Quick, simple, effective marketing ideas?

[Pat Whatley]

It rarely gets discussed around here anymore so I thought I'd start a new thread for it. Sure, we've all seen the 2000 posts about wrapping the shop truck and painting the building....I'm looking for something different. What are some cheap/free yet effective marketing ideas you've discovered over the years?


--The most effective thing I think I've ever done is to make sure everybody leaves with a business card and that every invoice goes out with a business card inside.

--Follow up phone calls to customers have also been effective (even though I keep forgetting to do it) Just a quick phone call to make sure a banner worked out for their event, or that they are happy with their trailer lettering goes a long way with people.

--Boxes/tubes for banners. Every shop in town is capable of handing somebody a banner, we box all of ours and include the ropes just as a token way to separate ours from theirs. We print out a 4" tall proof of the banner with our contact information onto 3M inkjet decal paper, stick it on the box and give the customer their banners that way. The boxes, ropes, and decals run us less than $1.

 

[Gino]

Referral groups.

 

[Bigdawg]

We network - a lot. But that's a long term marketing plan - I'm seeing new customers coming in that we've literally spent years networking with.

Press releases are an often-overlooked free marketing device. Print papers pick them up when it's slow... when we first opened our shop, we were on the front page of the local section - purely because it was a slow news day. Got a big new customer? Welcome them to the family with a press release. Donate signage to a cause? Press release...

The other thing I've noticed is one of the members on here posts a welcome on facebook when he lands a new customer. It keeps his name out there and I think it's a fabulous way to keep generating buzz about your company.

 

[petesign]

DO you guys print your information on the back of banners along the hem? I do not currently do this, but have been thinking about doing it.

It would be an easy way of getting your name out there, but I have some internal dialogue going with myself about putting something to advertise myself on a banner someone already paid me to produce.

 

[Pat Whatley]

DO you guys print your information on the back of banners along the hem?

We attach decals vertically on both ends so that no matter which way they roll it up it shows. Our decals are 3/4" x 3" and fit nicely on the hems. We also have a bunch of 1/4" x 3" strips that we stick on the back of coro and pvc signs.

 

[miguelon.lizarraga]

Can you post a pic of an example of this? Sounds great I would add a shop labeled bottle of water too!

It rarely gets discussed around here anymore so I thought I'd start a new thread for it. Sure, we've all seen the 2000 posts about wrapping the shop truck and painting the building....I'm looking for something different. What are some cheap/free yet effective marketing ideas you've discovered over the years?


--The most effective thing I think I've ever done is to make sure everybody leaves with a business card and that every invoice goes out with a business card inside.

--Follow up phone calls to customers have also been effective (even though I keep forgetting to do it) Just a quick phone call to make sure a banner worked out for their event, or that they are happy with their trailer lettering goes a long way with people.

--Boxes/tubes for banners. Every shop in town is capable of handing somebody a banner, we box all of ours and include the ropes just as a token way to separate ours from theirs. We print out a 4" tall proof of the banner with our contact information onto 3M inkjet decal paper, stick it on the box and give the customer their banners that way. The boxes, ropes, and decals run us less than $1.

 

[Idea Design]

When we recently moved to our retail location, my wife (who manages the business) wrote up a really nicely worded "welcome letter" inviting everyone to stop in and check out our new operation. She personally signed each one with blue pen and it was very warm and inviting.

She got quite a nice response from doing this, so she decided to include a $10 gift certificate in the second round of welcome letters she sent out. Now, of course, I designed the letterhead, the business cards, the envelopes, and the gift certificates, so my logo was repetitively used on each piece that the envelope contained.

Top-of-mind awareness. Not sure this would work for everyone, but we got a really positive response from it. I've not run the numbers for a % return, but it was much better than I anticipated it being.

 

[miguelon.lizarraga]

Did you mail out to local businesses?

When we recently moved to our retail location, my wife (who manages the business) wrote up a really nicely worded "welcome letter" inviting everyone to stop in and check out our new operation. She personally signed each one with blue pen and it was very warm and inviting.

She got quite a nice response from doing this, so she decided to include a $10 gift certificate in the second round of welcome letters she sent out. Now, of course, I designed the letterhead, the business cards, the envelopes, and the gift certificates, so my logo was repetitively used on each piece that the envelope contained.

