Increasing sales with no advertising budget.

[Juvanescence]

I am a start-up business (January), and am struggling a bit to find new leads and particularly making the sales.

I have tried Adwords, local online and offline advertising, plus a Yellow Pages advert. I have also tried to be as active a member of a few forums.

I am wondering whether any kind soul would be able to offer me any advice on what I am doing wrong.

I started this business on a shoe string and have had a few problems with Apple which has cost me 3-4 months of sales and revenue.

Thanks for you time. :)

[webvideo4u]

You could try writing some articles. Proves your expertise, adds good content for the search engines and you can submit them to e-zines (which helps get links + referals).

You could also join something like www.ecademy.com and network.

Do some free sites for a charity/fund-raising effort. This gives you added portfolio pieces plus you could always tell the local press all about it.

These should give you something to be going on with.


Adi

[adam]

I have sent you a link for another networking group.

One thing would be to spend time on the forum here and search for people in need of work.

[broadband-engine]

Hi Jonathan

Why not register yourself as a designer on sites like www.scriptlance.com - then you will be able to bid on projects that are posted there by webmasters in need. I have used this service a few times and it is very good. You would have to price your bids for work quite keenly as it is a competitive World there - but it could prove to create a good regular stream of work.

Regards
Phil

[Juvanescence]

Hi Jonathan

Why not register yourself as a designer on sites like www.scriptlance.com - then you will be able to bid on projects that are posted there by webmasters in need. I have used this service a few times and it is very good. You would have to price your bids for work quite keenly as it is a competitive World there - but it could prove to create a good regular stream of work.

Regards
Phil

I have worked on sites such as Scriptlance and Elance but to be honest you cannot compete with members from Asia who can undercut your best prices.

My main aim is my local market, but this means networking which I find absolutely terrifying.

[Juvanescence]

I would be interested.. but again it comes down to price.

[gary]

Sorry, I disagree Raja. Yellow Pages may be great for local plumbers, but not for national graphic designers. Direct mail is also not the way to go for a logo design business, especially one with rates as low as Jonathan's. It's expensive and the response rate is generally around 1-2%, for a good response!

I also don't think the style of writing used on the example you gave would work either. It's exactly the style you see on every "get rich quick" and MLM website, and although it may work in the US, in my opinion it would just scream "scam" in the UK.

The best way for graphic designers to get work is to use sites like Ecademy as mentioned above, and existing contacts, to get referrals. It would also be a good idea to team up with web developers and designers who don't have graphics skills (a common scenario) so you can do that for them. Most marketers will tell you that the best way to sell a service is by recommendation, so work on that basis.

Gary

[Ozzy]

Hi Jonathan,
Expanding on what Gary has said, put together a portfolio of make-believe company logo's and brands, and also design a few corporate identities for business owners you know for almost if not actually free. Then it gets your work out in the market place, and if they like it they'll tell their friends and colleagues.
With work such as design most will come from referral because it is the nature of the beast.

[Juvanescence]

The problem is iv been doing the 'freebies', 'cheapies' for a while now. What iv found is that people are full of promises.

You do this for me and I promise you will have x amount of work. Iv been stung by at least 4 companies promising if I do work cheaply then more will follow.

I would have thought with the number of supposedly happy clients that I have worked for that I would be getting more referrals..

[gary]

Jonathan, one thing you may find is that people who want things very cheaply will want a lot very cheaply! You may be better off increasing your rates to say £95 for a logo (including 2 or 3 revisions) which is more realistic. £50 may be too cheap and sound as if they're going to get a cheap looking logo.

I would also take a new look at your website, especially the portfolio section. At the moment you have to click on each little image to see the actual logo - they should be visible immediately, and preferably with the best ones on your homepage. The portfolio is what will sell your services. You may also want to consider changing the font size and colour you're using - it's too small and the colour is a bit wishy washy. Have a look at some other logo designer's websites and you'll see what you need to do to compete.

HTH! :)

Gary

[GraemeKerr]

Jonathon,

Why not register with as many free directories as you can. This will increase your online presence and will also in turn improve your search engine ranking by increasing the links to your site.

I have a list of 30 free directories if you want me to e-mail them to you, just let me know.

Hope this is of help.

Cheers,

Graeme

[Juvanescence]

I would be interested in this list.

Somehow iv got over 1000 back-links the last time I checked.

[broadband-engine]

Hi

I would be interested also in submitting to these free directories, could you PM me or post them here.

Cheers
Phil

[GraemeKerr]

Sure, just give me your e-mail address. I need this because the list is in an excel document.

Cheers

[webvideo4u]

Are these directories sending you any traffic or are they purely for page rank purposes?

[Anonymous]

Hi Jonathan,

I have found that PR would be the most effective way to raise your brand awareness. Print advertising for your field dosn't really work. What I would advise is to do some free/heavily reduced work and getting the clients to showcase the sites through their marketing.

Jonathan

[Anonymous]

Hi Jonathan,

I have found that PR would be the most effective way to raise your brand awareness. Print advertising for your field dosn't really work. What I would advise is to do some free/heavily reduced work and getting the clients to showcase the sites through their marketing.

Jonathan

[michaelaengland]

Sure, just give me your e-mail address. I need this because the list is in an excel document.

CheersI would also be interested in your links and have e-mailed you, in the meantime Jonathan have you looked at your local market, many local organsiations want to get websites designed but really don't know where to start. Try this as an experiment. Get the local yellow pages, look at local companies that do not have websites (hotels, b&bs might be a good starting point) and then compile a list, find out why no website, get them some costings and go from there. I bet you could find at least 100 local firms without websites in 1 day. Also if they are local you go and see them, making it more personal. It must be worth one day or even half a day of your time. Good luck