Category Archives: Services

How Can I Advertise A Job Fair?

Publicity, Services, Starting Out,

We are having a job fair in 2 weeks and I need to find a way to advertise it on a very limited budget.

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If you have a million dollars, how would you advertise it? Would you get a front page ad in your local newspaper? Student newspaper? A sign at every bus stop? A billboard on every bus?

Who do you want to read the advertisement? Why would they want to come? What makes your job fair of value to them? These are key marketing strategy questions.

Once you have your answers, scale down the million-dollar budget. Where are your likely attendees likely to see your ad (or hear it)? What do THEY have in common – a form of transportation? A common market they shop at? A radio station? A governmental agency? Place the ads in places they are with the reason that this is a good use of time.

2 weeks isn’t a lot of time, but it is do-able. Work smart.

How Can I Market Our Moving Services?

Publicity, Services

I was recently approached to develop a marketing strategy to utilize our recent accolade as the #1 mover in the country. However, this is the tenth year in which we have received this rating so our current target list has ‘heard it all before’ with little or no action on their part. We have narrowed down our target audience to focus on individuals and families selling ‘prime’ real estate $1M upwards. How can I approach this audience and the Realtors and brokers linked to these individuals? My research indicates that this group is extremely wary of providing referrals to their clients with the possibility of disaster move resulting.

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How about teaming up with Realtors and offer them a way to take care of the buyer/seller: moving is included in the price of the move, and the move is 100% guaranteed.

If you’re as good as you say, then roll in the cost of (a third-party) mover’s insurance.

People are generally wary of people they don’t trust. To build trust, you need testimonials, independent testing (do you get data after the move to find their level of satisfaction and measure it against the amount you moved?), and extraordinary stories (very tricky things to move, expensive, fragile, high-profile people, etc.).

How Can I Sell My Marketing Services To Restaurants?

Services,

I’m trying to build my base of restaurant marketing directors for my small design business. my strengths are event invite design, signage, check presenters, web sites. Thus far I’ve found some success doing it via networking, but would like to expand further without cold calling. Which is most/least effective, if you are or have been in this position, or are familiar with the industry?

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I would strongly suggest that you do a little research on each restaurant before contacting them: Who is in charge of marketing? What is their contact information? Do they work with any marketing firms outsider their organization? What are their needs in the next year? What is their presentation style (humorous isn’t always the best approach)?

You mentioned you don’t want to cold-call. However, your emails, direct mails, etc. are all basically “shot-in-the-dark” approaches. You can’t sell your services to someone if you don’t know what (or if) they need. You need to develop a relationship with restaurants to find out more. Ask for referrals from one marketing director to another (for those that you’ve already worked with).

You’ll also clearly need to identify what makes you unique/special compared to other designers. I would further suggest that you (as a minimum) update your website to provide a page just for the restaurant marketing directors.

How Can I Market My Commercial B2B Loans?

eMarketing, Services,

Our company works with banks to underwrite commercial real estate loans for their borrowers. The majority of our marketing efforts are integrated with our sales team — who works diligently to build and keep relationship with our client banks. From a marketing standpoint, we communicate with clients through a monthly newsletter, DM, collateral, etc. I recently heard from a few clients – who apparently are not reading our newsletters — that they didn’t know about the most recent developments in our company. What are some fresh, successful, and cost effective marketing mediums for staying in front of our clients so we can maintain/grow our company presence and remain top of mind?

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When you have something of note – host a luncheon for your bankers.

If they aren’t reading your newsletters – find out why. Is it the content? Format? Appearance? If you move to e-newsletters (which will probably save you money and allow you to send out “flash” notices), you could easily suffer the same problem – your marketing gets ignored or labeled as spam.

What is your competition doing? You don’t want to necessarily copy them, but you do want to make sure you’re not missing something obvious. To find out, take a banker to lunch and find out what’s the best way to get their attention, when, etc.

What Are Good Activities For A Horse Stable Open House?

Publicity, Services

I have a horse riding stable where I give lessons to all levels of riders. I want to host an open house to draw in more young children who want to learn to ride. I plan to offer door prizes such as riding lessons and trail rides. I also plan to have free horse rides, balloons and hot dogs. I am looking for any more ideas you may have for activities to offer at the open house or for ways to promote it.

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Once you get the kids there, so long as there isn’t a negative experience, it doesn’t matter much what your activities are. The key is that they should all be 100% fun & safe. You want everyone to feel like they can trust you and the horses.

To get people to the horses, you need to go where the kids (and their parents) are. If you’re doing this during the summertime, then co-market with day camps (offer to give them a % of the sign up, or pay a flat fee to allow you access to their e/mailing list, or hand out flyers at the end of the day, etc.). During the year, you’d approach local schools.

For more guerrilla-like approaches, team up with an ice-cream truck. Ride a horse in front of the truck in the neighborhood. Hand out flyers, etc.

How Can I Attract People To My Home Builder Booth?

Publicity, Services

My company is going to be exhibiting at a Home Builders Convention. We offer a website that would allow builders to research potential development sites. The theme for the convention is “Under Construction”. Any suggestions for what we can do with our table? We will have a computer and flat screen tv to display our website.

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I’d create a video showing people using your software and have that running on a loop. Ideally, show the actual home (“under construction”) shown on an inset as the software is being used to design that aspect of the home. This makes it obvious what you’re selling to people casually walking by, and you can spend more time pre-qualifying leads.

How Can I Get More Customers For A Nail Salon?

Publicity, Services,

I am managing a nail salon in downtown Denver. Currently, there are hotels with nail/salons in them as well as three surrounding nail salon competitors. I have the best location in terms of the busiest location but I want more clientele. I am surrounded by many businesses and the busiest hour for me is lunch time when everyone goes on break. My downtime is the evening time. What can I do to get people to constantly come in at all times? There are many many people walking on the mall and passing my shop each day-what can I do to get them to come in? The shop is rather small and very narrow-it is between a Jamba Juice and a mom&pop ice cream shop and both of the shops get really busy. Should I make a sidewalk sign to show people that we are here? Should I have happy hour?

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My wife tends to only frequent establishments that have people in them. So, one idea is to have more people being worked on at your salon. Imagine helping out a local breast cancer or homeless mom’s group – schedule people to come in for a free manicure (etc.). Send out a press release announcing your goodwill within your community.

Do mini-makeovers at the salon. Teach people (teens? single moms?) how to improve their looks easily. You could sign up people through your local community ed program.

Another suggestion – co-market with other stores. While the snack shops might be a candidate, think of the places your clients are likely to go: women’s clothing, women’s shoes, etc. These establishments would be natural partners of yours.

The trick is to simply get people used to coming in your front door.

How Can I Start A Cleaning Company?

Services, Starting Out

What are some tips for starting my own cleaning company? I’m writing a business plan for starting my own cleaning residential and office cleaning company.

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The business plan is useful if you’re hoping to get investors. Otherwise, spend your time focused on your strategic plan. Specifically identify: who your audience is, what problem they have, how you solve it, why they should trust you, etc.

You’re looking to identify what makes you different from all the other cleaning companies out there. You need to specialize in something: “green” cleaning products? flexibility – can you do a quick cleanup on short notice? Do you have expertise in cleaning “tricky” surfaces (leather, fancy rugs, etc.)?

Once you’ve done this work, you have the start of an effective plan of action.