Advertising new local service…

[Mr Gas Fires]

I have added an extra line to my business that I would like to advertise locally and I’m not sure the best way to go about it.

I have a fireplace/gas fire installation and servicing business with an established website <link removed> and have recently added a chimney sweeping service. However, whilst this sits nicely alongside what I currently do I’m not sure that having it as an extra page on my existing website is going to make it visible. However, it is not a separate business.

I’m getting pretty long in the tooth and am not sure the best way to advertise a new local service these days, I’m not sure if a card in the Village Shop works these days and I doubt I’m about to take to Tik Tok…

If it were a complete new business I would have a new website built but I feel I would rather utilise what I have as it already has traction, albeit not for chimney sweeping. I am looking to build a solid chimney sweeping round to work alongside my existing gas fire service work and gradually ‘evolve’ into it and concentrate less on one off fireplace installations as it picks up. The question that I keep asking myself is whether I should advertise and treat it as a separate entity as far as advertising goes in order to be seen.

I’m really looking for advice on this as I’m wallowing about a bit and don’t know the most effective approach to take to get it ‘out there’. Any advice or ideas gratefully accepted.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

1 - Make the website is optimised - you only probably need one or two pages
2 - Ensure you have a Google My Business listing
3 - When at a clients, ensure you drop cards/leaflets with neighbours a few days before saying 'we are in the area on.....'.
4 - Ensure you contact old clients regularly - every year send an email/text saying - 'we have not been with you in a while....'
5 - I think Tik Tok may work for you (with other social media channels). YOu are a novelty and getting rare - releasing videos of each sweep keeps you active and out there.

 

[Ozzy]

I’m really looking for advice on this as I’m wallowing about a bit and don’t know the most effective approach to take to get it ‘out there’. Any advice or ideas gratefully accepted.

I live in an area that has many houses hundreds of years old, with chimneys in need of sweeping, and speaking as someone who pays attention to local services in our area, I'd recommend leaflet dropping.

You can either do a deal with any delivery services of people delivering a local village/town magazine (we have one and there are usually one or two trades leaflets delivered at the same time as the magazine), or get your hiking boots on with some friends and family and do a leaflet drop yourself.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I'd agree with the above and add

Parish magazines
Community pages (Facebook, next door etc)
Local pub

You will appreciate that it's a seasonal business - our chimney sweep reminds us by email late August to book an appointment

 

[Mr Gas Fires]

All good ideas, thanks guys

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Have a look at www.nextdoor.com, it is set up for local chats and services in your area all free,

We get a free magazine every month about 50 A5 pages with adverts just for the basic postcode ours in NR29, they seem to have similar areas over the whole of UK postcodes so full of local services

 

[TCH]

I'm rather afraid your leaflet may have been mislaid, by the time your service is needed

maybe ask google about 'geolocation targeting'

 

[Paul Carmen]

Until you've built this up and have regular/word of mouth customers, where will your potential customers look?

I'd guess the vast majority will throw leaflets and local magazines away, and simply do a Google search when they need a chimney sweep.

This means you need your Google Business Profile and website optimised for these local searches, and potentially to run local service/search ads for "chimney sweep near me/location" searches.