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I have resently started a new business, and Im wondering what is my best form of advertisement? I already use business cards and flyers and word of mouth, but Im not sure if I should use the newspaper or radio. any suggestions??
Reply:If you have a webpage or business email, you might want to put it on your signature here.  It might help a bit and it's free.  If you do have an email, post it like this:Myemail(at)myhost.com  or something like this, so as to reduce the ability of webbots grabbing it for spam purposes.Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:www.craigslist.com place an ad, its free. I just sold a pickup truck on it. I was tired of paying ebay nearly $100 to sell a car. It was amazing, within the first three hours I got 7 emails asking about the truck. Sold it the next night to a guy that came cash in hand.Sure, I can fix it... I got a welder!!!
Reply:Blacksmith,Congrats on the new business. Craig's List is a great choice. And the price is right. Before you do anything else, however, you should answer a couple questions.1) Who are your most likely customers? Fabrication shops that need an extra hand? Residential customers looking for custom work? General contractors of residential homes? Or some other "target market." Start with just 1 clearly defined group and focus on it. That way, you only need to manage one set of prospects at a time. You could make yourself crazy trying to market to all three groups at once; you would have to present yourself differently to each and it's probably more than you want to take on.2) What's more valuable to you in the short term? Time or money? In marketing, you can often accomplish the same goal in two different ways: personally (with flyers, visits to fabrication shops, phone calls to contractors, etc.) or through an indirect contact such as advertising and direct mail. The personal way is cheap and time-consuming. The indirect way is generally faster but costs real money. It's one more reason to pick a single target market. You'd reach each group through a different marketing technique (fabrication shop owners don't read the same stuff that suburban homeowners read) and you can go broke trying to do it. 3) How's your self-discipline. Most small businesses start just like yours: someone has a skill and wants to put it to use. The irony is that before you get to use your skill, you need to sell -- which is an entirely different skill. And there is no way around it; business isn't going to just walk in the door no matter what you do. "Business development" is like your children. You can find a babysitter to help you out in a pinch, but nobody is going to care for them like you would.Let me know who you want to sell your services to -- or, more to the point, who you think would be most likely to buy them. I'll be happy to help you figure out where to go from there.Bob RosenbaumFormer PublisherPenton's WELDING Magazine
Reply:Blacksmith, as Bob implied, that's an incredibly broad question of yours.Tell us abit more about what you do and where you are located. That's going to dictate how you market yourself.Are you a blacksmith in a small town doing 'arty' pieces from your backyard?Are you in a big city with a well fitted out shop?Do you work from a truck?Think also about what you like to do. Now is the time to try and build a business doing what you like. If you hate cutting and welding pickets, for example, don't position yourself as a fence guy.It's easy to spend alot of money with untargetted advertising.Scott
Reply:Definitely do all that is free.  I started out doing only cards and flyers.  I've had much success.  I would  pass out thousands of cards per year.  put them in peoples hands.   I often give two at a time.   Talk to other people who do what you do--I mean people you see working around town.  Go to other shops.  Some people will give you work, some stuff  with which they don't want to bother.  I used to spend 3 hours each morning just passing out cards and contacting people.    Identify what you want to do, then make contact who compliment what you do.  However, be creative and don't limit yourself, many people may have need for welding or smithing, yet not realize where to get help.I went into Yellow Book two years ago.  I wouldn't suggest this starting out.  You need to find out what you are willing to do before spending that kind of money.  I could definitely survive with out it.  Though the jury is still out this year, I have a much more exposur within the book.      I have a friend who has been in Yellow Book and Yellow Pages several years, it is all the advertisement he does.  He stays busy.  I haven't had that success.  I get much much more work from repeat business and word of mouth.  He does a lot of residential stuff and I do a lot of work for contractors and business owners.
Reply:I live right off I 10 around 30 miles from Tombstone, about 35 from Tucson. I do ornamental Iron, Fences< corals, hitches, and all types of repair work. I also have a complete portable outfit on a trailer. I have a 21o wire welder, a plasma cutter, and a Tig machine. I have a complete shop, its very small but I have everything I need. We get a lot of tourist here and I get called out often to RV parks for all types of repair. I am a one man operation with my wife helping me when she can. I have advertised I feedstores, hardware and autoparts stores with flyers and cards, and was considering either newspaper or radio ads....
