Cheap Advertising

[HUTCH]

I recently went full time with my own Screen Printing company. I use craigslist for advertising and get quite a bit of biz from it. I am wondering what other type of cheap advertising that you all have had success with...?

 

[Sassy]

Hey Hutch... congrats on your new adventure as a business owner. Marketing and advertising is a key to a successful business that most owner over look. When times get tough, it's the first thing that gets cut. It's something that should be on going.

I would recommend a book that will give you a good overview of marketing and advertising called Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. He has several editions now, so if you decided to read other then it won't hurt. Try this one to start with

http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Mar...d_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202605106&sr=8-1

Everlast has his own business, and he can tell you just how important marketing is... I can help with questions too.

 

[trig]

Google manipulation

I'm a sysadmin for a webhosting company and I have seen a few new businesses take off just by figuring out how to manipulate google searches in their favor. I don't really have any specifics, as I have not dealt with that aspect of it, but I've seen them do nothing but google and take off.

 

[EVERLAST]

HUTCH.....you go get 'em

Type up a press release about your new business start and have a ribbon cutting picture made....then go to the sales dept of your local paper, TV station, etc.
Ask about ad rates... and then use the pics and press release to bargain for a free announcement of your opening.
Ask Churches to pray for you and their parisioners hear your name.
In short...set yourself on fire!
Go around your town setting others on fire too!
Get an Internet presence ASAP and change it up often.
get your company name in the papers and airwaves.
After all...you can't sell it if they ain't in a buyin' mood
so you try to put 'em in the mood.

Ask me about my gorilla marketing plans with Sassy and we'll share our results...

 

[inoverdrive]

Hey bro, congrats on the new business. I know this is late but my entire brother works for a big screen printing machine company. I can not remmeber the name (it use to be Podger) but it has changed. He sells the equipment. My dad also use to make a ton of screen printing ink for tshirt manufacturers. Actually he has a lot of different inks he is trying to sell and getrid of. So if you need some good ink cheap and need help shoot me a pm and ill get you in touch with my brother.

As of advertising its like sassy said, marketing. I have a advertising and marketing company (auto dealers). Some cheap things you can do is email advertising, newspaper, and just good old fashioned cold calling and knocking on doors. If your product is great (not good) then it will pay off. Of course with screen printing you have to eat beans and rice before you can get to steak!

One more note. I do alot of artowrk on the side for tattoo companies, and tshirt designs so if you ever need help let me know.

 

[hotttsauce]

GOOD LUCK!

I'm gonna be placing an order probably next week. Plenty of ladies still asking for a 'team hottt' shirt! send me a banner and I will put it on my myspace page. a friend of mine gave me one and got a few hits from it. I'm sure others on your page would do it too. probably only a few hits per person, but if enough put it on it could add up.

 

[Uluwatu]

Try joining your local chamber of commerce. They should have a bunch of business networking lunches and breakfast scheduled throughout the year. Also join a business networking group such as BNI or Le Tip. I find that proactive advertising works the best, rather than waiting for business to come to you through a yellow page ad or some other form of print advertising.

 

[Pekkerwood]

Hutch:

I've used the google adwords paid ad program to generate traffic to my website. While is costs money I have been able to get my clickthrough rate on some of my ads over 12%. The higher the clickthrough rate, the lower they charge you per click. I pay about $1 per click, but some clicks are as low as $.10 a piece. You can really limit by the search terms and geography preparing a web site for internet business gives you a great way to expand without a lot of capital.

I order hundres of printed signs, lockboxes, flyer boxes, banners etc directly off the internet. I also have ordered logos for my companies off the internet and have been pleased and saved a lot of money. Please do not neglect this important avenue of getting business as it can be a key to taking orders from existing clients without a lot of human intervention and gain you clients in far away places.

My primary vendors are in Floriday, New York, and Wyomming.

Good Luck, and you can pm me for more specific suggestions, I would be happy to help in any way possible.

Pekkerwood

 

[Pekkerwood]

I recently went full time with my own Screen Printing company. I use craigslist for advertising and get quite a bit of biz from it. I am wondering what other type of cheap advertising that you all have had success with...?

I have a couple who resell some of my houses on Craigs List and they mark them up a few thousand and bring me the buyers. Insane.

I also use the "Thrifty Nickel" type publications for cheap ads. They will often call and give me deals on display ads when they don't have enough. You also should look to barter. There are a lot of am radio stations that have smaller shows, typically on the weekends, where someone actually pays them for time slots and then sells ads, but these people will also barter for spare ad time.

 

[Sassy]

Hutch:

I've used the google adwords paid ad program to generate traffic to my website. While is costs money I have been able to get my clickthrough rate on some of my ads over 12%. The higher the clickthrough rate, the lower they charge you per click. I pay about $1 per click, but some clicks are as low as $.10 a piece. You can really limit by the search terms and geography preparing a web site for internet business gives you a great way to expand without a lot of capital.

I order hundres of printed signs, lockboxes, flyer boxes, banners etc directly off the internet. I also have ordered logos for my companies off the internet and have been pleased and saved a lot of money. Please do not neglect this important avenue of getting business as it can be a key to taking orders from existing clients without a lot of human intervention and gain you clients in far away places.

My primary vendors are in Floriday, New York, and Wyomming.

Good Luck, and you can pm me for more specific suggestions, I would be happy to help in any way possible.

Pekkerwood

I take it the Google ads are working for you. I'm trying to get Everlast to do this for his business. I think it will help increase his sales.

 

[inoverdrive]

I take it the Google ads are working for you. I'm trying to get Everlast to do this for his business. I think it will help increase his sales.

The google adwords worked for me, but it can get costly. Depends on how much you up your clicks. To be higher on the results search you pay more.

 

[Pekkerwood]

I take it the Google ads are working for you. I'm trying to get Everlast to do this for his business. I think it will help increase his sales.

Google paid ads work for me but I did a lot of testing with different ads, different wording etc. The best info I have ever received bar none for Adwords is from www.PerryMarshall.com. I paid about a hundred bux or so. I have never bought any of his premium services but you will be amazed at all the info in one book.

The best book I have read for organic (non-paid) search engine placement is "Search Engine Marketing, Inc." by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt. I have read over ten books on the subject and this gave me my best level of understanding.

It is critical that you understand the information in these books, especially, Perry Marshalls b4 you even name your website.


Pekkerwood