Advertising

[kzyman13]

Hey guys,

Just wonderin if you guys have any cheap advertising ideas.

This what I've done so far...

1st off - I own a car wash.

So, I've put up detailing signs at the wash and we have a reader board out front that has my number on it.

I've posted flyers up at local businesses and my son and I put 500 flyers on mailboxes in the nice areas around our small town.

I'm waiting for my phone book ad to hit this Oct... too late.

I've gotten really good reviews and half of my customers offered to try to bring me more business through word of mouth.

I put an ad in insert in the local paper in the beginning of the year. It was a bad time to try to start and that was expensive.

Thats it. If you have other cheap ways to get the biz off the ground please let me know!

[VoicesInMyHead]

Re: Advertising

I haven't looked, but can you advertise on Craig's List?

Good Luck!

[GoodKarmaGuy]

Re: Advertising

Set up a website. It doesn't have to be fancy but it should be somewhat professional. Those testimonials you have and some before and after pics would be a fantastic touch. To help improve your google search ranking you should write a few articles about car detailing in Jackson MI. Using the term "car detailing in Jackson" is important so google knows to rank you higher when someone searches for the term. A half decent business card type website could be easily set up for less than 1k. Unlike other forms of advertising (like print media) a website is perpetual for the onetime cost.

Once you have the website running, utilize Google Adwords which is not only cheap but easy. You only pay if someone clicks on your ad but the only people that would click on your ad is your campaign specified target market. As an example, you can set up your text ad to only show if someone googles "car detailer Jackson". Your cost would be only a few cents per click and the people that do the click are the specific clients you want. Include your phone no. in the text ad you'll even get the odd call without having to pay for the click.

There are a couple of ideas. I hope that helps. Good luck with your new venture.

[kzyman13]

Re: Advertising

Hey those are excellent tips. I'm pretty computer savvy so I can actually create the website myself. Honestly I hadn't thought of using a website for this biz. I also hadn't thought of writing an article that would be so searchable.

Great IDEAS!!!!!!

Thanks!

[kzyman13]

Re: Advertising

Hey just an update... after getting thinking on web promotion, I tried looking for my business on google and yahoo. Bad news is they weren't showing up in either. The good news is, I was able to add them for free! I'm still waiting for yahoo to update. It said something about verifying the information. Google's site is slick. It calls you upon completion of the update to make sure it is legit.

[redhotchevy2000]

Re: Advertising

banners on the back of vehicles are also very popular. maybe if you detail a car and the person wants to help out a bit, you can put a small vinyl graphic with your business name and phone number on it or make a website and put the web address on it.

a company i detail for in conway has banners of their name on my car, and their website rsspeedlabs.com on many other local enthusiasts. its worked well.

[GoodKarmaGuy]

Re: Advertising

Hey Kyzman,

Great stuff. Sounds like you're taking the steps to give yourself an ever important online presence to make it easy for people to locate you.

I noticed you've sent around flyers. As a suggestion, if you include a special offer on your flyers make sure you have an expiry date to create a sense of urgency from your prospective clients. A special offer with an expiry will encourage people to call before the offer runs out and lessen the chance of your flyer getting filed in the 'G' bin.

A great book for someone looking to promote their small business is Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad. The book focuses soley on cheap/free marketing inititives and techniques for the small business. If you want to save money head over to your local book store and read it or get from the library. I guarantee it will give you some ideas that will help generate clients.

[RacerX88]

Re: Advertising

As part of your Web site promotion don't leave out these FREE things:

• Google Local Business Center: https://www.google.com/local/
• MerchantCircle: http://www.merchantcircle.com/

Also, I am continually amazed at the Web site "designers" that charge or don't include Web site reports a.k.a. Analytics. Like Google's FREE analytics

http://www.google.com/analytics/

So, you know that new customer you got came from MOL, of course

[Hoffmann21]

Re: Advertising

criags list works wonders..

I get hits alot haha

[08MKZ]

Re: Advertising

See if the local super market puts coupons on the back of the reciepts. Offer a $1 off any Full Service car wash if they do. Or try using a local newspaper circular. The type that post jobs and autos for sale. Even talk to your local buisnesses to put a flier in their windows. Sponsor a little league team. Just some ideas. Good luck.