Advertising my business

[mailee]

Have any of you got any advice for the best way to advertise my business? I have a website as you probably know but it hasn't generated any business so far. I have a few flyers to send out to see if this can generate any work. I also have business cards which I have been handing out to customers. Most of my work comes from word of mouth which is the best advertising of course but I need to generate more new customers now to ensure I am busy enough. Any advice would be helpful especially from those who are in business and reasonably successful. :?

 

[Anonymous]

whats your website address?

Mod Edit: Mark, I would think that it's the same as the WWW link above. CHJ

 

[Dibs-h]

Mod Edit: Mark, I would think that it's the same as the WWW link above. CHJ

slap! :lol:

 

[OPJ]

You may have done this already, but try registering your website as many FREE UK business directories as you can find. Start with the obvious ones (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and you should soon find your site rising up the listings for local searches.

Google AdWords may also be worth exploring. This can drive traffic directly to your site although, it does cost a little bit. I think Chems has got a fair bit of his work from this.

Flyers. Lots of flyers. Get a load printed out and spend some time delivery them door-to-door locally. See if you can put something up in the local newsagents, post office, etc. Whenever you finish a job, make sure to give your client a few extra business cards, so that they can pass you on to their friends. :wink:

Hope this helps.

Did you sort out the problems with "running a business from home" then?

 

[big soft moose]

Have any of you got any advice for the best way to advertise my business? I have a website as you probably know but it hasn't generated any business so far. I have a few flyers to send out to see if this can generate any work. I also have business cards which I have been handing out to customers. Most of my work comes from word of mouth which is the best advertising of course but I need to generate more new customers now to ensure I am busy enough. Any advice would be helpful especially from those who are in business and reasonably successful. :?

I remember someone (dan/brad i think) saying that linking the website to as many categories as reasonably possible on googlemaps was the way to go

Also can you get any editorial coverage in your local paper ? or even lifestyle glossies. Have you made/could you make anything special which they might be intereted in (that tip courtesy of kevin ley in his book)

 

[big soft moose]

Flyers. Lots of flyers. Get a load printed out and spend some time delivery them door-to-door locally. See if you can put something up in the local newsagents, post office, etc. Whenever you finish a job, make sure to give your client a few extra business cards, so that they can pass you on to their friends. :wink:

also see if you can put some in your local estate agents - people who are buying houses are high up the list of those most likely to commision kitchens or other furniture.

 

[SurreyHills]

Your website needs to be a lot more compelling. Some suggestions:

• Use a different Wordpress template to make the home page easier to read and navigate from
  Use some keywords on your website to achive better rankings with search engines (Google Adwords can help with choosing the correct phrases
  Replace you current gallery with a better gallery layout . Yours take to long to load and the images lag behind the captions. Take a look at Olly's for an idea, obviously don't just copy his!! For example, thumbnails with click to larger images as a minimum or if you OK with doing a bit of web design use a Word Press plug-in like LightBox

Foe each of your sections use an intro paragraph to say how you work. E.g. Kitchens build from scratch or install a clients cabinets from Ikea[/list]

 

[OLD]

Contact the local free press a get then to do a piece on your new start up
business with pictures and contact details.

 

[Anonymous]

hmmm was just trying to get mailee to print it so he got himself a back link to help with his SEO.

 

[big soft moose]

hmmm was just trying to get mailee to print it so he got himself a back link to help with his SEO.

you could just post it yourself - i dont think it matter who puts it up from that point of view

http://www.tenko-joinery.co.uk/index.html

 

[mailee]

Thanks for the info guys. I shall have another look at the website and see if I can improve it. Strangely the galleries work fine in the program I made it with but once on the 'net' they seemed to slow down? As for the working from home Olly, this is the reason I am looking into getting a workshop to work from, I do need something bigger anyway. I am also looking into advertising in the local parish magazines as someone advised. Ads in the local paper are way beyond my finances at the moment and still not guaranteed to produce work. Do you think that customer tesimonials on the website would be an improvement and or adding some prices?

 

[big soft moose]

Ads in the local paper are way beyond my finances at the moment and still not guaranteed to produce work.

I wasnt suggersting ads, i was thinking of editorial coverage - in the kevin ley book he built a signature piece , a bureau with hidden compartments, then got the local paper to run a competition for readers to work out where the compartments were - he reckoned it brought in work valuied about 3 times the time taken in building it, plus he sold the piece as well.

just to be clear as has been pointed out, I'm a turner i know **** all about running a flatworld buisness, but i'm thinking kevin ley probably knows what hes talking about so i'm just passsing it along in good faith.

 

[woodshavings]

Hi Mailee,
If your town/village has a parish magazine, the cost of an advert is usually very low. In our village it is £10 for a small display advert.
The parish mags are usually well read and are kept longer than a local paper. They also welcome short articles that aren't blatant advertising.

