Best advertising

I am looking to drop some money into advertising, other then word of month what do you guys think works the best

Very proffesional truck and trailer lettering. The trucks i spend over $500 a piece to have lettered, but it is a permanent billboard every where you go. Job Signs every where also.

I ran a TV commercial for awhile…horrible return on investmant.

V Prof ad materials, flyers etc. Remember years ago used to get a 8% response on direct mail, now less than 1% so dropped. Yellow pages a lot of hits but costly

in terms of paying for advertising, such as newspapers, magizines,direct mailing what seems to bring in the most revenue, how about the yellow pages

i am in a small market…so my yellow pages (idearc media…formerly verizon) has an awesome return on investment. The big books like yellow book…and all the others, never get calls from.

Just think which book you use, and ask others what book they typically use.

Would spread it out a little and not dump a bunch of money into one thing. The big Yella is good, did this years ago small ads in three metro books, cost 1300 per mnth and did generate calls, the big guys with full page ads are paying thousands/mnth like billboard. Prob is you come upon a dry spell and that money can hurt. Doing an ad now would put it in the Roof repair and maint section, just my opp. With that said some of the most profit has come from one door flyer, good response to with the right piece, expect to pay around 2k though for all design layout and print for 5000. Know a good print shop though in Houston same for around 750 we use, ship em outa state.

I’ve found the internet to be the best ad media for us. Our website gets us most of our business.

Stay away from online lead places like service magic and quality smith.

I think yellow pages are dead (will be so soon). Google is taking over most of the advertisement, so only the older folks and those without a computer still use YP.

Invest in a decent website and good SEO ( search engine optimization ) campaign as in time this will bring you lots of FREE leads with nearly unlimited potential when done right.

Good luck.

L.A. Met You may have a good point on the Y.P. been years since we used it, those full page ads are huge$$$ but the big co’s use ad companys with budgets 20k plus per mnth. Personally found it hard to ever get enough business beyond 6 employees

Internet, truck signs. Spread your name between phone books. I love the advertisers that call me and try to tell me how much business I will get by using them. If they knew so much about my business, they wouldn’t be selling phone book advertising…

what is a search engine optimization, for those of you that use internet where do you advertise

2 erroofing,

search google for “seo” and give it a good read.

DO you have a website NOW?

If not, get it. Do it AFTER you understand the basic idea of SEO. Get a domain name that has “roof” or “roofing” or something similar in it and make it catchy and not long, and definitely make it a DOT-COM (.com)

If you have more questions ask here. You can also PM me with more specific questions. We can provide some assistance with your SEO campaign.

Well, of course you need truck decals and signs. We need them too, and have been planning to get those for the last couple of years :mrgreen:

Good luck

Website, lettered trucks, yellow pages, job signs at every job.

Here’s an idea: Check out the yellow pages, truck decals, newspaper ads, websites, etc and see what’s missing.

How could you do it differently? What more could you add to the experience of doing business with you? What else could you offer that others are not?

This involves taking some time and making a list of all the intangible assets you posses. These assets can be what’s unique about you personally, your processes, your knowledge, etc.

After you make a list you just might be amazed at what you come up with.

A lot of this has to do with how you value yourself and how you do business. Do you see yourself as just another roofer, a chump who ventured out on his own to make a few bucks? Or, do you see yourself as a value creator for both your clients and yourself?

If not, get to it right now. The harsh reality is that you have no business being in business if you have nothing unique and valuable to bring to the table. And, you want to know a secret? Everyone has something great to bring to the table, it’s just a matter of discovering it. Discover it first, then work on where and how you want to advertise.

Hi,

We dropped our display ad in the Yellow pages. They end in June. That amounts to alot of money we can spend to target our customers.

As a consumer in a marketing field -

  1. A really good website with an email address that somebody checks several times/day. Many homeowners don’t have time to call because they are busy too.
  2. Yellow Pages are dying (at least in my area), so look into advertising on their website. Do a pay per click.
  3. Get listed on yahoo and google and msn local (not hard and free). You need decent SEO to be seen at first but if enough people click on your profile then you will start to move up.
  4. If you’re not comfortable with the internet - I have saved door hangers before from people advertising in my neighborhood and also called people from phone numbers on trucks and yard signs. But the internet is the #1 place I go to search for a professional.

I agree the yellow pages are dieing out.
The yellow pages can be very effective if you have a full page ad but that is very expensive.

I’ve only been asked by one customer the entire year why he couldn’t find me in the yellow pages.

Domain names and web hosting is cheap.
The internet is packed with free high quality information/tutorials on any information you will need to build a website.

Also – could you talk to a manufacturer of shingles or maybe your local distributor about partnering on a marketing effort? If you could do a professional mailing promoting both of you, or share an ad in a neighborhood paper that would split your cost. I work for a company where we do a ton of co-op advertising, sometimes you just need to ask.

I should mention that I have a client that gets all his work from taking out a full page page ad in the weekly issue of a large, upscale neighborhood association. It isn’t cheap (I think about $750/month, but those types of papers/newsletters are read by the residents and pair that with yard signs and you would be the first person somebody calls.

You can also have your business card put in your local architects association (like AIA or CSI)'s quarterly newsletter which isn’t expensive.

Anyone have any ideas for finding someone to put out flyers? I am having trouble finding someone to put just my flyer and not a whole packet.

You could try a local boy scout troop. I’ve used some in the past for their fundraising.

Problem with Yellow Pages is that you get tons of “shoppers”. Unless your prices are dirt cheap and you work on volume vs. quality I think for the most part your advertising budget is better spent elsewhere.