Top-of-mind awareness. Not sure this would work for everyone, but we got a really positive response from it. I've not run the numbers for a % return, but it was much better than I anticipated it being.

 

[Jillbeans]

The easiest cheapest thing I've ever done is to facepaint (free) at festivals.
Usually as a member of the C of C but not always.
Also have ridden in many a parade in my shop truck & passed out candy.
I participate in the charity pinstripers auction downtown and have a stack of bizcards handy.
I also dress up w/a company t shirt and help out in the kitchen at the gun bash.
But Pat I don't think you'd be as cute in a short skirt.
Love....Jill

 

[Wes Phifer]

I send out bulk emails. I got a chamber of commerce list and my customer list. I send about 1 a month and have yet to get at least one order directly from it. I know that is not much but it keeps you on the mind of others as well.

 

[royster13]

Hand written thank you cards......

 

[Idea Design]

Did you mail out to local businesses?

Local business, big business, small business, mom and pops, whomever. We went into it with a non-bias attitude.

It worked, if for no other reason, than to make people and companies realize you are out there.

I believe that the design of the packets that are sent out make a big difference. Spiffy. Make people wonder what's inside. The initial reaction is what counts; it's either "junk mail, into the trash" or "what is this?"

 

[blueben]

I donate banners all the time to churches, schools and non profit organizations. The best part is probably 95% of the time they will put my logo and info on their weekly printouts for people to read. 2 years ago I donated a tear thru banner for the high school football team. on all 4 corners had my logo and contact info. It now hangs in their gym with there division champs banner. I still get calls from it pretty much every week. Since then, I do almost all the booster club items for them to raise money.

My other big thing I do is 1 day every other week, I will stop in about 10 -15 customers business and just say hi and I fill a beer mug, that I have etched with my logo, with candy and fill my card holder. If they have a banner of mine or other work of mine, I will inspect it make sure everything looks good. This goes a long way. I have gotten referral customers and they tell me so and so sent me and say you bring them candy.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Can you post a pic of an example of this?

Here's one from today. The box for this one will probably get tossed so we won't get much out of it, though. For convention banners and annual event banners they work out great though.

 

[petesign]

Pat, I love the idea of the sticker on the box or tube. Where are you getting your boxes and tubes? I would imagine it also keeps things a little more organized

 

[blueben]

We used to get our boxes from uline but now we get boxes, tubes and caps from Paper Mart

 

[Pat Whatley]

We've always used U-Line because I can order at 5:00 today and ground shipping will get them to me tomorrow.

Blueben's link to Paper Mart looks like their prices are lower, I'll have to look into that.

 

[Sticky Signs]

One of the easiest things I've done in the past was to put together an email introducing my company and our products/services. Throw in some nice photos of past work and maybe a few more descriptive sentences. I than took the time to go through the phone book and I looked up every designer and add agency in town. I checked out each one online to make sure that their company would be a good fit with mine. If it was a good fit, I would send them the email. Some might think this is spam, but I don't think so as I would personalize each email stating something like - I seen your website and I noticed that you do (insert product here), perhaps we can work together on future projects because we are capable of handling (such and such). I now have a good working relationship with some of these companies and they keep coming back for more. All it took was a little bit of time.

 

[Sticky Signs]

One more for ya - assuming you have 2 or more shop vehicles with graphics on them. When leaving the shop, try and organize it so all the vehicles leave at the same time so they can follow each other. 1 vehicle will usually get noticed, but 2 or more traveling in a convoy is sure to make that much more of an impression.
I've seen this a few times while driving around. Not sure if it was deliberate, but I certainly noticed it. I suggest this to my clients that have a fleet.

 

[blueben]

One more for ya - assuming you have 2 or more shop vehicles with graphics on them. When leaving the shop, try and organize it so all the vehicles leave at the same time so they can follow each other. 1 vehicle will usually get noticed, but 2 or more traveling in a convoy is sure to make that much more of an impression.
I've seen this a few times while driving around. Not sure if it was deliberate, but I certainly noticed it. I suggest this to my clients that have a fleet.

We had a furniture store that was going out of business a few years back that paid 4 people to drive all around town driving rented U Hauls with the the furniture stores info on the side and backs of them. They drove around following each other everywhere and if you went to the furniture store, it was packed. The store ended up not going out of business since there was a new surge of clientele.