A well written ad, targeted at local customers, may help attract new custom. Ideally the ad could be accompanied by a short article that focuses on keeping business local and the sort of projects you have undertaken, particularly if any of them are "worthy" ie church or local charity related.
HTH
John

 

[Richard Findley]

Hi Mailee,

A couple of tips as to how Google works, understanding this will boost your hit rate and then hopefully business.

Google looks for combinations of a few things:

Keywords: so if someone types into the search box "Joiner, Leicester" it looks for any website with these words in the text of the site. Perhaps re-word a little to include words like Furniture Making, Joiner, Joinery etc, etc. The other thing is, I have no idea where you are from a quick skim of your website, if I'm in Leicester or London or Edinburgh and want a Gazebo making I'd want it from someone local so I don't pay carriage etc. Get it down on both your contact page and your front page!!

Links: You need as many good quality links as possible, a good quality link is considered to come from a busy site and from a site that is content relevant, first step would be get your website in your signature on all posts on the forum. Join a couple of forums and do the same, they all count!!! As Olly said, find every free index on the web and register, especially if they offer a link to you!! If your going to pay then probably Yell is as good a link as any to pay for. Google maps is also good (and free!!!), here's my entry into Google maps: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&s...5,-1.12318&spn=0.012357,0.027122&z=15&iwloc=A

Hits: If your site gets lots of hits then Google will think it's better, busier sites are considered better so come higher on searches. By doing some of the above should help with this.

Current content: If your site isn't updated very often Google assumes it is old and so it will slide down the ratings, so keep adding and tweeking to ensure Google knows it is very much current and alive!!

I'm sure there are more top tips but these are the ones I know. If anyone knows other please add them!!

Best of luck mate, HTH

Richard

 

[NewtoWood]

Hi Mailee,

Just had a look at your site and have come across a bug. If you click on the word gallery as opposed to one of the drop down options your page loads like this

Another minor thing is the colours used in the drop down list should be changed as they are very difficult to read for those visually impaired.

 

[goldeneyedmonkey]

I think that while your work speaks for itself: looking like quality craftsmanship, your website definitely lets itself down. The text is hard to read & the images could be a lot clearer. Also the drop down menu's are a challenge to read because of the colours you've chosen.

This is just constructive criticism and is only designed to help you out.
Richard's advice is right on the money as well.

p.s, I'm VERY jealous of your infinite space that you seem to have in your 'shop.

_Dan.

 

[mailee]

Thanks for the help guys. I have been giving the website a workover to see if I can improve it with your suggestions, see what you think. When I tek more photos I shall bear in mind the website and hopefully improve on them. Fingers crossed it will work better now. Oh and I did register it with Google maps as it wasn't on for some reason? :?

 

[Paul Chapman]

Much better with the thumbnails, Alan, but they could be a bit larger.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Dibs-h]

I have to agree with Dan to some degree. I always look at web pages as the equivalent of pages in a magazine and in the nicest way possible - yours sucks.

The colours aren't easy on the eye, the navigation, particularly the gallery pages is dis-jointed.

I suggest you read,

http://www.webdevelopementportal.com/we ... uidelines/
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

which may give you an idea of what not to do. As for what to do - unfortunately many of these "programs" that can create a website, usually create crap 9/10 times.

Now whilst I;m certainly not suggesting you go down the road of "templates" showcased here,

http://www.csselite.com/

I would still suggest you have a wonder round and see the kind of results folk actually get. I'm not suggesting you become a CSS\HTML guru, but business is business and don't settle for crap. It's your shopfront and if it looks home-made folk won't necessarily walk in - usually the opposite. Now there might be folk who disagree - but I suspect their geographic location might have something to do with the stream of work coming in thru their doors.

Start small - usually the main pages and then extend gracefully with other aspects. Photography - one can't discount the need for pictures with good lighting and good res.

HIH

Dibs

 

[petermillard]

Hope you don't mind but I think you also need to give a bit more attention to detail when you're taking the photos of you work as well. I know I've said it before, but once the job is done, the photographs are all you have to show other people, so spend some time over them - or pay someone else to do it properly.

As an example look at the picture of your 'Large Softwood Gates' - no, really look at it. It has so may different things competing for the viewers attention; there's the back of the truck in shot, a lump of timber in the foreground and an extension cable snaking across the driveway. They're nice gates - but if my eyes are wandering all over the place they're not concentrating on the gates. Ditto the Garage Doors - with a toolbox smack in the middle... and is that a CO2 cylinder on the right-hand side??

Similarly with the kitchens - turn the flash off, turn the lights on and use a tripod; you'll get better results, I promise. And resist the temptation to photograph the kitchen before it's finished - your end of it may be done, but bare plaster walls just don't look good!

It's all very well driving traffic to your website but it has to do your work justice, and right now I'm afraid you're doing yourself a disservice. Sorry.

HTH. Pete