Reply:Okay, let's try a few things before you start spending too much money on advertising.There is another Aussie guy on this site - welder man - who has a profile similar to yours. He lives in a small town and does a mix of work. He may notice this thread and chip in.Your best (and cheapest) prospects for work are people you have already done work for. That's assuming they were happy with what you did?You need to stay top of mind with these people so when they need something done, they think of you. Do you have any sort of past customer list? If you do, I would send them all something. You need some sort of flyer that tells them everything you do. If you've done a fence for someone, they may not know you do other things. Consider getting someone to design a flyer with some pictures. That shouldn't cost much. Avoid the temptation to knock up something yourself at home on the computer. Make sure whatever they do can be easily printed or photocopied.Think carefully about what info should go into the flyer. Naff as they sound, testimonials can work a treat.So first tasks are:1. Put together customer list.2. Make something to send them.You also need to do some sort of analysis of which jobs give the best Return for Effort. I bet there are some things you do that pay well, and others that pay poorly. Sometimes people fail to identify them. You obviously need to concentrate on the better paying ones and weed out the others.I REALLY like the sound of that RV market. I imagine it's not all that hard work and you get to meet travellers, which is always interesting. Many of these people are also cashed up. And probably a tad desperate for assistance.Research this market. How can you tap into it? Have you made contact with all the parks within a 30 mile radius? Have you considered offering park owners 5% of your fee for business they bring in? Are there free traveller noticeboards and websites you can plug yourself on? Are there motoring clubs you can alert to your services? You'd need some sort of name for these people that implies you are mobile, fast etc.That's enough homework for now.Scott
Reply:Blacksmith,you just happened to be at the right place at the right time...Scott is in advertising in AU and Bob is a publisher in your trade...what better advice could you ever get!!!Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:alright everyone thanks for the help
Reply:I was in advertising. Sadly, I got too old for the long hours, long lunches, and long lines of coke. My occupation now is much more boring.
Reply:Hello BlacksmithAs Scott said My wife and I run a similar business that you are wanting to start, We live in a small village of about 250 people. When we started we had business cards fridge magnets and flyer's made, We also run a add in our local village newspaper (the Goolie gossip). As Bob said you need to concentrate on one group and really flood them with your details, You need it to be that everywhere they look your name (logo) is the one they see, Since we started we have changed our direction several times and I am sure will will continue to change as we go, Have you put a business plan together?.Do you have much in the way of competition around, If you do that's ok you just need to let people know what you offer that is different.So just what do you do? have you got website on the go mine is only a free one but it had had about 1200 hits in six months and picked me up a few jobs.I will keep up with this post and offer help if I can.Simonhttp://members.optusnet.com.au/~abba/index.html
Reply:Here are a couple of things from a consumers point of view.#1 Radio advertising is expensive and frankly I don't listen to the radio that much.    I be surprised if your customers do also .    The other issue is the reality that once the commercial plays, that audio ceases to exists.   So unless a customer has a good reason to write down your number when he first hears the commercial you will have largely wasted your money.    Of course this presupposes a conventional welding business, if you have a store front selling art you may get a differrent response.Business cards do have a place but then agian often get left in a pile someplace.    Personnally I'd supplement your business cards with something that continously refreshes the potential customers mind.    The frig magnets and the like are good suggestions as woould be better quality pens with your business name and contact info.,   If you consider this don't go so cheap that you leave a bad impression.There are a surprising number of resturants around hear that have boards for people to post business cards on.    This is a good and cheap way to make contact with people you might not normally run across.I'm not a big fan of yellow pages or the phone book in general.    Infact i often throw them out upon arrival.    Instead I preferr the online resources, most of these have already been mentioned so won't dwell on that.   Do consider a web site.   Nothing fancy but it sould outline what your capabilities are with respect to talent and equipment.    Pictures can mean a lot here also.    Don't forget contact information.    Everything that you give out to promote your business should reference your web page.   People have a tendency to collect lins then refer to them much later, in effect becoming a virtual roledex, business card file or personal phone book.I'm not a big fan of cold calls.    It is about that time of year when contractors start to come around leaving quotes and such in the mail box or even tryiing to speak to me directly.    Frankly I find such intrusions very offensive.     Of course that is from the perspective of a home owner.   As a business owner though it is likely to be a requirement to some extent, but I('d suggest only business to business.Speaking of which, as you may know business people can be very busy at times and not take intrusions in a positive way.    One way to get around that problem is to join clubs and associations where business people hang out and network.    Someplaces networking is expected, accepted & almost a tradition.Another way to network is to volunteer services.    There are a number of reasons to do this but one you might be interested in is the fact that people with money are often involved with service organizations and volunteer groups.    Yeah it may seem to be a slow way to produce work, espcially if you are about to give some away, but you will be remembered.   The biggest issue is what can you do positively to contribute to the activity, it might not even involve your craft, you just need to be willing to assist. In a nut shell the number one thing is to leave your potential customers with a positive image when promoting yourself.    If you are seen as an irritation you are not likely to be doing much work for them.ThanksDave