easy to identify with the business once your services are good. This will enable them to give you refrence which is what you need most in business

[darren atkinson]

confused: Hi again, thanks for the advice, I will look at my website text and make those changes. I will email you aswell regarding msn.

sjbeale: Thanks for the advice, I was talking to a client this morning about networking events, he suggested it aswell although he did say he tended to not really attend them so much now. Possibly because he is doing very well I think.

a3venltd: I think you are talking about going after individual clients / organisations one by one. I think this is a good idea, the personal approach.

Cheers everyone,

Any more ideas are very welcome.

Darren

[Michael]

Hi

You could get free 0870 numbers with free call management from www.smartnumber.co.uk that way you could easily monitor which of your marketing activities is the most sucessful / cost effective...

Its a completely free service too so wont cost you anything to set up or run....