Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

hi

yes sowmya is right and i also feel that it is more of a marketing problem than advertsing's

apart from that .... please understand that as a new entrant only advertising and sending cards wont help enough.

if you think that contractors can be your potential customer then pay a visit, undertand their needs and explain them what you can do for them and how you are better then their previos partners

see it is simple .. if you are a contractor would you change your partners who have been working for you for years ... just because you have seen an ad, ... NO isnt it?

Same is applied to normal customers, very few will change the supplier only by an ad - until the ad is extraordinary - so you didnt got any response

this NO might become YES if you can show them some real benefit, that can npt be achieved by advertising alone as what you are doing is sending the same message to every one and this is like one more ad for them , who are watching thousands of ads

the principle is - ADVERTISING IS -----> GOOD WORDS FOLLWED BY GOOD DEEDS .... important word here is - FOLLOWED

so do some "real work" prior to advertising and then it will work for you


hope this helps

Anurag

Not sure where you are located, but you may have access to join a business networking group that meets regularly to share business referrals. This could help you get some jobs under your belt even as you are still honing your strategy and your "elevator speech."

The better networking groups stress personal referrals rather than mere tips or leads; also the better networking groups would offer some kind of training for how to strategize and present yourself properly to potential clients. They should limit only one electrician within membership, so you would have an exclusive lock on that classification for the duration of your membership.

Finally, the best thing about joining an exclusive referral group is that you can meet other business people who are already attracting the clients you want! Thus you can develop a "team" of related contractors with fellow members (e.g. in your case, you could share referrals with general contractors, builders, insurance agents, etc.)

The nature of personal referrals is such that they give you credibility; this is important for a newbie in business. In order to gain the trust of your fellow group members, of course---well, that is a challenge, since you still don't necessarily have a track record. Tell them stories of your successful jobs to date; impress them with your technical knowledge of your trade; stress your trustworthiness as an honest, hard-working businessman. Make sure it is all true, accurate, and verifiable--most business owners can smell bs a mile away. You will only receive referrals from people who know you, like you, and trust you. Then, as your word-of-mouth job activity ramps up, your other print/media advertising can be supplemental (for reinforcement.)

While there may be various such referral groups out there, I am only familier with the very successful Business Network International at www.BNI.com.

All the best!

hi there.. why not use events marketing? it is for brand or product awareness. be more creative. try also to do flyering to inform them bout your product. or tie up with your complimentary products so that it would be easy for you to sell the product

I assume that your statement 'didn't work' means that is didn't generate inquiries, sales, or both.

You 'bought advertising', yes, but what you buy is exposure and the service of delivering the message to the public. If the public does not respond, it means either they did not want what you offer, you were asking the wrong way, they did not have a need, you were offering to the wrong market.

Grant me some lattitude in my response. Would you offer your electrical services to the kids in a day care? No! Why not? Because they don;t have a need, they don;t want it, they can't pay for it if they wanted to...so you wouldn;t advertise there, now would you? Same with your advertising...it has to go where the market is.

Now, if you were offering corporate electrical services to people who wanted residential electrical services...what are the odds your advertising would generate a response? Once again, slim chance.

So, what exactly is broken? Why didn't the ad work? You need to break down all the elements of the advertising campaign, and figure out which part failed where. There is always a reason, if you know where to look.

So, was it the headline of your ad? Was it the offer? Was it the placement of the ad? Was it targeting the wrong market at the wrong time? Once you can answer those questions, you'll find that you are well on your way to finding out what went wrong, and fix it. Then, and only then, will your advertising 'work'.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network