Marketing Questions for Web Design Business...........

[britanyastudios]

Hi everyone.

Hope you are all well and enjoying the hot weather

I am currently looking into ways to advertise my new Web Design Company, Britanya Studios, so far all my clients have been through word of mouth advertising.

Now, I have just had 5,000 A6 Flyers printed, can anyone tell me the best way to distribute them? How to find out where I can distribute them etc?

Also, can anyone else tell me any other ways to market?

Thanks all.

Tanya

 

[sam27]

Your main target?... small business in your area? is this who you are mainly dealing with, you mentioned 'word of mouth'.

Im not sure on the situation in your area but in mine, there are many small local businesses that are desperately wanting to get on the web but either do not know where to start or find it a little daunting. BIG business for local designers with good rates and a high quality service ... but noone here has filled this gap.

Is this where you are looking for business?

 

[britanyastudios]

Your main target?... small business in your area? is this who you are mainly dealing with, you mentioned 'word of mouth'.

Im not sure on the situation in your area but in mine, there are many small local businesses that are desperately wanting to get on the web but either do not know where to start or find it a little daunting. BIG business for local designers with good rates and a high quality service ... but noone here has filled this gap.

Is this where you are looking for business?

To be honest, I dont really have that many small businesses in my area, whether I could post my flyers to businesses further afield I dont know?

 

[sam27]

possible. Also you could place some of your fliers in your local business advice center (if you have one), this directly markets your business to other businesses.

What had you planned to do with the fliers before you had them printed?

 

[britanyastudios]

possible. Also you could place some of your fliers in your local business advice center (if you have one), this directly markets your business to other businesses.

What had you planned to do with the fliers before you had them printed?

Well I plan to send some of them to my brother who lives in a different area to me, and he is giving some out on the business park by him etc...
Are there any legal requirements to posting flyers to businesses? Also where would I get addresses from to post them?
Cheers
Tanya

 

[Sharon]

We're going to local shows at the moment, even if it's only to park in the car park with a few flyers on the screen for people to pick up!

Have you asked supermarkets in the larger towns around you? They often have an area for local businesses to advertise.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

What had you planned to do with the fliers before you had them printed?

Good question.

Good marketing is about making an offer to a market.

You clearly don't know who your market is. But you've gone ahead and committed to using a particular medium (A6 flyers) to communicate with them.

Despite what some other marketing advisors may say, flyers don't work for every business.

It depends who your market is.

It may well be that the businesses you should be going after won't respond to flyers and other approaches would be far more effective.

But, we've no idea what these businesses look like, so we simply can't say.

If you want to learn more, check out the section "Put an end to "back-to-front" marketing" in this article:

Warning! - Don’t spend another penny on marketing until you read this.

Hope this helps

Steve

 

[sam27]

I totally agree with the post above. However, here are some ideas and answers to your q's that may help you.

no legal requirements that I know of - someone else on here may know more.

Ive never dealt with this style of marketing so again, im not 100% sure but one idea is online directories. From there you will be able to choose the businesses (that have no site, or a poor site etc.) and contact them.

Another possibility is a mailing list but i know nothing about them or where to get them or anything. Again, im sure someone else here can help.

Sam

 

[britanyastudios]

Thanks for your replies everyone, I appreciate all the help and advice.
If anyone can help with my previous questions that would be great.

Tanya

 

[creospace]

Tanja I think you are in the same position I was about 2 years ago although by having the fliers done you've doen more than I did. It really is a long hard slog but well worth it.

It's hard to give specific advice but learn to be flexable with clients, given unending advice even if it takes you hours for no return, if a client comes to you with one idea take it and turn it into 10 ideas and give it back.

Underpromise and over deliver. Look for oportunties to partner with companies and people for mutual benefit.

All this advice has seen me through. Oh and make sure you read all the advice on Steve's site too!

Gary

 

[britanyastudios]

Thanks for the advice Creospace.

Tanya

 

[robertm]

id send one (or event two- one to pass-on) in every correspondance, invoice, letters etc (maybe not actual quote work tho - that would be forlorn!).

Send thank you letters to all existing clients and ask them to pass on, send half-dozen, they may put them on notice boards etc for you.

 

[britanyastudios]

id send one (or event two- one to pass-on) in every correspondance, invoice, letters etc (maybe not actual quote work tho - that would be forlorn!).

Send thank you letters to all existing clients and ask them to pass on, send half-dozen, they may put them on notice boards etc for you.

Thats a great idea, thanks alot

 

[Zest4.biz]

The best route now the flyers are there is to hand deliver with a business card to business parks.

Get a business card from each one you visit with a contact name of the MD or IT director or whoever it is deals with their website and write that name and position on the card. Make friends with the person on reception, look professional and don't waste a flyer on a business you would not wish to do business with.

When you get 50 or so you need to build a small database and visit their existing web sites recording all the information you have including telephone numbers, fax numbers and web sites together with comments. If they are good then consider how you can help them in the future ie e-commerce or some other aspect.

If poor then write a personalised well written letter and chase it up with a call. Deal with them in batches of 50 at a time as if your conversion rate is even 5% you will looking a 2-3 new orders each batch you send.

Sounds like hard work? It is when you need to target in this way. Better to decide on the client base you want first then work out through market research what they want and supply it to them.

We can help with all or some of the above to get your flyers coverted into business, locality to you is no longer an issue with web design.

Emma Thorpe
Zest4.biz
Carrington Business Park
Carrington
Manchester
M31 4XL
T 0161 775 1669